5th Share may be available!

It was an early start to the day before cruising up to the junction and turning towards Wolverhampton before winding Waiouru immediately after the junction bridge and reversing onto the Anglo-Welsh hire boat wharf for a pump out.  We decided against buy a replacement calor cylinder after Dave left a comment on yesterday’s post advising there is a cheaper supplier at Stoke.
After arriving at the boatyard at opening time we were asked to wait whilst the customers from the  returned hire boats vacated them.  We could understand the Anglo-Welsh staff not wanting the pumpout odour to to waft amongst the customers as they were leaving.  But we’re Kiwis… and frankly ours doesn’t stink!

We were in no hurry and were prepared to wait.  The owner of another boat who arrived after us wasn’t so patient and demanded a gas bottle and his water tank be filled whilst he waited for a pump out.  Both Jan and I noticed the staff used a hose with a very familiar nozzle to fill his water tank.  About an hour later we had Waiouru’s toilet tank emptied.  I offered to take the top off the rinse inlet but was informed the rinse hose would be going down the pump-out inlet.  This duly occurred.  Yes….. they poked the nozzle of the hose used to fill the other boat’s water tank down Waiouru’s toilet connection! 
Note to myself…… don’t drink water from the other boat!

Destination is north to The Potteries
Once the tank was empty we returned back under the junction bridge and onto the vacant water point where we commenced filling Waiouru’s water tank which was already half full.  The tap had reasonable pressure but it still took 60 minutes to fill the tank.  By the time we’d filled the tank there were more boats waiting for water than fleas on a mangy dog.
There is a long line of permanently moored boats immediately north of the junction which we slowly cruised past on tick-over.  Once clear we could increase the engine to 1400 rpm and watch the surrounding countryside.
We arrived at Sandon Lock to find it against us.  Jan emptied it before opening the gates for me to enter.  Jan then closed the gates and filled the lock while the two males from the other two waiting boats watched her.  Needless to say she won’t be helping them at the next lock!
As we came through a bridge hole it looked there was a boatyard on the other side.  There were a small number of boats being worked on but nothing to indicate it was a business.  We both noticed the timeshare boat In the back yard.

It’s the blue boat

Looks like the other shares have already been sold!
Now the following bridge looked quite interesting.  That’s a very thick arch obviously designed to carry a heavy load. 

We are now moored just short of Carr House Bridge (No89).  The logic is by the time we would reach Stone all the moorings would be filled.  We’ll moor here overnight and wait until two boats pass us in the morning heading south.  With some luck they will have left Stone and we should get a mooring there tomorrow mid-morning.  Time will tell!