Work in the morning, laze in the afternoon

OK, so it's not officially summer yet, but it's definitely been Kinky weather here today. We managed to get the outside work done straight after breakfast before the sun was on the boat. We washed the rear section of the cabin side that had got splashed with mud by passing cyclists in the wet. There was some cleaning water left over, so the bow deck and bow flashes got the treatment too.

This was followed by a trip to the Co-op for more bread to see us through the next few days. After coffee, I got the paint and brush out and finished off patching the scar on the side, touching in the coachline which had got chipped.

We sat quietly for a bit after that, then had lunch. After lunch, I started the engine for an hour or so to help the solar panel top up the batteries – the sun only gets on the boat from about midday.

Last year when we were here, we had some fun helping the guy who owns the electric launch Nuera drag it off its mooring opposite. Over the winter, the silt plies up against the boat sufficiently to prevent its clever four way thruster system from moving it off. This year, here he was again with the same problem, so we spent some time watching his initial efforts, then assisted by heaving on a long line stretched across the canal whilst he revved up his electric motors.

Slowly, the boat pulled free and could be navigated to the moorings behind us.

There's been a fair amount of traffic past, some slowly and some not so slowly. It can be a bit tedious as the hard edge and rings mean that it's not possible to put a spring out. The other downside of here is the phenomenal amount of motor bike traffic on the surrounding roads. I guess that a sunny Bank Holiday is always going to bring out those with a need for a big noisy lump of metal between their legs...

Shopping and stuff

It's been a glorious day here at Stourport. We got going in good time and were back at Lidl shortly after they opened at eight. Despite the early hour, they were already very busy, but the efficient layout and swift workers at the check-outs meant we weren't held up at all.

We got all the rest of the stuff that we wanted from there and were back at the boat by nine. After putting it all away, there was still plenty of time to go into town and finish the restocking at the large new Co-op.

Back at the boat once more, I started the engine whilst we were stowing stuff, so that by the time we'd had a coffee, Sheila could get the washing machine running to finish dealing with the bedding that's been hanging around waiting for a fine day to dry it.

That was finished just on lunchtime. Having eaten, it was too nice to lurk indoors, so whilst Sheila hung things on the whirligig, I emptied the last of the coal into the scuttle and stowed the coal box in its summer place in the bow locker.

That all sorted, we went for a walk down to the river and round the basins. Our old share boat Streamline was on the visitor moorings down there, but her crew were at lunch so we didn't disturb them.

Having had a good old ramble round and a chat to some boaters by the narrow staircases, we called in at the cafe for an ice cream. Since then, it's been a case of loafing on the bow, reading and drinking much needed tea.

Once this is posted, I shall get Sheila to give my hair a trim then take a shower. Tomorrow will be dedicated to boat washing, I reckon.

Boating time

We had an excellent session in the Black Star last evening. It's a very quirky pub with friendly, good-humoured staff and strong support from the locals. The food and beer are both very reasonably priced and of good quality. It's now a Wye Valley Brewery house and the Hereford Pale Ale went down very well indeed.

Sheila had an 8 oz rump steak whilst I braved the chicken fillet and bacon 'burger' with chips. Sheila finished off with crumble and cream – I was replete after my main course. All that and two rounds of drinks left me with change from £35, quite remarkable for this day and age.

This morning, we took our time getting going but were still out and about before nine.We walked down to the basin to dump a bag of rubbish and noted that there was room on both the water point and service wharf. So we nipped back to the boat and headed on down. By the time we got there, two CRT guys were working on refurbishing the services. One was painting the bollards whilst a chippie sorted some rot in the doors.

With their help, we managed to get tied to as yet unpainted bits of the landscape and started filling the water tank. It's not a very quick tap so it was well after half nine before we'd finished. In the meantime, I had checked in the Limekiln shop that the pump out and diesel would be available, and was assured that it would be. However, they were short handed today, so there "might be a bit of a delay" before someone came over – about 20 minutes, say.

Since we were still watching the water gauge crawling upwards, I said that that wouldn't be a problem, which with hindsight may have been a mistake. Various other boats came and went whilst this was going on and eventually we were ready to cross over to the service wharf.

I winded Sanity Again in the basin and tucked her over onto the back end of the lock landing over the other side as is the practice. In due course, one of the local moorers boated up and occupied a spare pontoon. He confirmed that "Josh" hadn't come in today, but someone would be here shortly, in "about five minutes".

