A slow start, but still good progress overall.

(Boat Flamingo - posted by Alan)

Waiting near Roger Fuller's yard 
- his boat Clematis is craned out for work.

We were rather later setting off south from Barlaston than we had intended, and it should have been obvious from the large number of boats that had been there last night, but had already left, that queues at the lock flights were likely.  The first of these is the rather attractive flight of 4 locks at Meaford.  As we were getting near I could see lots of boats ahead, so I dropped Cath at a bridge some considerable distance before the top lock to go up and check the situation, whilst I "hovered" in the bridge hole - this often easier than joining the melee near the lock, knowing there will not be any spare space deep enough to be able to get to the side. I think I "hovered" for more than half an hour - we really should have started earlier!

The Slough - same boat type as Flamingo, 
but much altered over the years.

Once able to finally move up to the lock for our turn, things thankfully went a lot quicker for a while.  The Meaford locks are not long out of the way before you arrive at another 4 passing through Stone.  Again there was some, (but far less), queuing for the top lock, but here at least I was opposite the boatyard run by Roger Fuller, so there were some interesting boats to look at, and a bit of conversation to be had. Cath had suggested we pull over for some shopping, but there are very few moorings in the town centre, and none were available.

Working boats would probably also had 
solar panels had they been available!

Instead she went ahead and bought some oatcakes, rejoining us when we got to Star Lock - these have proved very popular in the past, and were so again today, allowing us to have a hot and tasty lunch on the move with zero effort required to prepare it.

Our stretch target today was to  get into Rugeley.  From the point we made a late start that was always ambitious, and by the time we caught up a very slow moving boat (very, very slow!), it became even less likely we would get all the way into the town centre.  However we remembered some very good moorings approaching the Brindley aqueduct over the Trent some distance before the town, so we stopped there.  We could still be where we wanted to be the next evening, but tomorrow looked like being a long day.

Barlaston to Brindley Aqueduct, near Rugeley
Miles 17.0, Locks: 14
Total Miles 289.9, Total Locks: 329