Steam dredger in steam

As mentioned last time, I've managed to upload my 50 seconds of the Gloucester Steam Dredger to YouTube, and here it is:




It sounded a lot louder in reality!

Doing the tourist bit in Gloucester

15th & 16th July

I promised to report on the food at the Tall Ships pub; it was indeed a very good meal, reasonably priced and high quality seafood. The pub itself is pretty basic in décor, and the big screen in the other bar, well within earshot, was showing live racing all the time we were there. Nonetheless, I'd certainly recommend it if you are looking for some decent fish.

In general, this area seems quite blessed with opportunities for eating out – there's a Thai buffet place, and a brasserie right by the waterside.

Yesterday we had an easy start, as the programme for the day was to explore Gloucester Cathedral, do some shopping, and then Jane wanted to check out the final two floors of the Antiques Centre.

The cathedral is a particularly interesting specimen, with much of its Norman character very apparent in the form of massive pillars and round arches. In several places you can really appreciate the engineering of the thing, observing how the loads from the roof are transmitted to the pillars and so to the foundations.

It's not too in your face with the commercial side, either – they ask for a donation, suggesting £3 per head, and there's a small, quite tasteful shop in one corner with the usual stuff these places sell.

Back at the boat we had a cup of coffee, then Jane and Sheila went across to the Antiques place whilst I had some lunch. When they came back, Sheila had had some interesting advice about a ring she inherited from her mother, and Jane had succumbed to the lure of a meat dish in blue and white china.

She was already lugging about a load of glass and china saved for her by her best friend, but seemed quite blasé about the challenge of flying it all back to the States.

When they'd had lunch too, we set off for a quick trip up the canal, to give Jane a bit of boating, and a chance to steer, and to break our stay in the Dock, as we wanted to be here tonight, i.e. Wednesday, and you are limited to 48 hours at a time.

It was Sheila's turn to steer, and she had some fun manoeuvring out of the pontoons in a powerful crosswind, but did so without disaster, and we duly negotiated with the bridge keeper to leave the dock. It's one of the situations in which the VHF really earns its keep: you can use a mobile to talk to the bridge (or the lock, indeed), but it's not as convenient when he needs to call you back, for example to keep you advised of traffic approaching from the other side.

The other bit of excitement occurred at Hempsted Bridge – the bridge was already open as we got there, with another boat going through ahead of us and a big trip boat approaching in the distance. From the bow, I thought there was time for us to get through before the big guy got there, and so signalled to Sheila to carry on. It soon became apparent that I was wrong, and some hard reversing was needed to avoid a confrontation in the bridge hole. The bridge keeper, meanwhile, leant on the bridge parapet and made no attempt to use either the traffic lights or VHF to advise us, which we thought a bit mean of him.

Jane took over the helm shortly after this, and steered down to Parkend, where we winded before making the keeper open that bridge. I took her back to Rea Bridge, where we moored for the night in peaceful conditions, broken only by the cries of the rowers from Gloucester Club, and their coaches on bikes on the towpath. On the way we had suffered a slight bombardment of small green apples from some kids on the offside as we passed Quedgeley – it didn't make for a problem, unlike the gull today which managed to score a direct hit on Sheila.

Rising rested and refreshed this morning, we repeated the strategy of the other day, setting off at a quarter to nine, passing Hempsted Bridge just after nine and arriving in the dock by 9.30. Jane had arranged with her next host, Ann Low-Beer, to be collected between 10 and 10.30, but Ann was delayed a bit and didn't get to us until midday. She was very apologetic, but we didn't mind; it was another very pleasant morning, mostly sunny with occasional cloud and breeze, and we wiled away the time doing crosswords, reading the papers and drinking coffee.

The converted dock area has a quite continental feel, so this seemed very appropriate.

We were also entertained by the dredger outside the National Waterways Museum, which got up steam during the morning. Since we've tied in the Barge Dock right by the Museum, we had a grandstand seat, especially when it actually started the bucket chain grinding along. I've taken some video of it with my camera, and have just had a go at uploading it to YouTube, but the connection, although faster than elsewhere around here, is still not good enough or stable enough to let me do it. It'll have to join the list of stuff to do when we've got a better position, probably in Birmingham in a few days time.

