Thursday 27^th June 2019

We had a bit of a job leaving the mooring. The boat had become grounded and there were lots of weed and lilies surrounding the propeller. We untied all the ropes, pushed the back end off and then reversed into the centre of the river. It was a lovely run into Bath, passing under the attractive A4 road bridge and coming to Weston Lock with its big weir and flood gates.

Attractive A4 Road Bridge

There were two boats locking down and one boat locking up who was taking all the room on the lock landing. With no room for us we had to hold in the river with the flow from both lock and weir against us.

Eventually we were able to enter the lock, another incredibly slow one. We were sharing the lock with a hire boat out from Hilperton Marina. It was their third time of hiring this year, and each time for two weeks. They will have covered a lot more miles this year than we have.

     

Weston Lock, Weir and Flood Gates

After the lock came a narrow stretch until the river was joined again, and then numerous bridges until we reached the moorings just before Churchill Road Bridges. Lots of room here, although only 48 hour moorings and we want to stay longer. There are quite a few “permanent moorers”, one of them in front of us who has been here for 4 days already with no intention of moving. He only travels along a 10 mile length of canal anyway and yet is classed, in his eyes, as a continuous cruiser.

The only disadvantage of mooring in the centre of Bath, there is neither water nor an Elsan point. The nearest water is one mile away, above Bath Locks, and the nearest Elsan is 10 miles away in Bradford-on-Avon, which we probably won’t reach for a week or more.

When moored and settled, we went into the city to Boot’s to pick up Brenda’s medication, only to find it had been sent to a branch 3 miles away. They arranged to have it brought to the city centre branch, very good of them. We called into a Sainsbury’s Local and returned to the boat until the medication had arrived.  Once we had collected this, we caught the hop on, hop off bus tour around the city. The stop is less than 100 yards from the boat. Really good value these, and essential when visiting a place.

Although the day was hot and sunny, there was a persistent cooling breeze. However, Harvey was flagging and really feeling the heat so we returned to the boat, sat in the front cratch, and watched the world go by. A common enough past-time for us now.

The towpath here is narrow and enclosed on one side by a temporary, building site type fence, and a railing on the river side. And yet push bikes go hurtling past far too fast, with hardly any room for pedestrians to get out of the way. We witnessed frequent near misses and it’s a wonder nobody has been seriously hurt.

Weather: very hot and sunny with a persistent breeze. Temperatures in France, Spain and Germany are hitting all-time highs of up to 48˚.   

Day Total: 1 lock; 4 miles; 0 Tunnels; 5 Swing Bridge; 0 Lift Bridges; 0 Boat Lift; engine running hours 2.6

Overall Total: 550 locks; 1038 miles; 46 tunnels; 32 Swing Bridges; 5 Lift Bridges; 2 Boat Lifts; engine running hours 650.1hrs