Up the river and … oh dear

Sunday 16^th April; Hawford top lock to Stourport

It was grey and quiet, and hadn’t rained much.  The Severn was rising below Bevere, but we weren’t going that way and the levels were falling upstream.  We attached the anchor and set off down the two locks to the river.  The path between the locks is not in the best condition – the bikes can’t be helping.

At the bottom lock we donned our lifejackets and onto the river we went.  The flow looked fast, but we made the turn upstream without difficulty.  The river hadn’t been terribly high, at least this far upstream – we could see the maximum height on the trees at the water’s edge.  About a foot, as far as we can tell.

We made slow progress.  The river is wide below Holt lock, the water was flowing fast and there were a couple of floating bits of tree to avoid.

The trunky bit joining the branches is submerged

We could well imagine that the Droitwich boats we saw yesterday had got to the junction in only half an hour.  We were doing roughly 2 knots at 1500 revs and it took us an hour and a half going upstream.  We are not the only ones to find the Severn beautiful but somewhat tedious and samey, and I am not terribly keen on rivers anyway so I was heartily relieved to see Holt bridge, with the lock shortly after it.

There are few settlements visible on the Severn.  Holt is one of them, and the Holt Fleet pub has striking chimneys to boot.

 At Holt lock there is a strange structure, a box on legs with holes on the front face.  What could it be?  A sand martin colony nestbox, that’s what.  It’s new this year and the swallows and martins are only just returning, so there are no residents yet, although their contact calls are being broadcast to encourage them!  I was at the bow with a rope of course as we entered the lock, but without a camera, so no picture.

Once we were through Holt lock, the river became quieter – still fast, but smoother – and the surroundings became more interesting.  Apart from occasional light drizzle it stayed dry, though cloudy, with little wind.  We saw the Severn Rescue boat out, though it looked as though they were having a little pootle about, definitely no rescuing taking place.

We were quickly though Linford lock, and moored on Stourport’s pontoon visitor moorings on the river. We’d had lunch on the move, and it was about 2.30.  We thought we’d give poor Meg a walk, as she’d been cooped up all morning.  I went to pick up my boots from the corner of the bedroom and noticed a damp – no, wet – patch under them.  Had Meg been caught short?  No, definitely not dog wee.  We thought we’d give her a quick walk before investigating further.  We went along the Severn Path past the funfair, its carpark and then a crazy golf course, through a neatly mown park area with tarmac paths and a market going on at the far side, before leaving the town area, passing through a caravan and boating club, and finally reaching a non-tarmac path.  We walked as far as the limit of navigation – which wasn’t very far.

To the right of the bridge is a board proclaiming the limit of navigation.  Back we went past the various holiday town destinations.

Not my idea of fun

Back at the boat, it was time to investigate the wet patch.  Nothing obvious so Dave pulled out the steps and lifted the hatch to the cabin bilge …. which was full of water.  Oh b*gger.

Fortunately we have a hand pump.  Dave pumped and I emptied the buckets into the river while we talked the problem through.  The cabin bilge was dry on the last visit.  We had already checked for issues with the outlet pipes from the sink and basin and we hadn’t used the shower.  The obvious things like the seals in bathroom and galley were fine.  After 15 or 20 bucketsful we had lowered the water level by a little bit.  But Dave was knackered by now, so we thought, as we are pretty sure the problem is between the water pump and the tank - the water pump isn’t running unless we are using a tap - we’ll stop now.  We’ll see if the level has changed in the morning and call in to the boatyard in the basin.

9 miles, 2 canal locks, 2 river locks.  Average speed upriver approx. 2.2 knots, 1500-1700 revs.