Day : Tuesday
Date : 13 August 2019
Start : 1000 hrs
Finish : 1745 hrs. Gloucester rowing club
I have uploaded our proposed route to CanalPlanAC at https://canalplan.eu/journey/12117_Z8HGnO96Lo if anyone wants to see where we are likely to be. It gets updated with actual position each night.
This morning Diana and Brian took Spot for a walk while I moved down to the water point to top up the tank. The timings were spot on, they arrived back just as I was clearing away the hose and at the same time a cruiser had just left the bottom of Tewkesbury lock so that it could be turned for us. It was a lovely day on the river and we met a few boats coming upstream, the first just before we reached Upper Partings lock, so the lock was in our favour but the gates were shut, it was only minutes before we had a red flashing light, I am making the lock ready, followed by a green light, you may enter the lock. Due to the levels we only dropped about 4 feet and were soon away.
We passed some cows having a refreshing drink in the shallows of the river.
As we approached the Partings this cruiser had just left the narrows coming up and opened it up, when he saw us he throttled back again so very little wash, also his exhaust had cleaned up by then.
As we made our way down the partings, 5 mph on just over tick over I tried to ring Gloucester locks but he was engaged, I tried several times without success so abandoned the phone and picked up the second set of ladders against the wall on the lock approach with my stern line and then called him again, this time successfully. When he drained the lock ready for us the flow of water actually moved us backwards, at the time I would estimate the current to be a little over 3 MPH. As soon as I had a green I went forward staying close to the wall with just enough power to maintain steerage until I was at the mouth of the lock, a quick burst of power and we were in, safe and sound.
Once in Gloucester we moored to one of the pontoons and had a lunch before spending a bit of time in the Gloucester Waterways Museum. When we returned to the boat we decided to move further along the canal for the nigh so have moored just south of Hempsted Swing Bridge. Since we have been here we have seen a group of 13 hot air balloons drifting across the countryside.
The height of the river at Gloucester was 0.86 from the government web site but the site gives no indication of flow, its just for flood purposes.
Today's Journey
15 Miles 3 Locks in 4¼ hours
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