18th June 2011 - Plan B Develops

Ok, decision made, I'm not going back to Sharpness for the passage to Bristol, I'm disappointed, but the weather really doesn't look to good for the coming days so lets head back to Tewkesbury and take the Avon to Stratford. I'll work the rest out in the next few days - watch this space!

So to today, we're heading for Pershore on the Avon. So with Gloucester lock not open until 0845, I head for the keeper at 0810 to tell him to expect us at 0845. "I'm locking some working boats" he says, "come in now" So, don't look gift horses etc, in we go, with another narrowboat and not a working boat to be seen, so I was a bit puzzled, but we were off. Into a fast flowing East Channel, lots of rpm and not so much progress. But more progress than the narrowboat we caught after the first couple of bends! It was knocking it's pipes off and hardly moving. The helmsman hadn't seen us so I daren't try to pass, I had to throttle back to near tickover to keep behind with the other narrowboat tight behind me. Soon enough there was a bit of room so zoom past him we did. I've no idea how that boat came to be there, it's semi-tidal here, not a good place for narrowboats to hang out! We joined the main river and we seemed to make a bit more speed, but not as much as Dawn Chorus who came whizzing by. Up the uninteresting Severn (no views) to Upper Lode lock. In we went gates closed, lock filling, lock emptying, gates open and in comes another narrowboat. So repeat and this time up we start to go. Suddenly we get out first downpour of the day, so the guy holding the front rope of the other boat thinks it more important to get his coat on than hold the rope, so the it swings right across to us and has to be fended off, no damage, I thought it quite funny, both the guys were wearing new looking gloves too! Most strange!

We complete our time on the Severn and switch to the Avon. A couple of bath tubs in front of us, one towing the other, cause us to wait for the lock pontoon, by enough to make us wait till the keeper comes back after lunch. Never mind, we'll have lunch too, a rooftop finger buffet and beer, very nice. 1400 arrives, so in we go with NB Peace who arrived during our lunch. License for the week purchased and up the Avon we go. Every 30 minutes or so we get a heavy downpour, so I'm left at the helm until it passes - what a hero! Eventually my trusty umbrella falls apart, blooming good job I've got another! We spend the next three weeks passing Chris's folly:

He went there a while back and pointed it out to us, due to the bendy nature of the river we seemed to be passing it for ages.

We arrive at Comberton Quay visitor moorings at about 1800 and tie up in the middle of nowhere for the night. Very peaceful. A spaghetti bolognese for dinner, beer, port, whiskey and a cheese board, life is good!

Today:   23 miles -     5 locks - 7.5 hours
So Far: 168 miles - 130 locks - 82 hours