Sunday 28th May
We started today about a quarter past seven, going through the first of an intermittent series of twelve locks almost immediately. Chilli for breakfast, with some corn fritters that Penny had done for supper but left in the oven by mistake. Through the locks by a quarter to ten. Weather excellent so far — touch wood! — bright and sunny. Penny tried out the shower and reported favourably on it: just like a domestic shower and the pressure was very good. I turned on the mains to charge the laptop, which also allowed Penny to use the hair dryer. The generator is very noisy, which is rather an irritation, but is seems very powerful: able to run a microwave, hair dryer, coffee machine, toaster — though not necessarily at the same time!
Judging from the map we should be in Worcester about two o'clock, then we'll see if we can get onto the Severn! Through another set of locks at Offerton just after mid-day. At this point there was a very heavy hail shower. Though it only lasted a few minutes, my trousers were completely soaked — so it was time to get out the shorts, despite cries of 'shock-horror' and so forth. Another hail shower as we went through Tolladine lock, on the final run-in to Worcester. The shorts proved their worth: legs wet but they dry much more quickly than fabric.
The first technical problem occurred when I tried to turn on the generator again. Nothing happened. I think a fuse may have gone, since the display panel went blank some minutes after I turned on the generator before. On that occasion the generator's motor, being diesel, kept going, but once it was turned off it didn't want to start again. We're not worrying much about this at the moment, the priority being to get onto the Severn and through to Stourport (where the canals begin again). Perhaps we'll call out an engineer tomorrow or the day after.
We finally got to the last couple of locks, the Diglis Locks and out on to the Severn about half past three. We went through with a boat we'd been following through the previous locks for quite some time. They didn't seem terribly competent in general — for instance they left one of the paddles open when they left one of the locks. The lock-keeper at Diglis was very friendly and helpful. He advised us to push on as quickly as possible to Stourport, since the condition of the river was rather unpredictable and things could become difficult tomorrow.
Worcester Cathedral
Rather a tight turn onto the Severn, which Nick negotiated in good style in one go. Past the cricket ground on one side and the cathedral on the other. A good many large and posh-looking houses backing onto the river. Past Worcester race course on our right, then out into open country for some considerable distance. We've just arrived at our first Severn lock at half past four. Another couple of hours to Stourport according to the map.
The next stretch was a long one and there was quite a strong stream against us. The river was about a foot higher than normal, though I expect that, with all the rain we've had, it will go quite a bit further — so I'm glad we got through today. On the Severn, with automated locks, there isn't a lot to do if you're not steering, so I took the opportunity to have a siesta.
When I woke, I noticed that it was raining hard again. By this time I also came to the conclusion that there was no chance of getting to Stourbridge in time for Mass, so I might as well take over the steering and allow Alan to get dry. When I went aft, I found that spirits were high but the course had apparently been rather erratic — both attributable to the three bottles of sherry that had been in circulation.
During my turn at the helm we were overtaken by a couple of narrowboats steaming along at a rate which our engine certainly couldn't match. Mind you, at our full speed, the steering becomes quite tricky anyway, so I don't know how these other boats managed. The steering at normal speeds is rather good on this boat, by the way. I also like the tiller arm being rather shorter than it was on our last boat, where you had to keep stepping forward to get out of the way of the tiller every time you went from hard left to hard right when manoevering.
The second of the boats that passed us contained a friendly group of Welsh people. From the accent we think they were probably from Cardiff. We went with them through the last of the Severn locks before turning off onto the Staffs and Worcester Canal. They got to this lock first, but kindly asked the lock-keeper to hang on for a couple of minutes as we weren't far behind. It was getting pretty cold by this stage. I was wearing two jackets — and still felt cold.
There was quite a delay getting onto the Staffs and Worcester, since you have to go through two pairs of locks, each pair in a staircase arrangement — and there was already a queue of two boats ahead of us when we arrived. It took a good hour to get through these, and then there was one more lock before we were through Stourport and clear for the next day's cruising. It was finally about a quarter past nine when we tied up. Alan worked out that we'd been on the move for 14 hours, passed through 36 locks and covered nearly 26 miles today.
When we started yesterday there was one item of equipment we couldn't understand, included amongst the mooring spikes, windlass handles and so on. I would describe it roughly as a flattish loop of steel, though open along part of one side. We discovered that it is ideal for looping through the metal strip that hangs just beneath the edge of the paved towpath, in such a way that you can then thread a rope through one end of the loop and make the boat fast to the bank.
After leaving Maddie (the dog) in charge of the boat, we went off to an Indian restaurant we had spotted shortly before we tied up. A very welcome end to quite a tiring day. We had been on the move without a break for fourteen hours! Anyway, now that we're off the Severn we can afford to relax a bit, now that we no longer have to worry about completing the section of the Severn before the flood waters arrive.