To the end of the Staffs and Worcs

The weather wasn't quite as bad as had been forecast last night – it only rained on and off rather than all the time. It meant that a waterproof jacket was sufficient rather than the coverall rain suit but wasn't terribly cheerful even so.

Having worked down Wolverley and Wolverley Court locks, we changed our minds about stopping at Sainsbury's to shop. Although Kidder seems to have improved a bit since the bad old days when there were signs on the visitor moorings telling you not to leave your boat unattended, it's still not a comfortable place to hang around. That said, there were a few boats which had clearly stopped overnight at Sainsbury's and a few more at Weavers Wharf. But then, boats stop overnight at Shobnall Fields in Burton and the last Braidbar that stayed there was attacked in the late evening by a gang of youths wielding an iron bar.

We recalled that there's a Lidl beside the towpath in Stourport and, although you can't take a trolley to your boat from it, it's close enough to do more than one trip.

We locked down Kidderminster Lock to the tune of the church carillon and carried on out into the countryside via Caldwell and Falling Sands locks. The final run into Stourport is a bit of a plod, not horrible but not exciting either, especially in a cold drizzle. Sheila did attempt to liven things up by announcing as I was approaching a bridge hole on a blind bend that a boat was coming the other way, only to correct herself immediately, before I'd even got my hand on the throttle.

She later confessed that she'd mistaken a swan's wing briefly glimpsed for a bow flash...

We arrived just before eleven to find plenty of space between Bridges 5a and 5. It's all filled up now, though only just. We had a coffee and a warm beside the relit Squirrel, then ate lunch.

This afternoon, we've had a mooch round the basins, being gongoozlers for once, then made two trips to Lidl. There are a few bits and bobs we couldn't get there so will visit the Co-op tomorrow. The cunning plan is to lock down into the basin and get a pump out first thing, then find a mooring either in the basin, just onto the river or, if all else fails, we'll lock back up backwards and tie on the York Street moorings again.

That will give us a chance to get an up to date guide for the Droitwich from Limekiln chandlers (closed today) and to do the top up shop. I'll also get the anchor out and rig the VHF antenna ready for going down river on Tuesday.

Location:Stourport

Nicely does it

First off, a warning for those cruising the Staffs and Worcs between Kidderminster and Stourport. There's a confidence trickster there who caught us nicely in 2008 (I think it was), and is still operating, seemingly. The Jameisons on Free Spirit have just been taken for a tenner by him, and give a very good account of his modus operandi.

Be warned: he's very convincing but no, you won't see your money again. This sort of crime really sickens me, as it trades on the one thing that makes us human above everything else, our kindness to others. If he approaches you, the choices are:

1. Detain him and call the cops
2. Beat him to a pulp and drop him in the cut
3. Just tell him to be on his way.

I guess most of us would go for (3), the right thing to do is (1) but I promise you, if you do give him money, next morning you'll wish you'd taken option (2).  :(

But enough of this gloom. After a  rather broken night – the wedding reception at the Italian restaurant was well behaved but a bit noisy (as are they all) – we made an early start and were soon on our way down the Curdworth flight. Lock 1 is really nice, and indeed all the locks have been well spruced up. There is a water point below the lock, but the only mooring rings are on the wrong side of the towpath, so we gave it a miss.

I was lockwheeling, and Sheila tells me the long pound between the top lock and number 2 was a bit low. When I got to Lock 2, there was an ex-Ownerships boat in Lock 3. Her lockwheeler told me that the pound between 2 and 3 was almost dry and he was running water down. After a while, he opened the top gate of 3, and the boat (which I won't identify for kindness sake) chugged out and got halfway into 2, where it stuck hard.

The first thought was that it was on the cill, so more water was run down. Then I realised that they were boating with their fenders down (baaad idea) and they were stuck between the gate and the wall. Reversing out and lifting the fenders soon cured the problem, and all was well.

Except that there was now so little water in the pound above, Sanity Again was well aground about two feet out from the lock landing, and of course filling the lock only made things worse. We eventually got the ex-OS boat past us, and some hard work with lines, shafts and skillful use of the engine finally got her back into the bridge hole above the lock, from where Sheila was able to take the main channel into the lock.

After that, things went well, there now being no lack of water coming down with us. We stopped on the water point below Lock 9, and then worked down the final two to find our favourite mooring by Kingsbury Water park available.

