Back to Base

Not much remained to be done except cover the last few miles back to Norbury Junction.
Turner's Garage, at Wheaton Aston has had a new wharf installed since I last called in for diesel but I was pleased to see that its still self-service and you are still asked the replace the nozzle in an old milk churn when you've finished! No nonsense here about compulsory 60/40 splits for fuel duty purposes either.
 The long, exposed embankments on the Shropshire Union can be tricky in high winds and were so today. When the wind is really bad the only way to make progress is to steer into it and proceed crabwise along the cut.

Here is Starcross near the end of the long exposed stretch between Wheaton Aston and High Onn. Despite the shelter afforded by the hedge-line the wind was still strong enough to blow the boat into the towpath so whilst it may look as if we are heading for the bank we were, in fact, making good progress northwards.
Back at Norbury Junction I navigated Starcross (50ft) into its allotted slot between neighboring boats on the moorings (51ft) and executed a very neat single-handed tying-up manoeuvre. Needless to say there was nobody watching!
And so ended the "winter trip". Two days lost to problems at the start of the week  meant we didn't get as far as originally planned - but never mind Great Haywood will still be there next time we go that way, which I hope won't be very far in the future.