Droitwich Spa Marina: Wednesday 11th March 2020
And neither did B and C.
Plan A was, as usual, to come up before January to finish
winterising the boat and bring home the bedding. There was a lot going on before Christmas and
it didn’t get done, but it would happen in January, wouldn’t it? Well, no.
Dave broke his hand just after Christmas, and I had developed golfer’s
elbow through lugging heavy shopping and grandchildren about. So Dave couldn’t even drive the car and neither of us was
capable of doing anything heavy or fiddly on the boat, let alone operate locks. Then there was the little matter of the
weather, so we crossed our fingers and stayed home.
As a big freeze seemed unlikely, we waited for a
suitable gap in the calendar when it wasn't pouring with rain. Hands are
very complicated structures and damaged ones involve plenty of NHS time to get
them fixed, so any trip had to fit in with Dave's appointments. So plan C!
Yes, plan C. Arrive
at the marina by lunchtime, plug the shoreline in to give the batteries a
boost, replace the bedding if necessary (it had got a bit musty so we were glad we'd brought a complete replacement set along), and do the usual checks. This should leave plenty of time to get up
the Hanbury locks and along towards Worcester
for an hour or two to finish topping up the batteries. However ….
Getting into the boat took a little while – one of the
bungees on the tonneau cover had failed, and not only did a large pool of water
have to be baled out (dog bowls are so useful), the cover had grown a layer of
green slime and had to be dried off before packing it away - it was too windy
to clean it properly today.
The brasses were showing the effect of 4 months’ neglect
too.
Then the shoreline didn’t work. There was a fault in the pillar, meaning marina
owner Nick (the multi-talented farmer) ended up dismantling it and replacing
its innards. By the time we could switch
on the shore power it was already past 3 o’clock. As we hadn’t wanted to run
the engine to charge the batteries because our next-door neighbour lives
aboard, we stayed put in the marina. Dave soaked up the water in the engine hole
with a sponge and wads of newspaper – amazingly the tonneau cover had not
dumped any water on the stern deck, so not much had got in – and I took Meg off for a walk. One of
the ways towards the towpath was still flooded. I had my back to the canal to take the picture.
But the main towpath was reasonably dry underfoot. We went as far as the first lock beyond the
motorway tunnel, where the canal is joined by the river Salwarpe for a
stretch. Another blogger (I can't remember who) showed a photo earlier this year when the river had risen above those arrows. Today it is back to normal, but we hadn’t
intended going towards Droitwich in case Barge Lock couldn’t be opened –
the river sometimes washes so much silt down it stops the top gate opening.
The coltsfoot was in bloom.
The flowers appear before the leaves, which are shaped like a horse’s
foot.
 |
| not a dandelion |
A cursory glance could mistake it for a dandelion, another plant named
for its resemblance to a bit of animal – lion’s teeth, dents de lion. I like the
country names for it, pissabed, pissenlit. It's a diuretic, if you haven't already guessed!
 |
| Pissabed |
The wind was strong by evening and it was getting cold. After dark it poured with rain. But with the fire going since the afternoon,
we were snug.
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