Bartimaeus

Heather has joined us on board a number of times, but only just managed to squeeze a visit in to this cruising year.  We've had a month of doing no more than one lock per day, but weather and geography were going to force a change to that.  We managed to coordinate Heather's arrival so that she could help with the locks to ease us back in to them.

We started with Heather driving for a short cruise on the River Severn in Worcester before we switched to the narrower confines of the canals.  Clare and Heather made quick work of the pair of double locks that connect Diglis Basin to the river.

I drove out while they walked around the basin and then along to prepare the lock by the Commandery.

As we were rising in the lock I had a look at the water gauge - we didn't have very much.  I checked the map and confirmed my suspicion that the next water point was more than a day's cruise away.  We should really have filled up the previous day at a handy point near our mooring.  Or I should have stopped at the basin and filled there.  We could have gone back down, but we decided we'd manage.

We stopped for lunch on the way out of town, so we were all prepared for the afternoon's locks.  With a practised crew of three, we made excellent progress, reaching the moorings at Tibberton well before nightfall.

The next morning we drove to the Hanbury Junction on diesel, arriving at lunch time with the batteries close to full.  The day was grey and cold again, we were getting almost no power from the solar panels.

We'd given Heather the choice at the junction.  One option was to continue to the Tardebigge Lock Flight which she'd seen before.  The alternative was to head to Droitwich - canals she hasn't been on, and which I promised had interesting canal features.  She chose Droitwich, and found that some of the features were very interesting indeed.

We moored at the Netherwich Basin in the middle of Droitwich and were at last able to fill the water tank.  A little later we noticed the arrival of NB Ollie Owl.  This is an electric hire boat, built and later upgraded by Ortomarine.  We met Catherine who runs the company at both of the Electrika shows.

In the morning, we stocked up at the nearby high-class supermarket (another supermarket was available).  After a morning coffee we were about to set off when we saw Ollie Owl departing too.  I wasn't surprised that we started to catch them up as I know Catherine advises her customers to travel slowly.

We were trying to charge the batteries again, so it wasn't long before we were very close behind.  They pulled to the side and invited us to pass, which I happily accepted.  They gradually vanished behind us as we covered the miles to the first lock.  There had been no mooring options, and the lock bollards weren't suitable to stop on either.  I suggested we prepare the lock, and then moor up inside it for lunch or until another boat arrived.

I'd managed to eat a small amount of lunch when Ollie Owl arrived behind us.  We immediately made friends with Vicky and Reg who were delighted that we had waited for them.  The five of us (their son mostly stayed inside the boat) made an effective crew on the large, heavy and often stiff locks, with plenty of chat and banter to brighten another cold and grey day.

We reached the moorings at Hawford with a reasonable amount of daylight left, and agreed to chum them down to the river the next morning.  Vicky and Reg were heading up the River Severn to Stourport, but we had to return to Droitwich so that Heather could get a train home.  There is nowhere to turn on this part of the canal though, so we needed to drop down on to the river for that.

We'd prepared the first lock ready for a leisurely departure when a boat appeared below it.  We hurried to use the lock so as not hold them up.  Clare was nearest the boat so ended up at the helm.  Reg realised in the second lock that he hadn't raised his fenders and walked down both gunwales to do the job.

Clare drove us out on to the river and turned back in to the lock.  We returned to our overnight moorings for a coffee stop before the three of us headed back up the locks we'd come down the day before.

At one of the locks I saw a large fence strainer post and a few other bits of wood that might get jammed somewhere.  Clare got the boat hook and between us we wrestled them out of the water while Heather waited at the helm.

The brightest weather of Heather's visit was while we were walking to the station with her the following day.  We look forward to her next visit and hope for brighter days.