Saturday 8 May 2021

and home again

Wednesday 28th April: Oddingley to the marina

Well it certainly rained last night and it was still going when we got up.  Meg had to go out first thing of course but she was very quick thank goodness.

The forecast seemed confident it would stop raining by 9, so we finished breakfast and had another cup of tea, then bingo! the Met Office was right, so we set off.  No-one had arrived to moor near us last night, and there were only a couple of boats on the long Dunhampstead public mooring.  We could easily have moored up to pay the Fir Tree farm shop a visit, but it’s going to be windy later and we preferred to get into our berth before it got too bad.

We were dripped on slightly in the tunnel, but it didn’t matter as we already had our waterproofs on.  We will need to adjust our headlight before we do any more tunnels though, as we would have dazzled anyone coming towards us – but as with the rest of this trip, there have been few other boats to worry about.  The towpath north of the tunnel is always a bit damp …

It’s not far to the junction with the Droitwich canals.  There is a residential mooring on the offside as you approach the New & Used Boat Co, which is at the junction, and we had a hitch-hiker here for a while.

I just missed the action shot when he took off again, didn't even get his toenails as he sprung into the air.  We had a lockie to give us a hand down the Hanbury flight – the bit I really appreciate is that they close up the bottom lock for you, so the crew can get on board without having to close the bottom gates.  They are deep locks and the bottom landing is not the easiest to get on and off at. 

The wind made it very difficult to negotiate the marina entrance, and Dave decided to forgo a fuel top-up in favour of getting back in our berth.  That manoeuvre went well.  The wind got considerably stronger over the next hour and we were glad we’d got a move on earlier.

We were packed and on our way home at 3.  The car was rammed – the dinette seat cushion covers need a wash, and we had the foam inners along for the ride.  I always try to get the foam back in place before the covers are completely dry just in case they shrink, so that meant taking the whole kit and caboodle with us.  The chimney needs a bit of tlc, so that came home too, in a sack to keep any loose soot off everything else.  We also have our lifejackets, which need a full check on before we go on the river later in the year (we hope).  The timing will depend a lot on when we are allowed to have family to stay.

3 miles, 3 locks, 1 tunnel.

 

Trip stats 

Droitwich Spa Marina to Worcester and back - Droitwich junction canal, Worcester and Birmingham canal. 19 miles of narrow canals, 34 narrow locks, Dunhampstead tunnel twice.

 

No comments:

Post a Comment