12th February 2020 Storm Ciara has passed and Storm Dennis is on his way. We leave our safe mooring at Taft Wharf and heading South -East down the Trent and Mersey canal on our narrowboat we pass over the Brindley Bank Aquaduct, built in 1777, the canal crosses the River Trent on four low arches, turning at a right angle instead of following the contours of the canal as the technology to build skew arches was not available. We moor at Rugeley for a few days to pick up supplies in preparation for Storm Dennis that was due to arrive at the weekend. Rugeley for a small town has a variety of supermarkets to suit all budgets. Tesco, Morrisons and Aldi are all within short walking distance from the canal. In the centre of town there is a small indoor market which sadly has many stalls vacant. There is a post office and sorting office which is handy to pick up any parcels ordered online. 14th February 2020 Leaving Rugeley we stop at the water point east of the town, before passing through the village of Handsacre and some wooded countryside. The wind starts to pick up and in the video you can see the effect it is having on the boat and Pat now starts to feel uncomfortable navigating the boat. We moor at the top of Wood End Lock where we found some Armco to moor to (as this is stronger than inserting mooring pins) to prepare for Storm Dennis which hit us the following day. The winds increased considerably and the boat was being buffered around, we had some torrential rain, the water levels were noticeably higher and the lock ahead was overflowing the gates. However throughout this time we did not feel unsafe, just slightly uncomfortable and it was a relief when the wind finally abated.
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August 2021
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