To Gloucester again

13th & 14th July

Yesterday was Elanor's only chance for several weeks to have a lie in, so we had a very relaxed and easy start to the day to give her a chance to get one. She finally left us at around ten and we set off back up the canal to Rea Bridge, stopping place for the Quedgeley Tesco.

On arrival, we were met by Mike Fisher of Nuggler, a pleasant surprise – we knew he was about, but hadn't realised he had not yet set off for his home waters. He was able to tell us about some excellent vinyl cleaner by AutoGlym, the people who make one of the best boat polishes, which was available from the branch of Motor World next door to said Tesco.

Since it was open when we got there, we bought some ourselves, and very good it proved to be when we tried it later in the afternoon.

Back at the boat we had some lunch and then set to on a serious burst of boat cleaning. I've commented before that one advantage for having folks come to stay is the impetus it gives you to get things tidied up and cleaned. This is particularly the case at times like these. When working at a Festival, the boat becomes a place to retire to at the end of the day to sleep, and both the laundry and the housework get postponed.

It's quite satisfying to get things ship shape again, and the fact that the weather continued very fine and warm for most of the afternoon certainly helped.

Today there was no point in starting too early, as they won't swing Hempsted Bridge until the rush hour is over, and it's only about 15 minutes cruising from Rea Bridge. Strangely, the internet connection at Rea Bridge is as good as we've seen it around here, so I filled in the waiting time by putting up the info and order form for Braidbar Owners clothing that we've been organising.

The weather today has not been anything like as pleasant, sadly, cloudy, with a cool breeze which at times was strong enough to make trouble. I had to hover waiting for Llanthony Bridge to rise, and it gave me an anxious moment or two.

Once in the dock, we stopped on the water point at the end of the Barge Arm. This gave us the chance to see that there was plenty of room on the pontoons at the NE corner of the dock, so when the tank was full, I took us down there. Apparently it had been very full last night, but a lot of folks have now set off up the river.

The wind was now a real nuisance – if there's any wind at all it whistles around the dock, as a result of the high warehouse sides all about. We managed to get in at last, with some stalwart heaving on lines by Sheila, and some moderately skilful boat handling by yours truly, I think. (Modesty is my only virtue).

We reckoned to have plenty of time to do some shopping before Jane was due to arrive at 1220, and just got back to the boat in time for me to set off again to the station. This proves to be a 15 minute fast walk from the Dock, so not impossible. If seriously burdened down with luggage, you'd probably want to take a taxi, though.

We've used the afternoon to revisit the National Waterways Museum with Jane, and started an exploration of the Antiques Centre, but that's going to need a second visit to do the top two floors of the five.

Tonight I'm having a break from cooking by taking us to the Tall Ship for a meal – we've not been before, but it was heavily recommended by Brain Dominic for its seafood menu. I'll let you know what we thought next time.

Life on camp V, and back to boating

8th, 9th & 10th July

This is a transitional post between finishing wrg camp mode and getting back into cruising mode, so it may feel a bit disjointed, not least because I'm still recovering from the last big push.

Tuesday we spent chasing around trying to get all our stuff done on site whilst we still had folks around to do it. It has to be said that Cotswold Canal Trust's attitude to the wrgies didn't help. Their purchasing manager made a number of decisions which substantially complicated our task, and indeed left us feeling quite unloved.

For example, he authorised the removal of the shower block on Monday night, when we still had the best part of two days to go on a site which was by then a mud bath. Only Bungle's energetic and assertive intervention got us one back. Similarly, the accommodation marquee was supposed to be there until Wednesday morning, but was taken away during Tuesday, the tables and chairs we were eating off having gone the day before.

The final phases of a festival camp are always a bit tricky, as you pack away the stuff you've been relying on to do the job, but the poor logistics of this one just drove us spare. It's to be hoped that they find a more competent person to do the purchasing next time. Our mood wasn't helped by the signs which were all over the site during the Festival, that it was run "entirely by Cotswold Canal Trust volunteers".

So what were all these red shirts doing around the place then?

Anyway, enough moaning – I just want to show that it's not all hunky dory at these things, not that anyone with experience of working with volunteers would expect it to be, I guess. We had a final meal in a Chinese restaurant, as we no longer had any means of cooking one on site, and it made a great end of camp occasion.

