Great Haywood.

Saturday 24th August.

Great Haywood Mooring.

We had a hit and miss day with the weather, one moment there was sunshine and then all of a sudden a shower would appear. Paddy enjoyed his morning stroll along the towpath, on the return to Hadar, I got chatting to Sue on N.B Alder. Sue, her husband and son Roger from the Isle of Man, are taking N.B Alder back to Preston Brook for the owner, they get to use the boat for a few weeks in the year. We had a lovely conversation about boating and life in general, and found we had friends in common. As they were about to leave, we spotted a pair of boats gliding down the canal towards us. It was Roger Fuller, Hadar’s builder with his pair of boats N.B Azalea and the butty Ilford. Onboard the butty were the rest of the family, with Roger’s twin brother Martin walking a long the towpath.Roger very kindly delivered our post to us, as the pair of boats passed by; they are on their way to Shackerstone for the Festival on the 6th and 7th September. With it being the bank holiday weekend, it was the only opportunity to get the boats to the festival site.
Being back on the Trent and Mersey, we have come to realise that we are back on the canal motorway, with boats cruising past us at well over tick over speed, but saying something, just means you get a mouth full of abuse back, so we have said nothing. Not only that it is very busy, with queing at the locks the norm.
During the afternoon Ian on N.B Pavo pulled in behind us and we stood chatting on the towpath, it had been sometime since we had seen him, and then Sylvia and Robert from N.B Tee Pee came down for coffee, so it was a day of meeting and greeting friends. 7pm Keith and I headed off up the towpath to the Clifford Arms to meet up with Tina and Rob. Tina painted Hadar for us and she and Rob own N.B’s Burma and Star (previously Unspoilt By Progress II). We met up for a meal in the Clifford Arms, which was fantastic. If you are ever in Great Haywood, definitely have a meal in the pub, it is well worth it. We also enjoyed an evening of catching up on news and gossip, which is always great fun.

Sunday 24th August.

Still on Great Haywood mooring.

It has been a lovely day; we have had plenty of sunshine, with the sky darkening at times producing the odd spot of rain. We had a visit from Chris Hardman, who we got to know when he came to see Hadar, whilst she was being built, and we have remained in contact. I promised Chris some Victoria Sandwich if we saw him at the IWA festival, but as we are not there, he came to see us on our mooring at Great Haywood, which was really nice of him. The afternoon was spent watching the F1 GP, and cleaning the brass. There have been boats coming and going all day, so just as well we did not bother moving.