The Di Blasi as pace setter

Saturday 21st May 2022

We set off from our really peaceful overnight mooring near Shirleywich at about 09:30 and set off towards Stone. We passed through the first two locks with no problems and made our way towards Aston lock, our planned last lock of the day (unless there are no visitor moorings available below Star lock) We were pleased to see that the Jubbly flags were out in force at the offside moorings.

 

At Aston lock we joined a crew of three boats waiting to ascend. Graham got chatting to a couple of eastern European lads who were out for a walk during their day off and absolutely intrigued by how the locks worked.

Once through Aston we continued on into Stone and set about trying to find a mooring. Graham spotted a suitable space mid row but the south bound boat suddenly pulled over and tied up. Knowing that they had passed down all the moorings further North, this left us in no doubt that there was no more space available below the lock and so we reversed back and tacked ourselves onto the end of the row.

 

After a spot of lunch, Graham set off on the Di Blasi to return to Huddlesford and collect the car. As he joined the A51 at Stone it was obvious that there was a cycling time trial taking place. He easily caught and overtook a couple of riders but ahead of him was another who was proving difficult to catch. Going up the hill the Di Blasi finally managed to overtake him but then on the downward section he came roaring past again. Di Blasi overtook him again and the rider tucked in behind and sat on it’s tail until the course end was in sight. Here the rider overtook again and sprinted to the finish. As we overtook him again he gave us the thumbs up and thanked us for being his pace-maker.

Car fetched from Huddlesford Graham bought a tub of lemon Ice Cream from the convenient M&S shop and returned to Jannock to have desert before dinner.

G&B