Yesterday we had a final final half day on site, chasing round loading stuff and putting things away in the two freight containers CCT keeps at Saul. After lunch we let go from the mooring we'd been using for a bit over a week, and went back to Gloucester to get water, and do some shopping this morning. We didn't bother going through Llanthony Bridge into the dock itself, as there's a water point just outside, and some 48 hour moorings on a pontoon there.

Having shopped to restock with perishables first thing today, we were most of the way back to the boat when I suggested we get a pump out card to work the BW pump out machine at Saul, available from the BW offices at Gloucester.

"Good idea" says Sheila, "I'll take most of the shopping back to the boat, you nip in and get the card."

I soon discovered that although the Harbour Office building has a huge BRITISH WATERWAYS painted on its side, it is no longer the BW office, which is diametrically opposite, near the narrowboat pontoons. So I plodded round there, loaded daysack on my back, eventually found the office and got the card.

The River Severn is very high at the moment, so we were glad we'd planned to go back the length of the canal to Sharpness before attempting the river passage to Worcester. In fact, as we boated along this morning, we decided that it will be better to stay a few more days down here, and give the river a chance to settle down.

My sister Jane is due to join us for three days on Monday, and we'd thought to get her to meet us in Worcester so that we could show her some narrow canal boating, but it's going to make more sense to ask her to come to Gloucester and see the Ship Canal and the Docks.

We had a bit of a problem on arrival back at Saul. Normally the bridge keepers are very good, and start swinging the bridge as soon as they are sure that you want to go through. This means that you boat confidently up to the bridge, slowing a bit if you realise the guy is mowing the grass or something and has to get back to his office, and the bridge swings in nice time for you to slip through.

This time, nothing happened, and, as we got close, it became apparent that they were testing the gates they can use to close the canal if there is a leak. Each bridge has a set of traffic lights the keeper can turn on if he thinks it necessary, but this time they were blank.

Muttering darkly, Sheila put Sanity over onto the bank (in a tricky cross wind), where we hung about until they'd finished and swung the bridge.

Just a bit further down the canal there's a place where you can get diesel and Calor gas, so we tied opposite to eat lunch, then I took over the helm, Sheila being well worn from the morning's exercise, and put Sanity across there.

We took on rather more diesel than I was expecting to need, and the Calor bottle cost over £21, the most I've ever paid for one, but hey ho, there you go.

Off we went again down to Patch Bridge, the closest approach to Slimbridge, and managed to find a space on the visitor mooring there. It's only a short walk down to the Wildlife and Wetland Centre, and very good it is too. You can't get the full benefit on one visit – at least we couldn't before our much molested feet threatened to go on strike, but it's a great place, and we must clearly come back here on another occasion.

Tomorrow we'll go on down to Sharpness to see the docks there, then back to Saul for the weekend and another visit from Elanor before going on to arrive in Gloucester on Monday, probably.

and so to Saul

29th & 30th June

A quickie blog post this time, squeezed in between getting Sanity all clean and shiny as we are tied on the towpath here at Saul, and going out for a drink after dinner with the wrgies that are here already.

Yesterday was a day for exploring Gloucester – an excellent city, but very quiet on a Sunday. The National Waterways Museum is good value – much better than either Stoke Bruerne or Ellesmere Port as we last saw either of those.

I've taken a load of pictures of Gloucester Dock and the Johanna Lucretia, a topsail schooner apparently abandoned there. I'll have to do a serious photo gallery after we've finished at the Festival here.

Apart from that, the dock is a great place to sit and watch the world go by on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Today, we left the dock as soon as Llanthony Bridge could be opened (not during the rush hour), and boated steadily down to Rea Bridge, from where you can access the Tesco at Quedgeley. It's a bit of a trek – about 15 minutes, and the First Mate's Guide map is invaluable.

Fully stocked up, we set off again at around 11, and arrived at Saul Junction a bit over an hour later. We found our mooring OK – one of the other two boats sharing it with us, Callum and Sue on Kalamazoo (nice one, guys), were there already. The third boat should be Nackered Navvy with Roger and Sue Burchett, but they are still tied nearer the junction at the moment.

We've spent the afternoon cleaning and polishing, as I say, then we wandered down to the show site and made contact with the folks who are there already.

When I've finished this, I'll cook the spare perishable food for our last dinner on Sanity for a week – we'll be eating on the WRG camp from tomorrow. I'll try and keep to the regular posting schedule, but they'll be brief bits, I expect. Normal service should resume in the middle of next week.

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.