Here we've sat out a very hot afternoon. Sheila did a bit of bird watching, I made three basic lanyards for the PMR radios, two of which Elanor will hopefully deliver tomorrow, and we've just generally relaxed. I was going to say chilled out, but that's not the bon mot for today's conditions.

Down to Stourport, and an unscheduled pause

25th & 26th June

Yesterday the engine decided to start without any trouble (lots more about this later), and we got away around eight o'clock. Kidderminster is one of those places that is very handy for the benefits of civilisation, but not particularly welcoming, somehow – it always rather reminds us of Stoke on Trent.

There's a very handy Sainsbury's, right by the towpath, and with trolleys you can bring to the side of the boat. This is, of course, extremely useful, especially when the store cupboards are seriously depleted, as ours were after the trip away from the boat, but it does explain why progress through the water hereabouts is interrupted by serious scraping noises under the boat on a regular basis. An attack of the BCN Clean up type operation would be good along here.

There's a sign at each exit from the car park saying "Thank you for not taking your trolley beyond this point", but no other disincentive to do so. The whole thing demonstrates the truth of the maxim that exhortation to good works is a worthy but not sufficient device as far as good behaviour is concerned.

Some of the guide books actually warn against leaving the boat unattended here – Jim and Liz Lehman in Flimby were just ahead of us at the mooring, and Jim was kind enough to volunteer to watch both boats so that Sheila and I could shop together.

Also at the location is a selection of other out of town type stores, so I was able to nip into Halford's and get some more de-ionised water for battery topping up purposes.

On we went after this burst of retail therapy, past the alternate moorings where there is a Tesco, a Marks and Sparks and various other stores. The canal below Kidder is not quite as nice as that above, which is almost without compare, but once you are clear of the town it's pleasant enough.

Stourport was very busy – I passed up the first slot on the visitor moorings, as it appeared that there were spaces beyond the last bridge before the lock down into the basin. Sheila on the bow suddenly started making stop, stop signals – she'd been able to see that the towpath curves just through the bridge hole, and that it was absolutely full.

The wind promptly got up, and a bit of backing and filling had to take place until we could get back to the mooring we'd first thought of. The new long shaft got some use, as well as the short one we now keep at the stern.

Finally moored, we had lunch then took a stroll round the basin. Progress on the new (or re-excavated) basin is quite slow – there's a load of Barratt homes going up, but only a few men working there, an example of the effect of the housing crash, no doubt.

Stourport itself is a great place, always very clean and tidy, with a lot of small shops in the main street, as well as a decent choice of the usual suspects like Lidl, Tesco and Boots. In particular, there is a great variety of butchers for some reason.

The old Tontine Hotel is now being converted to apartments. The ads say 'from £149,000 upwards', and we had thoughts about enquiring about the potential for buy to let there, but it soon became apparent that only one pokey little one was at that price, the rest being a lot more expensive. It'll be interesting to see if the price comes down at all in the future as the developer gets desperate.

Later in the afternoon a space became free through the bridge, and we nipped through onto it to get away from the car park and recycling centre next to where we had first moored.

Today we leapt lightly out of bed first thing, the cunning plan being to go straight down through the lock onto the service point, pump out and then be out on the river in good time for the first river lock to open at eight.

Only thing was, when I went to start the engine, it whirred sadly for a couple of times, and then the whole thing died quite comprehensively. This is the first time we've had to call out RCR, and I must say at 7.20 the woman at the other end of the phone was bright and cheerful. Having got the details, she got one of the engineers to call back a couple of hours later, and we had someone actually looking at it by 11.30.

In due course he diagnosed a completely knackered battery, as the engine started perfectly well from the leisure bank. One of the heavy earth return cables had chafed where it crossed the engine containment wall, and although that hadn't caused any obvious problems (since that steel is earthed anyway) he thought it possible that that had confused the alternator controller so that the start battery hadn't charged properly.

Whatever, I got a new battery from Lime Kiln's new chandlery in the basin (£56) and fitted it this afternoon. We'll try again tomorrow morning; it's a good job we'd got a couple of days in hand.

It's been a fairly quiet afternoon apart from that as we recover from the trauma of Sanity not doing her stuff. Sheila took advantage of a good internet connection to do an on-line tax return, and I rigged the anchor ready for our river work tomorrow and Saturday. Hopefully, my next blog post will be from the Gloucester and Sharpness.