Day 4

Wet, wet, wet (and we're not talking about an 80's pop band here!).  Well  if we’re ever going to test the new automatic bilge pump, it will be today!  It’s raining, the dog looks at Shelley in that all familiar excitable way, "I’m up, therefore it must be time for a walk".  As we had done so well yesterday, we didn't get up until 9.00am.  As it's Sunday, lashing it down with rain and Shelley will be out doing the locks in this beautiful English weather, I thought I should take Alfie out for his morning walk.  I don the water proof trousers, gortex coat and wellies, and leg it over to the bridge for shelter!!


At 9.30, we set off into the pouring, blustery weather,  a stark contrast to yesterdays start.  Of course, it's only the dies hards that venture out, those and the holiday makers that have to get their boats back by a certain time!

Well today was going to be one of those days.  Three things were going to conspire against me making a nice approach to the locks.  The wind, the spillways, and the rain on my glasses.  Never the less, after a couple of places where the wind pined the boat to the side making it difficult to move out, I found a new rhythm of driving the boat, which mostly meant driving it at an angle and correcting it at the last minute when approaching the locks.   


We also decided that we would use the two way radios and Shelley cycled on up ahead to do the locks, which seemed to work very well indeed (also saved the bike coming on/off the roof).   Alfie, however, started make a bit of a mischief of himself, running off up the towpath, so we decided to tie him up to the back of the boat.  


Unfortunately, as we pulling in towards the bank to let the lock crew off, Alfie jumps off the boat towards the bank but got pulled back by his lead and fell in, just as the boat was about to make contact with the bank.  Luckily I managed to lean over and drag him out just in time.  So he now looks sorry for himself, wet, but otherwise unharmed.

This is still a very pretty stretch of water, even when he weather is so bad.  And as the day progresses, it has eased a little.  There have been a couple of locks today that have been difficult to physically get the boat through due to the lock gates not fully opening.  A walk down the gunnels to lift the fenders was in order and even this wasn't enough for one lock, which I had to give quite a bi of power whilst three people were pushing the lock gate open.

We have been over a number of aquaducts todays, mostly smallish ones, but this one was a bit of challenge as I had to try and fight the crosswind and stop the boat banging into the side, which is very disconcerting when you are up so high.

Driving on yesterday was such a good move as it shaved off what would have been around 3 hours or more from todays journey.  We would have finished a bit earlier except we went straight past our stopping point and found that all the moorings the other side of the road bridge were private.  Next we were into the start of another lock system.  Bearing that these locks take quite a while, we had the prospect of going through them and carrying on until we did find somewhere, or turning around and heading to our planned stopping point.

We took the later decision as there were two winding holes not very far part.  I spun her around with almost perfect precision then we headed back the way we had just come.  At the next winding hole turned around again and then took 'Angel' to the stopping point for this weekend.

All parked up, we set to pack and clean her until next time.  We walked up to the road, I cycled off to find the car and then we loaded up.  Now the one mistake we made in the planning was to make sure that we knew exactly where the second car was parked.

When I say exactly, I mean SatNav reference.  I kmew once I got to the place I would recognise it however, we thought that Offchurch was the last place we stopped, but it wasn't.  The next mistake was checking we had fuel, I had 6 miles left and we were in the wrong village.  By being very careful, we finally managed to get back to where Shelley's car was and then head towards a petrol station, then home.






Yet again another totally fantastic journey, they feel like mini holidays and you feel so refreshed afterwards.  Looking forward to what could be our last stage next week, but we might split it into two more weekends.  we'l have to ring forward on the river  Avon and check if it safe to navigate.

Todays Map