Wednesday 17th July
We were awoken this morning, about 5 am, by some people chatting loudly outside. We managed to go back to sleep and got up later to find a young chap fishing right in front of our boat with his keep net and landing net wedged in our mooring rope! We didn’t say anything until we needed to change our ropes for longer ones before we went down on to the Severn.
We were also a bit peeved because we had planned to get water before we went down the lock but not only was there a boat moored on the water point, which had been there over night, with a couple having breakfast on the back, but another chap was also fishing there! There is a notice which clearly states – Water Point, No Mooring and No Fishing!
Now I don’t object to people mooring over night on water points, lock approaches etc but I do object when they don’t get a shift on in the morning to leave before other people want to use them! As we aren’t really short of water we decided not to cause a confrontation with either party, gave the water point a miss and just told the lock keeper we were ready to go down.
Right I’m off my soap box now. While we were in the lock the lock keeper told us there had been a seal in the lock recently. She had got in there from the Severn and was called Keith, for whatever reason! He showed us a couple of photos of her in the lock. There have been several sightings of her on the river but we didn’t see her today.
We exited the lock and joined a small convoy of boats on their way down to Gloucester. There was a wide beam and a cruiser which went a lot faster than the rest of us and two more narrow boats. We soon lost sight of the wide beam and the cruiser after Upper Lode Lock. We had about 2 hours on the river before entering the Eastern Channel so I reluctantly went in and did the ironing. My husband is now wrinkle free (apart from his face of course) and has a full compliment of cool summer shirts again!
When we got in the Eastern Channel we met a HUGE dredger, we had been warned about it when we phoned Gloucester Lock to let them know we were coming. It was a bit narrow where we met this dredger but we managed to get by. The boat behind us did have to go in the bushes a bit though!
When we got to the lock the red light was on meaning it wasn’t ready so we moored on the wall with a stern rope and waited. The places to tie to were not very well spaced so we couldn’t tie the front as well. This was not a problem because the flow of the river stopped the front from drifting out too far. We did think when the water was let out of the lock it may push the front out but we were well back from the lock and it didn’t have much effect. We had about a 30 min wait, in the searing heat and when the lock opened one TINY boat emerged!
We eventually came out of the lock and moored in the dock, on the finger moorings, opposite a brasserie/wine bar. As it has been so hot there have been a lot of people sitting outside there since we got here and we hope they don’t get rowdy later on. Fingers crossed!
We went in to town for a brief look, we will do it more justice tomorrow as we are staying for the day and fell into The Water Poet for a restorative glass of Stowford Press cider in their delightful garden. We then returned to the boat refreshed and had a little kip, as you do. There are a vast number of seagulls here, worse than being at the sea side but they failed to keep us awake this afternoon so our hopes are high for a good night’s sleep tonight!
