It was twenty years ago today …………

… that we collected Jannock (formerly Powys) from the Black Prince base at Festival Park marina, Stoke on Trent and brought her home.

This is the log report for that day.

Saturday 21st October 2000                9 ¹/₄ Miles  12 Locks  6 Hours   

Arrived at Black Prince base in Stoke on Trent at about 10 AM. Myself, Simon & Matt loaded the boat whilst Brenda took Brian shopping. Morrisons supermarket is about half a mile from the marina at Stoke on Trent. Grocery and bottled ale selection was excellent. Christened the galley, served up bacon and mushroom butties with mugs of  NAAFI tea, in 10 minutes flat. Brian was impressed! Left Festival Park marina at about 11:30 AM. Immediately appreciated Jannock's handling as I managed to reverse her out of the marina without hitting anything. Dropped Brian off to return our car to Thame and pointed the bows towards home  feeling about 10 foot tall. Our objective was to make it to Fenny Compton by Wednesday night as the covered dock was booked for the sign writer on Thursday morning.  Spent most of the day familiarising myself with all of the new things I've got to maintain now. The boss has noted in the log that there is a launderette at Barlaston. It's amazing how passing through the first couple of locks rapidly moulds the crew into a well practiced team. Moored for the night near Stone. I noticed that grease line to stern tube was split and needed maintenance ASAP if we wanted the new stern tube to survive. Could this be the reason for BP having to replace the old one? They've committed that traditional mistake of repairing the damage without finding the fault. The whole crew had a go at trying to tune the television with limited success. Who invented "auto tuning portables"?

I know I’ve got some catching up to do as the Blog is not up to date but this is an anniversary that needed marking.

Graham & Brenda