About 15 minutes later, Rosie, a privateer we've been leapfrogging with for the past week or so, worked down the lock and tied in front of us, looking for diesel. So we all stood around and nattered about this and that, the state of the river, the joys of the Droitwich canals, the strange behaviour of other boaters, cassette versus pump out toilets...

Sometime just after eleven, the boss turned up and started on us. He left me filling the fuel tank whilst he got the pump out running. To be fair, it was a very good pump out, well rinsed and thorough. Prices are very reasonable here too, £14 for the pump out and 75 ppl for domestic diesel, any declaration.

Once we were all done, we had to hang about a bit as there was an Anglo-Welsh waiting to lock up and another boat coming down, so it was about 11.45 by the time Sanity Again was rising in the lock once more. We managed to get back onto the mooring we'd left three hours earlier, helped by the Anglo-Welsh boat shuffling up a bit.

Since then, boats have come and gone from here. We've made a first foray to Lidl for the start of a big restocking. More trips will follow tomorrow, as well as visiting some of the shops in town, I expect. We've not decided yet whether to leave on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday, we'll just see how long it takes for us to get itchy feet once more.

In the meantime, we're just looking forward to some quality time on a sunny weekend in jolly Stourport.

Flexibility

It's the name of the game when you are ambling about the way we are at the moment. Actually, it was only quite late on that we made yet another change of plan – most of the day went along as expected. Having woken good and early and disposed of a Killer in short order, we were boating just after eight, Sheila locking and myself steering.

We got down Wolverley and Wolverley Court no bother, then Sheila set the washing machine going as I repeated yesterday's walk with the boat. By the time we'd got near Sainsbury's that was all in order and we carried merrily on through Kidderminster. It's an interesting town to boat through, to be fair, and seems to be more boater friendly than it was.

It always take a bit longer than you expect to get along the final length below Falling Sands lock, mainly because the bottom is still too close to the top. There was very little traffic about today, indeed I only met one boat coming the other way in the entire morning.

We got to the Bird in Hand just after eleven and tied there in solitary state. We had some thoughts about eating in the pub tonight as it has good reviews on Trip Advisor for well cooked pub grub.

After lunch, we took a walk into Stourport proper, noting that the Lidl is perfectly accessible from where we'd tied. Indeed, it only took twenty minutes to get to the basin and observe where to tie to get services. There were surprisingly few boats on the visitor moorings above York Street lock and we realised that these are 5 day not 48 hour ones.

I think we had the same idea at much the same time. There didn't seem any point in sitting all alone where we were on a mooring we hadn't used before and which didn't seem to be popular any more when we could easily carry on to well known ones for the weekend.

So that's what we've done. Another 15 minutes boating has brought us on to the good deep moorings with rings. Instead of the Bird in Hand, we may well eat at the Black Star at some point this weekend which also now has good reviews both on Trip Advisor and the BOG Pub Guide.

Tomorrow, we'll work down the lock, get a pump out and diesel at Star Line/Lime Kiln and come back up here. We realised that, it being a Bank Holiday this weekend, the fun fair will be in full cry until late on, so the basin moorings will not be so peaceful or romantic!

A glorious potter in Stourport

It's been a very good day for pottering-type boating as opposed to navigation. After a lazy start, we sorted out the anchor and the life jackets, then worked down York Street lock and found both the short length of visitor mooring and the service wharf occupied. However, the boat on the service wharf was wanting a pump out but didn't have a card, so needed to wait until Limekiln Chandlers opened at half nine so that they could buy one. Accordingly, they pulled back onto an odd bit of unused wharf and Sheila shoe-horned Sanity Again in in front of him.

The pump out hose was ludicrously short and we ended up pulling forward and overlapping with the boat on the VM. This boat was filling with water and crewed by very friendly folk so a good bit of canal chatting went on between the three boats as all this was going on. Once we'd pumped out, I nipped into Limekiln myself to buy an up to date Pearson's Guide, no problem there, and a replacement pump out card for the one I'd just used. Of these, they were sold out...

Fortunately, Starline Cruisers were now open and our new friends pushed over there to get their pump out – at a better price of £14 rather than £16 for the brief CRT option. The other boats duly moved off and we've pulled forward onto the VM for the night. Whilst all this was going on, an ex-CanalTime boat, City of Durham, came down the lock and onto the pump out. Her steerer, Nick, is a follower of this blog, excellent chap, and he came over and made himself known to us.

It was good to meet you, Nick, it's always nice to have the reassurance that there are people out there reading my witterings!

