Merrily down the Severn

27th & 28th June

Yesterday was one of our early start mornings on a bright day. The engine started with no trouble at all, and we worked down the York Street Lock onto the service point and rigged the self pump out gear. My repair to the connections on the pump seems to be working, but it did take it a long time to empty a very full tank.

Whilst this was going on, Shiraz came up from the river and tied alongside to get water. We were able to bring them up to speed on plans for the combined Braidbar Open Day and Owner's Club get together on 20/21 September, and generally catch up with their doings.

Then we chugged round to the set of two pairs of staircase locks that take you down onto the river from the basins and by nine o'clock were on our way downstream. We had the river to ourselves until Holt Lock, where we caught up with a Viking Afloat boat struggling to get sorted in the lock. Since they'd been first in, we let them go out first, and then followed them as they meandered their way very slowly downstream.

There was no point overtaking them until we'd cleared Bevere Lock, as we'd just have had to wait for them in the lock if we'd got there first. Below there, Sheila went past and we proceeded rather more quickly to Worcester.

At present, the mooring options at Worcester are to stop on the rather scruffy race course moorings, for which the council will charge you, to lock up onto the canal and find a towpath mooring, or to do what we did. This was to go below the entrance to the canal at Diglis and tie on the new pontoons that have been installed as part of the building works going on around Diglis Basin.

It's not clear what will happen to these when the development is finished. At the moment, they are fenced off with Heras temporary fencing, so you can't leave them, but on the other hand they are perfectly secure. Since we didn't need any supplies, this worked for us.

There's a typical Severn flood bank, covered in nicely mown grass, above this pontoon, and in the course of the evening we found out how it stays so neat despite being on the edge of a building site. As it got cooler, a whole group of swans (and Worcester is one of those places well supplied with swans) got out of the water and started grazing this grass. After a while, they settled down for a post prandial nap, all spaced out along the bank. I got a photo of them, so when I get a faster connection and do some more pictures, I'll try and remember to include these swans.

This morning we had a lie in, as Diglis River Lock was just below us, and didn't open until eight. There was a brisk wind that gave me some trouble in the lock – it was bouncing off the wall I was trying to tie to, and we had quite a struggle to get Sanity to lie against it. At one point I was ready to give up and let her drift across to the other wall, but the boat sharing the lock with us chose that moment to come in there.

We got sorted in the end, and set off downstream once more for a good six hours steady boating, through Upper Lode Lock just below Tewkesbury and on down to Gloucester. Most of the Severn is not challenging boating (when it's not in flood, that is), but that brings its own problem – it's a bit like a stretch of motorway, and the difficulty is to maintain concentration.

The bit below the Upper Parting is much narrower and windier, though it's still clearly a major river. You have to phone Gloucester Lock at various points to let him know you are coming so that hopefully the lock is open and ready when you get there.

On this occasion this didn't quite work, as the locky was half way through locking someone else up as we approached, and we had to hang onto the chains on the wall above the lock for a while as he turned it round. I'd thought that the whole point of the phoning was to avoid this happening by holding folk in the lock for you to catch up, but there you go.

You certainly don't want to get too close to the lock whilst this is going on; grab the chains as soon as you see them, and wait until all is ready and the green light on before setting off to enter the lock. There is, as the books warn you, a strong current towards the weir to the right of the lock, and you have to enter the lock with a fair bit of power on to cope with it.

Once up the lock, the basin itself is very welcoming, with loads of places to moor, shops nearby and folks to chat to. We plan to spend tomorrow here, resting and recovering from all the excitement and exploring a fascinating bit of the waterways scene.