We are somewhat disconcerted at the moment. We had plans for what we were going to do while we were here on the Gloucester and Sharpness and things have conspired against us at every turn really.
We had planned to put the boat in to Victoria Basin for a few days in July and travel to London by train to attend a BBQ at Ken’s cousin’s. However, Victoria Basin appears to be now fully occupied. I haven’t had a reply to the message which I left at BWML inquiring about the possibility of mooring there anyway. I have already bought the train tickets which is a bit of a nuisance but they weren’t very expensive.
We could go into Saul Junction but that would entail incurring a mooring fee and a taxi fare to the station and back which would probably cost more than the losing the price of the train tickets if we changed our plans.
At the time we didn’t really have a Plan B and juggled several possibilities but subsequently we have decided to forego the price of the tickets, take the boat back to Sawley, pick up the car and drive to London for the BBQ. After this we can make a little detour home to East Anglia.
So the decision was made and we worked out how long it would take to get back to Sawley and when we would have to leave here.
This was supposed to be quite a long visit (over a month) during which we had intended to spend some time doing maintenance to our paint work. This was to include painting the roof which is in dire need of doing, retouching the side and the blacking which we lost during our recent ‘lock fest’ and various other things.
Several things, other than our decision to leave early, have made this a forlorn hope in any case. One being the length of the grass on the moorings which means you can hardly see the boat when it’s moored never mind do any painting! Also the weather has been absolutely appalling since we arrived.
Talking of the appalling weather, this has presented us with a new dilemma. If it continues to rain like this the river may come up and we won’t be able to go. We spoke to the lock keeper yesterday and he said they may be shutting it soon. So do we go now?
Well, we thought about it and decided we need 3 days to get from here to Stourport via stops at either Lower Lode or Upton and Worcester. Heavy downpours were forecast until Friday and it was supposed to be quite windy too. Ken said he didn’t want to be travelling long distances on the river if the weather was going to be grim. And there would be the possibility of getting stuck at Upton or Worcester so we decided to wait until the weekend and if the river hasn’t come up and isn’t shut we will go then.
If it is shut we will make a new plan.
