Up the Junction and round the bend

It's been a very successful day. I don't know if it was worry about the route, but neither of us slept terribly well, which at least meant that we were able to get going in good time. At ten to eight, Sheila backed Sanity Again off the pontoon and swung her bow towards Vines Park. The first swing bridge was straightforward, but, as Jennie had warned us, the second one in use,19, is problematic. These bridges are locked in the open-to-pedestrians position by a bar which slots through a hole in an upstand made from a bit of RSJ. There's a tongue on the end of the bar with a hole in it to take a BWB padlock.

On Bridge 19, the tongue isn't quite long enough so that the bridge has to be held firmly across to enable the padlock hasp to be removed or inserted. I was able to recruit a passer-by to help me open it, but Sheila had to hop off to help close up.

The Barge Lock, broad but not accessible to wide beams any more, also has a swing bridge across it. This one is no problem, not least because only the hasp of the padlock is now left. The difficulty with the lock is the fact that none of the gates will open properly because of silt in the recesses. It makes moving round the lock quite complicated and especially frustrating on a day like today, when the low level of the river means that the two ends could have been opened at once.

No matter, we got through and I re-boarded to view the approaching M5 tunnel/bridge. Hilariously, CRT have put the standard tunnel notices at either end, including the advice to wear life jackets for what's essentially a long bridge hole. With the river so low we had about 5" clearance – there are suspended height gauges at the smaller bridges at each end, so plenty of warning if you are not going to make it. The scale showed 2.1 metres – at that level, if you can get through Harecastle, you can get through this bridge.

Relieved to be past it, we were soon heading up the remaining locks. 4 and 5 are a standard staircase, empty the lower chamber and fill the top one regardless of your direction of travel. I was using the long throw windlass for many of the paddles and certainly needed it for the middle paddles of the staircase.

The top three locks are the originals and have side ponds, all of which were empty today and so of no use to us. Steve the volockie joined us for the top lock and proved to be both helpful and chatty. It was just after ten when we reached the junction with the Worcester and Birmingham (or Booster and Wormingham if you're in the mood for a Spoonerism...) We'd planned to stop there but Sheila had meanwhile clocked that some mooring was shown on the Pearson's just below Astwood Bottom, from whence a path leads to Hanbury Hall, a National Trust property. Steve had confirmed to her that these were good moorings, so we carried on and have tied here.

There was a boat here when we arrived, but they've since set off and we're comfortably on our own in the middle of the Spring countryside. In fact, it's so pleasant, we plan to stop for two nights, so as to be able to appreciate Hanbury Hall tomorrow, when we're rested. The afternoon has been spent putting stuff back on the roof, stowing the anchor, chain and warp, cleaning up the well deck and sawing up some firewood we've collected. (Actually, Sheila does the collecting, she has a sharp eye for odd bits of wood lying about.)

After that, it was warm enough to sit out on the towpath for a while, though a rising and chilly breeze has driven us back indoors now.

Location:Hanbury

Loitering in Droitwich

It has indeed been a day for pottering, though to some effect. After a lazy start, I did a few jobs in the engine room which had been hanging round. A couple of fuel joints had started weeping a touch, so I nipped them up. I topped up the engine start battery and got out the stock container of phosphoric acid. I dilute the 80% concentrate down to 10% to use as descaler in the toilet, much cheaper than buying the pre-diluted stuff from the toilet supplier. (As in £20 for 5 litres of concentrate rather than around £18 for 1 litre of dilute.)

Admittedly, you have to be sensible with the concentrated stuff – I do the dilution in the shower tray, wearing nitrile gloves, of course. But then I wear gloves for pretty well any work in the engine bay, diesel or used oil not being good for your skin either.

Having done this and tidied up, we popped into town for a ream of A4 copier, since we'd run out, and another loaf of bread to keep us going for a few days. It's a classic irony that, having searched about in a bit of a hurry yesterday for either a bakers or a shop selling pies, not finding one and getting bread from Waitrose, we've now found two independent bakers and a specialist pie shop.

Back at the boat we sorted some admin jobs like applying for new bus passes which were waiting for us to have the paper supply. This involved a bit of a wrestle with the printer. Although the ink cartridges were quite new, the black one had stopped working, presumably dried out with lack of use, and no matter how much cleaning we gave it, it wouldn't come back to life.

It's the problem of having a printer that's only used for a few months of the year.

Office work all sorted, we then sallied forth to the Gardeners Arms for lunch. Many thanks for the recommendation, Jennie, it was indeed excellent, especially the pies. There's obviously something about Droitwich and pies.

We had a bit of a recovery sit down in the boat after that, then at two o'clock took a walk up the Junction canal. The Salwarpe is very low and there's 2.1 metres headroom under the M5, so hopefully we should be ok – Sheila's taken the plant pots off the roof as she does for Harecastle which is about that height too.

We'll have a quiet evening, then tally ho for Hanbury Junction tomorrow.

Location:Droitwich

Arriving in Droitwich

Today's weather was indeed rather better than forecast, though still not very special. It was cool, cloudy and damp and drizzled from time to time, but never enough to spoil the boating. This was indeed special along this very pleasant bit of canal. We have to differ from the Pearson's evaluation of the locks as "not too onerous", though. Sheila, whose turn it was to lockwheel, found them hard work. The gates are heavy to swing and the paddles hard to draw. Some of this is about the preservation of the original style of fittings, but some of it must be about the balance of the gates and the maintenance of the paddle racks and slides.

It will be interesting to see how the Junction Canal, which is largely new works, compares. The fly in the ointment of our pleasure was concern about finding a mooring here in Droitwich when we got here. In the event, there was no problem at all. There must be about a dozen visitor pontoon slots in the Netherwich basin and half of them were vacant at just after eleven o'clock after nearly three and a half hours cruising. They are very short pontoons, though, so Sanity Again's stern is sticking well out. We've tied with the bow and centrelines and seem secure enough.

The moorings are themselves behind a locked gate which requires a BWB key to open. It's about ten minutes walk to the town centre and a bit less to the prominent Waitrose. Droitwich is a town of contrasts. The outskirts which you pass in the final half hour's cruising look deadly dull, a conglomeration of uninspired modern housing, "and they're all made out of ticky-tacky and they all look just the same". The centre is a striking preservation of the old salt town, with many of the buildings at strange angles where they've subsided as a result of brine pumping, very reminiscent of the area around Middlewich.

We've had an explore and a shop. The moorings are 48 hours, so we may well stay here tomorrow to have a bit of a potter and relax after the exertions of the last couple of days. We've still got over two weeks in hand on the basis of our cruising plan to Crick. We'll take the opportunity to walk up the Junction and suss out its navigational challenges, especially Bridge 5 under the M42.

Final note: it's now half four and the moorings are starting to fill up.

Location:Droitwich