Severn Cruise

Another misty and chilly start to the day. Jan was up at 5.30 and started the Hurricane to raise the temperature in the boat.

We were underway by 8am heading down the two Hawford locks to the junction onto the Severn.

The river level was below the green marker and looked like a mill pond.  Waiouru appeared to enjoy having so much water underneath her as we made excellent speed going upstream.  Unlike our last time, we didn’t see a single moving boat during the entire cruise.

During the cruise we passed a number of static caravan parks which appear to be holiday homes rather than residential.

Jan notice an attractive house on the east bank.  It was slightly obscured by surrounding trees which also overshadowed it.  My guess is it’s rather cold in winter.

At one point we passed a serious restoration project. 

The person doing the restoration told us the boat had been sunk a little further upstream.  There will be several thousands of hours in this project!

The locks on the river are manned by CRT and whilst as big as those on the Thames they don’t look nearly as well maintained.

A single red light indicates the lock keeper hasn’t seen you.  When the red light flashes it means the keeper is aware of your presence and a green light is authorisation to enter the lock.  The lock keeper told us we were the first boat he had seen that day.  The summer cruising season is obviously over.

I remembered last time we came this way there were several large vessels moored just before Stourport.  They were still there. 

We reach Stourport at 11.30am mooring below the locks.  There are both wide and narrow locks here.  We will obviously be using the narrow locks.