To Sharpness and back

11th & 12th July

Yesterday was the first day for ages on which we made a seriously lazy start, not rising until Terry Wogan was in full flow, and connecting to the water point alongside the mooring to top up before setting off for Sharpness in leisurely fashion. We got there after about an hour's steady boating – this canal, like all others, is not as deep as it should be, but it's supposed to be 15 feet deep, so there's still plenty for Sanity to swim in.

Sharpness proved to be more rural than we'd expected – the moorings are on the end of the canal proper, and the industrial stuff around the port is mostly hidden. We found Nackered Navvy, Wild Otter, Lady Hannah, Chesterton and Canny all ensconced on the towpath. Seemingly they'd been into the Dockers' Club for a meal last night, which was very good as regards quality and quantity, but some of them had had to wait an hour and a half to be served.

The answer, apparently, is not to go there in a big party. We had conflicting advice from their crews about the availability of supplies, so I set to and baked some rolls for lunch.

They all set off back in the course of the morning, leaving us with just a couple of longer term moored boats, but it was a nice day, and we had a good view over the towpath wall to the estuary, so we weren't too upset.

After lunch we took a walk around the end of the canal – it's well worth visiting the place, and I took yet more photos which will have to wait for a better connection before you can see them. There is indeed a small basic shop in the angle between the two arms of the canal, but it's no longer a Post Office, having been the victim of the current slaughter of small POs by this government.

Today we slept in again, but made an effort and were boating by eight. The weather is showing a slow improvement, being showery and mild, with not too much wind. In what seemed very little time we were back at Fretherne Bridge, closest approach to Frampton, where I got a paper and some more bread.

Being Saturday, there's a bit more activity on the canal, but it's still very quiet compared to the Midlands mayhem. On arrival at Saul, we found ourselves fourth in the queue for the pump out, but since it was barely gone ten, we were not bothered.

The pump out proved to be all that it had been cracked up to be, very powerful, and with a good length of time for your tenner. In addition, the pause option doesn't time out, so there's a good chance of being able to use the tail end of someone else's time before you have to put in your own card.

Having given the tank a good rinse and seen the green light shining on the gauge again, we untied and headed for a mooring just the other side of the Junction Bridge.

The red light did not change to green after the bridge had swung, however, and the reason quickly became apparent as the faux paddle wheeler, the Oliver Cromwell, hove into view.

Needless to say, the wind promptly came up, giving me some problems in hovering Sanity out of the way, but we made it and finally got through to tie just beyond the Wycliffe Sculling Club.

We've had a quiet afternoon, sorting out the plants on the roof (the bay tree has been attacked by leaf rolling caterpillars, for heaven's sake), doing what we can on the net, though the connection here is worse than ever, and waiting for Elanor to turn up with our post.

Tomorrow, we plan to go as far as Quedgeley, then on into Gloucester on Monday morning to meet my sister Jane.