After coffee, we made an expedition to the Co-op and Post Office. There was a Photo-me booth there, so we've finally been able to get out passport photos for our new bus passes. Back at the boat, it was just nice time for lunch. It's very pleasant indeed here, especially as the sun has returned today. We've washed the roof and one side of the boat, removing the evidence of having been tied under trees for the last three nights, thank you birdies.

The clock on the Clock Warehouse rings out the hours and there's a general feeling of living heritage. The Tontine Hotel has found a new purpose as upmarket apartments. Pearson rightly says that a tontine was an odd Victorian financial gamble whereby a group of friends each contributed to an investment, in this case an hotel, and the last survivor won the lot. He comments that it would make an excellent basis for a thriller.

Clearly hasn't read The Wrong Box by Robert Louis Stevenson, then, nor seen the 1966 film which starred John Mills, Ralph Richardson, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Peter Sellers...

Location:Stourport

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

A bit of catching up

Our decision to stay put today was well justified by the rain which fell during the morning and over lunchtime. Although it meant we were able to have a pretty relaxed start, we didn't squander the time. Sheila had some banking stuff to do and I got on with a task that had occurred to me the other day when doing some entries in the Pub Guide. It's now 147 pages long and, inevitably, had the odd typo here and there, empty rows in the tables, a failure to delete some of the anchor statements for the ratings (such as 1= awful, 5= best ever) and so on.

So, having fired up both the Mac Mini and the engine – we had so much stuff on charge at one time that we were pulling over 10 amps from the batteries – I went through the whole shebang and tidied it up.

Once we'd both finished our computer chores and had had a refreshing cup of coffee, we set to to give the boat a decent sweep through. She tends to get a bit scruffy when we're doing serious cruising so it's good to take an opportunity like today to get her shipshape once more.

Once we'd done, there was just nice time to bake some part bake rolls for lunch. After that repast and some quiet time, I made a batch of bread dough and we went shopping once again. First off, we went down to Limekiln Chandlery and bought a pump out card to use at Kinver. I do have one left from some time ago, but there's always the risk that it won't work after a long delay in applying it. Another trip to Lidl allowed us to to restock to such an extent that we won't need to call at Sainsbury's on the way back through Kidder.

I don't know if it's always the case, but this Lidl seems more pleasant to use than the Aldis we're used to, with wider aisles and a cleaner atmosphere. It's pleasant to buy unusual bits and pieces too, a virtue of using a strange supermarket.

Back at the boat, the goodies were stowed, cups of tea were made and the dough converted into a loaf for proving. It should be about ready to bake when I've done this blog.

Tomorrow, a prompt start and back to Wolverley, methinks.

Brief boating but wet

I'm pleased to say that we had a much better night last night, although it became apparent that our choice of mooring left something to be desired, as it was right under a tree which dripped for a long time between rain showers, of which there were many. It was still wet on and off by the time we'd breakfasted, discouraging thoughts of cruising away.

Instead, we carried out a cunning plan to lock down into the basin to get water, wind and then lock back up again in the hope of finding a better slot on the visitor moorings. This largely went to plan, though the rain returned with such a vengeance – achieving monsoon proportions for a time, we could have been in Swansea – that I went below whilst the boat was in the lock and put on the new coveralls. It was too late for Sheila who had chosen to lockwheel. She had on a waterproof jacket but her shorts and legs were soaked.

Once in the basin we had to wait for 30 minutes or so for the water point to be free, using the time to dump rubbish and to make a cup of coffee. After the boat before us had set off, we pulled back and started filling the tank. It's by no means the fastest water point on the system, about the same pressure as the one at Poynton, I'd say. It took another 30 minutes to get the level up from below a quarter to just above three quarters of a tank. The guy off the boat before reckoned that the one at Kinver is much better, so this will do us until then.

The rain had largely stopped and the accompanying squally wind with it had died away, much to my relief. I winded Sanity Again by putting her bow into the channel leading to the barge locks and swinging the stern round. Up York Street lock we went again to find that there was now a nice slot in the first length of visitor mooring, not under trees and a better distance from the Black Star pub. The space was just 70 feet long and I managed to fit the boat in there without touching either of the adjoining boats. Result!

We've had a quiet day since, entertained by the overheard comments of the gongoozlers wandering past. We did have a foray into the handy Lidl, not needing anything in particular but still managing to get an assortment of treats. As the forecast is for more rain tomorrow, we may well sit tight for another day – it's a five day mooring and we've a couple of weeks in hand for the trip back to Mercia.

