Phew...that was a near miss! And a masterclass in towing.I wonder how

 Amazing, FS wasn't listing list this morning even though several boats had passed us last night, drawing water from the pound, and all heading in our direction.  One of these boats was 'On Tow' from Ballinger Towage and Steerage Services and we had hoped to set off and get past them today but it was not to be. Anyway those balloon fenders did the trick and kept us nicely floating.

 

Leaving lock 52 it was roughly 3/4 miles to the next lock. On the way was Rode Heath. Having shopped at the new Lidl in Kidsgrove right by lock 41, the one thing we forgot to get was peppers and a small general store was found to be near to bridge 140. Tonight's meal was Fajitas which I usually load up with chicken, onion and peppers.  Anyway not far from the lock 52 the canal snakes around in an S bend. No line of sight toward the right or left of the bends. The amount of offside vegetation was ridicules and the towpath side wasn't any better being covered in high bushes. Of course the inevitable happened. Some sixth sense must have kicked in as I kept over as much to the right as those branches would allow and then, suddenly, the bow of a boat appeared. OMG talk about panic on both sides. FS was thrown into reverse, the other chap did the same and somehow we missed by inches. Unfortunately his boat did hit the concrete bank on the towpath side and one of the gentleman crew glared and tutted at me is if it was my fault. Thankfully the Captain was really nice, "Couldn't be helped" said he "That vegetation could do with cutting back". he laughed. "We did miss though and that's all that matters."  I thanked him as we parted company.

The Rode Heath moorings had but one boat on it, and that was a sunk and burnt plastic cruiser.

I wonder how long that had been there?

Mid-morning and the rain started. It was also very windy and I did struggle to keep FS in a straight line. Not wanting to be buffeted by the wind in between pounds, I held FS back under the bridge.

 

Ominous skies. Yep rain would fall

 It was at lock 55 that we met up with that towing boat again. I must say he has his job down to a T. He tows the crippled boat to the lock mouth, takes off the towing rope, closes the gate, descends with his boat and pulls over to the landing. He then fills the lock, opens the gate and pulls the cripples boat in. I never noticed the lady owner of the boat doing anything other than hold the rope and close the bottom gate, maybe that is the condition of tow. Anyway once the boat has descended, he opens the gates, fetches his boat, backs into the lock and reattaches the towing line. She then closes the gates and gets back on board her boat. It was a masterclass of towing a stricken boat through single locks but oh it took forever to perform. Ian did walk up to see if he could help and it was from the chap that we found out that there was a stoppage at lock 57.

  

No point in rushing then and Ian leaving me at lock 55, walked down to lock 57 to see if any moorings were available. On his return and with a thumbs up, FS was free to descend locks 55 and 56. 

Already on the landing was those two boats. We slotted in behind and then went to have a word with C&RT about the stoppage. 

 

It was a damaged heel post and they had to weld a steel plate to hold it together. The estimated time for reopening was 2 pm and that was only if the repair stood up to lock use.

By 13.50 the scaffolding was removed. 2 pm and the CRT guy comes to see us. "Another half hour" he told us. Groan...time was getting on, it gets dark by 6pm! And we still have those two boats in front. Somehow I don't think we will make the bottom of Wheelock flight tonight! 

And only one photo of the wildlife seen today