Helpful People.

Well, didn't get time to get on the blog again yesterday. So here goes. In the morning Nathan and I took Archie in his carrier to the Chandelry. I went for some new fenders, however they didn't have the type I wanted. They did have some good solid rubber ones, so I put those on the front and back and the two flat ones we already had on the middle of the boat. While we were there I bought some chains for mooring up. The chains fasten to the metal sides of the canal instead of hammering in spikes which pull out in soft ground, especially when other boats pass too fast.
As we were walking back Archie fell asleep so we extended our walk so we didn't wake him up too quickly.
Lunch time arrived so we went to the New Inn for our lunch. After lunch we took the boat down to Sawley Marina to top up the diesel and pump out the toilet. We were having trouble flushing the loo. When the electric flush was pushed it tripped the circuit. Returning to Shardlow we saw a swan with two cygnets on her back she came into the lock we were just leaving. Arriving back we had to moor above the lock, as it was the only space available. After tea Pamela, Nathan and Archie went home.
Now for today. It was raining when we got up, however it soon cleared up. We walked down to Dobson's boatyard and explained the problem with the loo. We were asked to bring the boat into the yard so they could take a look at it.
The problem now was we were facing the wrong way, with nowhere to turn a 57ft boat. So we decided to reverse to the lock and turn after locking down. This done we were about to close the lock gates when another boat arrived at the lock. They were confused because we looked as if we were about to leave the lock, so I had to explain that we were going down the lock. With both boats in the lock we lowered the water and opened the bottom gates.The other boat helped us to reverse to where we could turn the boat. Thank you to these boaters.
With the boat turned we took it into Dobson's where they soon found the problem. Tissue had accumulated in the masserator along with a baby wipe and jammed it. I must thank the staff at Dobson's for there great service.
We are tonight moored in peaceful countryside near Weston-on-Trent, everything back to normal.