Finally, my thanks to GreyGal, Graham the CI engineer and, of course, to Jo. It really is nice to know my efforts are appreciated ;)

Bad night, good day

We've made it to Stourport. There's always a feeling of achievement in getting to the end of a canal, especially when you've done the full length of it as we have with the Staffs and Worcs, but it's particularly so today as we've been operating on a distinct shortage of sleep, especially yours truly. This is because the calm serenity of the rural canal was shattered last night by a mixture of campanology from Wolverley church and what we think must have been a private party (wedding reception or the like) complete with live band at the pub.

Outside at the pub... In the car park by the towpath...

OK, so they finished before eleven but various characters still wandered about for some time, up until twelve, in fact. Earlier, we'd been charmed by the sight of young men using the towpath hedge as a urinal, in a couple of cases right alongside Sanity Again.

Sheila managed to get to sleep before it was all over but I stayed awake for quite some time and then came to again a bit before four in the morning, only dozing thereafter. The thing is, we had quite a bit to do today and wanted to get away by seven. As I say, we managed it, but readers will understand that, despite some catch up kip after lunch, I'm not at my brightest and best.

So we'll have lots of photos instead:

The beauty of the Staffs and Worcs

Approaching Cookley Tunnel

Cave type stable at Debdale Lock

Inside the stable: poor horse!

Wolverley Court House

Wolverley old village centre

 

Wolverley Church

Clock warehouse, Stourport Basin

The Tontine, former hotel, now apartments

River Severn

Lower narrow staircase into the basin

 

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.

Stourport and back

2nd & 3rd August

With a certain amount of boating to do yesterday, we set off early and arrived at the Kidderminster Sainsbury's just after eight. Some serious shopping included buying a new battery charger for AA rechargeables – the old one was taking over two days to recharge a set, which seemed a bit excessive. The new one does it in four hours, and only draws half as much current from the inverter.

Then on we went down the last three locks before Stourport. The canal along here, whilst not as spectacularly beautiful as the earlier section, is nonetheless very pleasant. It could use some maintenance, mind, especially cutting back the offside greenery. By now, some boats were starting to appear coming the other way, and the steering became quite challenging at times if stuff was not to be swept off the roof.

We found a mooring in Stourport in nice time to have lunch, having taken about three hours boating and one shopping to get there from Wolverley. After lunch I explored the options for butchers, finding one which sold venison burgers; this is looking ahead to the Braidbar Open Day and Owners BBQ on 20th September. We also got an excellent pork pie, fated to form the centrepiece of last night's salad.

The recycling opportunities were a bit limited however: we are currently carting around a load of cardboard and plastic that no one seems to want. We'll have to hope that the recycling facilities at the National will be more comprehensive.

After dinner, we were loafing in the saloon when there came a knock on the roof, and Sue and Richard from Indigo Dream introduced themselves. They were on their way to eat in the pub, so couldn't come in, but we managed a comprehensive natter with them.

It was great to put faces to names in this way; one of these days we'll make contact with the mysterious Greygal of the Dogsontour blog. That woman is so complimentary about me, I'm beginning to worry about her. Maybe we shouldn't ever meet, then she can remain undisillusioned. (Should that be "remain illusioned"?)

Being Saturday night, the mooring in Stourport was quite noisy up to half eleven or so, but never felt threatening.

Today we made another quite early start, timing it to get back to Kidder as the Sainsbury's opened at 10, it being Sunday. If we seem to be shopping a lot at the moment, it's because we are stocking up on stuff for socializing during the National. We will be able to get to a supermarket whilst there, but it's a distraction from doing what we are there to do, and it's much handier to have the cupboards and fridge as full as possible before we arrive.

The timing worked out well. We worked up Kidder lock at ten, with the church bells ringing out all the time we were doing so. Kidder Church clearly has a good supply of enthusiastic campanologists.

After shopping and coffee (and an exercise in applied topology in getting it all put away), we toddled on to Wolverley once more. The moorings were empty when we got here, but as I type we have Di and Reece (also on their way to Autherley) tied behind us, and an OwnerShips boat, Scherzo, in front.

We took a walk to explore Wolverley this afternoon. I'm not sure what we were expecting, but the original part below the church is quite charming. The church stands on yet another sandstone outcrop, and clustered below is a pub, a village store and the old courthouse.

This afternoon, folks were sitting outside the pub in the sun, and the whole effect was more continental than anything; you could have been in some tiny village in the Alps, not just a couple of miles north of Kidderminster.

We've had another good old natter with Reece and Di, so I'm a bit later than usual in composing this. I'll have to stop there so that I can get on and cook dinner. One of these days I'll find time and space to fulminate about the new BW policy of installing three square wooden bollards alongside every narrow lock, but it's not going to be today.

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.