Hanbury Wharf to Netherwich Basin, Droitwich

Hi Folks.

Wow what a day we have had.

We set off this morning to follow the other boats before us down the Droitwich Junction Canal. The anticipation and expectation was all worth it.

To get on to the Droitwich Canal Keith had to make a tight turn, which was not made any easier by a BW tug and work boat being in the way, but with a little effort he made it and there was not a scratch left on either of the BW boats.

Keith bought Hadar on to the Junction Canal from the Worcester and Birmingham Canal. There was quite a bit of a delay and hold ups, as other boats coming the opposite direction were having difficulty with weeding up props, as did the boats ahead of us, fortunately we didn't have any such problem.

With us in the first lock on the Junction Canal we were about to start a whole new adventure. BW guys were on hand to help with the locks and to give any advice they felt was needed. For instance at lock 2 some Swifts were nesting and so they had not finished off the coping stones on the entrance to the lock so care was needed, they also had to lower the height of the water, so that the nest did not get flooded, but this was fine and did not cause us any issues. We then had to moor on the lock moorings for a couple of hours before entering lock three, so I made us a coffee and we chatted to others waiting. We were asked to wait so that some boats coming up could make room for us going down to the staircase locks, as it is all a little tight for space on this section of the canal.

The Junction Canal is really quite stunning at the moment with all the wild flowers out. BW have there own blend of grass seed which has produced a wonderful spectacle as far as flowers are concerned and the bees and dragonflies are loving it.

At the Rugby club access road bridge, we got held up behind Peter on the boat he was crewing because he kept picking up weed on his prop poor chap, this was not what he needed when he was on his own. But with a bit of patience he was soon under way again. Neither Keith or I were in any hurry, we were enjoying the experience.
We left the staircase locks and headed to the next newly built lock before the tunnel that everyone had been talking about and how we would not get under it ha ha ha.
When we arrived at the M5 Tunnel we saw there was a gauge showing how low you needed to be to get under the tunnel, as it turned out we managed to get through without any problem at all and in back we could have probably made it without pulling a load of coal forward. But still it was better to be safe than sorry.
All of the locks are pretty easy to work once you get a rhythm going.
Having exited Barge Lock, I then worked two of the four swing bridges, because BW guys worked the swing bridge in Barge Lock for me and Annie's bridge was already open. It was then onward to Netherwich Basin through Vines Park, where we directed into our mooring by Carol and her husband Adrian of of NB Rypeck the habourmaster. The whole adventure has been a real joy, and nothing like we had been told by the doom and gloom merchants at the top of the locks. If we had listened to them and had been weak minded, we would have either turned around or just carried on and not bothered with this wonderful canal.

In between NB Freespirit and NB Indulgence a Moorhen has been brooding her eggs. Neither she or her otherhalf seem that worried about boats now mooring up against the pontoon. One of them was using Freespirit's roof as a leaping off point.

Already moored up in the basin is Manchuria an LMS boat originally a butty open day boat built in 1928, but has since been converted and now has a Lister engine powering her, she certainly looks very smart and I look forward to meeting her owner Gwylym Jones when he arrives.
Irene and Ian on NB FreeSpirit arrived later in the afternoon off of the River Severn and moored up close by. It was so lovely to see them again with their dogs Judy and Jade. We knew they were on their way from their blog, which I have been following. On the starboard side of us is Best o' Mates with Jennifer and Graham onboard.

We are both so looking forward to this weekend. Now we just need some nice weather. Tomorrow we will get to know our surroundings and hopefully get to meet more people coming to the opening ceremony of the Droitwich Canal.