June 14th moored in Droitwich basin on the Droitwich Barge Canal

         117 miles, 80 locks and 4 tunnels from Dunham Massey

Thursday 14th June

Not cruising today, just doing the sights in Droitwich with a bit of shopping as well.  The weather is deteriorating, plenty of cloud and getting rather showery and the wind is increasing too.  Storms are forecast we believe.  Renewed the boat insurance today (greetings to Roy and Sheila!) and managed to get on line after a fight getting the lap topped booted - I hate Microsoft, it is a good job when we buy a car it doesn't decide to have to do its own maintenance and make you wait before you can drive off and actually use it.  I mean it is good that the operating system keeps itself up to date but I get the feeling Microsoft forget that you might want to use the system before the battery runs out!

Wednesday 13th June

Day started with plenty of sunshine, only a few clouds and no wind, a good omen for cruising on the Severn?  We made a reasonably early start, Catmint setting off first, having moored on our offside overnight, (a pleasant couple on their way to Tewkesbury).  We followed down the two sets of two staircases onto the Severn (just about 9:45), donning life jackets for us, and for Mabel, before leaving the canal system behind

for the short two hour cruise to Hawford lock and the start of the Droitwich Barge canal.  Did not see another boat moving on the Severn and had it all to ourselves.  It was glorious, just going with the flow, engine ticking over maintaining a steady six miles an hour.  Rang ahead to both locks and lights went from red to green as we approached each one.  I managed to drift in slowly against the wall at both locks so that Bridie and I were able to feed our ropes through the cables on the wall at first attempt.

 Mabel gaves us a six out of six for that!

 

At Hawford we had to turn across the river and punch the flow onto the new pontoon in front of the lock.  Again no problem, managed without any drama and we tied up before preparing the lock just about 12 noon.

The Barge canal was a delight, if a little narrow in places but reeds prevail on both sides (apart from very short gaps prepared for our fishing friends) and there were almost no places where we could have moored overnight and got Mabel off and on the boat easily.

The lock landings are all fairly short and only have enough room for one boat at a time, so we progressed if a little slowly up to Droitwich through the eight wide locks.  Only passed two boats going the other way,

two boats moored breasted up between locks 2 and 3 and a small boat moored above lock 8 (plus a upturned rowing boat drifting between two locks!).  Bridie chickened out of walking the short stretch of towpath after lock 4 as a swan was on its nest by the gate.

We finally moored up, about four pm, in Netherwich Basin within Vines Park opposite this artwork entitled 'Extreme Fishing'.  

We are tied to a short floating pontoon, locked away from the locals behind a BW secure gate (keeping us in or them out?).  There is a tap is on the end pier which is reserved for boats to fill up and there are rubbish skips for boaters (using a BW key to get access) at the entrance to Vines Park next to The Railway Arms.  A great mooring for train spotting, were there any trains to spot other than modern DMU’s that is.

Bridie declared that the crew was now officially on strike and that a meal out was called for to celebrate a great days cruising, so the captain and Mabel went off to book a table for two at The Gardners Arms.  This turned out to be a great choice and we enjoyed a very pleasant meal and drinks to finish off the day.