That dratted wind

Tuesday 25^th May; marina to below Astwood bottom lock

After the appalling weather we had been having we’d been watching the CRT page on the river level indicator boards rather closely.  So we were fairly sure our initial plan of cruising up to Stourport would be scuppered, which indeed it was.  Things kept us at home anyway, but today we left at 9 and by 1 o’clock we were lunching on the boat, wondering if the wind would abate.  We needed a boost of shore power for the batteries anyway, and to fill up the water tank, so didn’t try to leave till after 3.  But the wind had other ideas.  It was blowing almost straight down from where we needed to go, and with a boat on one side of us and the pontoon on the other we were doomed – we reversed out, but before the bow was free and Dave could swing the tiller, the wind had shoved the bow back down the marina and we ended up at 90 degrees to the pontoons pointing the wrong way.  So we’d have to reverse out.  Actually no – the wind was so strong that we couldn’t make enough headway (or whatever the word is when you’re reversing) to keep us from being blown sideways towards the pontoons.  Dave made a snap decision, positioned us perfectly and we managed to get back onto the pontoon, with me on the bow rope to keep us from blowing into our neighbour.

B*gger.

Oh well.  We re-attached the shoreline, then Meg needed a walk so we went down to the staircase where there is plenty of space for a game of ball.  On the way back we climbed through a gap in the fence to a well-worn footpath following the very edge of the rugby club, with much less scope for losing your ball in the cut.

We got back to the boat, and I put the kettle on.  Then Dave shouted through the stern doors, ‘the wind’s dropped a bit!’  Out I rushed to confer, zoomed back in again, kettle off, shoreline unplugged, bow rope untied …. Yes!  The perfect weather window, just good enough, and we escaped.  Too late for the volunteers on Hanbury locks, but a boat had just come down so it was a fairly quick ascent.  They clearly knew the flight, as the side ponds were full.  Side ponds work well here as a water-saving device.  When a boat coming down empties the lock, they should use the side paddles to divert some of the lock water into the side pond rather than the whole lot disappearing downstream.  When a boat enters the lock to come up, the crew opens the side paddles to partly fill the lock from the side ponds instead of taking it all from the pound above.

 

Water rushing from the side pond

You can hear the water rushing under your feet where you stand on the boards above the culvert.  The water enters the lock just by the back gates, and doesn’t throw the boat about at all.  Dave took the picture into the sun, hence the flare.

The flow slows as the side pond empties, the crew shuts the side paddles then opens the ground paddles by the top gate in the normal way.  The side ponds tend to drain overnight, so the water hadn’t gone to waste. 

As we came out of the top lock, Dave spied a fat rat creeping out from a sluice by the lockies’ hut.  I zoomed in, and have cropped the photo, and I’m pleased with the result!  It shot off into the hedge, then came back again as I closed the gate.

 

We turned north at Hanbury junction, away from the racket of Saltway (the busy road into Droitwich) and pottered gently along in the evening sunshine, out of the wind and content with our lot.  The hedges are foaming with May and Cow Parsley, a beautiful sight.

We moored a few hundred yards before the Astwood flight, one boat a hundred yards behind and another closer to the lock.  Bats and a moon too.  Perfect but for one thing. 

We have a difficult decision to make in the next few days.

1½ miles, 3 locks