Bartimaeus

As the first named storm of the season approached, the warnings for our part of the country gradually got stronger.  At first it seemed as if "Amy" was going to have little effect on us, but by Friday morning the 50mph gusts and frequent showers made driving on unattractive.

Despite the conditions, we did see an occasional kingfisher flying past our pretty mooring.  The willow trees on the bank opposite were sheltering us from some of the wind, but occasionally leaves and small branches were blown off them in to the water.  We reckoned they looked sturdy enough, and probably weren't tall enough to reach us even if they did fall.

It seemed like a good day to do some programming.  We occasionally get asked how far we've travelled, especially when we show people the map of our travels.  I have done the calculation before now, but decided this time to automate the process.  I reminded myself of the Haversine formula so that I could turn the lines on the maps in to distances.

By the end of the day I had a believable set of distances, and they even agreed with the numbers when I used my route mapping app to measure some of the same trips.  The weather was only marginally better yesterday, so I carried on with the task of automatically adding the distances to the map page.

The numbers confirm that we have slowed down a lot this year.  I also notice that we have done very nearly 4000 miles altogether in less than 1000 engine hours.  We rarely travel as fast as 4mph - a lot of those miles were done with the engine off.

This morning things had calmed down enough for us to decide to move on.  It wasn't very far to Nafford Lock where I hopped off to work it.  There were a few fishermen there when I arrived, but they started to leave once I appeared.  This lock has a swing bridge over it that needs to be open during locking (and closed after).  One of the fishermen dashed over it as I started to move it.  His friends were disappointed when I paused to let him cross safely.

Once the lock was empty I tried to open a gate but couldn't.  I crossed over and opened the other gate easily.  I suggested to Clare that she might get out with just the one gate open, but two men who were passing offered to help.  The three of us had no trouble opening it.  I had to do another lap of the lock to put the bridge back in to place, but at least I could then use it to get to the landing stage where Clare was waiting.

There aren't many boats moving just now, but we met a hire boat just upstream of Eckington Bridge.  As soon as the driver saw me approaching, he changed course, moving determinedly to his left - my side!  I gave two short blasts on the horn while steering hard to pass him starboard-to-starboard.  As we passed I called out that he should pass on the right.  He looked perplexed, I hope he works it out before he meets someone else.  If we had met a minute later I might have struggled to get through Eckington Bridge.

There has been a bridge here for 600 years, though this one is a comparative youngster, having been built about 300 years ago.  I wouldn't want to damage it - or us!  As it was I had plenty of time to move over to the correct arch - the centre one as you might expect.  A short distance downstream is the railway bridge - much easier to navigate.

After sitting moored up for two mostly cloudy days, we had only just charged up the batteries when we arrived at Strensham Lock.  We'd planned to moor here at one of the moorings marked in the guide book.  As we approached, things started to look a little tight.  The jetty was a funny shape, but in addition a work boat was moored up, partially blocking the prime mooring.

With a bit of careful rope pulling in the still-strong wind, we managed to get an acceptable mooring.  The stern is not next to the bank, so we'll need to use the bow doors while we're here.  The rope from Eric the work boat is across our bow deck, so we'll have to take extra care.  I realised later that we had seen Eric last week, pushing a different barge.

There are other moorings marked on the map further on.  We set off down the footpath to see if they would be a better choice.  The path crosses two islands connected by a causeway over the weir.  The warning signs were much bigger than the ones saying this was a public footpath.

We gave up looking for the moorings when we ran out of water at the mill building.  The large sign here seems intended to deter.  I was pleased to spot the yellow arrow, but didn't press on as we clearly weren't going to find a better mooring this way.

We were ready for lunch, and walked in to Eckington.  The river has curved round since we went under the bridge which bears its name, so we were still only half a mile or so from the village.  We enjoyed Sunday roasts in a pub there (other pubs were available) before walking back via Eckington Bridge and the river bank.