Date 30 June 2015
Overnight the weather was very warm.
Morning: We decided to make for an early start as we new we might have a long cruising day if moorings were unavailable.
Afternoon: Steady cruise and we ended up having to breast up with a boat on either side. We arrived at Upton upon Severn moorings to find the tail end of a jazz festival. CaRT had suspended the 24 hour restricted mooring times for the week long festival. There was a buzz going round that one small cruiser had been turfed out of the local Boat Yard and was now moored up on the pontoon. It seems that the owner was causing issues which had led to his expulsion and his dog had also somehow been drowned. The ins and outs of the situation were very vague. Later the boat left the mooring unnoticed.
We met up with a wonderful group of Australian boaters on a hire boat. However, these were well experienced boaters back in Australia. One owned a fleet of boats and had built and operated a spectacular river hotel boat of his own. As usual the Aussies immediately organised a barbecue. Which was good fun. We introduced them to the delights of Henderson's Yorkshire Relish which was added to mushy peas. I was regaled with a tale of boating in 'Flinders'. The Flinders Ranges is a ancient and unique part of the world, rugged and remote. They took 18 months to build a boat and then went off to explore the Flinders coastal area. Basically it is living on a boat where your nearest neighbour is hundreds of miles away from your location. Being self sufficient in obtaining food and fish and oysters were frequent on the menu. I'm hoping that I have convinced them to write up their adventure.
Evening: Then we saw the police helicopter circling overhead, for about an hour. The fire service were zipping up and down the river in their emergency RIBs. At about 10:30pm the fire service group turned up towing a boat. Which was dumped onto the moorings. The boat had no mooring lines so we had to supply the fire service with some of our spares. It turned out to be the boat that had been thrown out of the boat yard. There is something about bad pennies!
Wildlife:
Birds: House Sparrow, Tree Sparrow, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Rook, Jackdaw, Starling, Blackbird, Mallard, Mute Swan, Robin, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Pied Wagtail, Long Tailed Tit, Coot, Moorhen, Canadian Goose, Kingfisher, Great Crested Grebe, Grey Heron, Wood Pigeon, Collared Dove, Kestrel, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Black Headed Gull, Common Tern, Swallow, House Martin and Swift the highlight being a pair of Common Sandpipers.
Butterflies: Meadow Brown, Skipper, Red Admiral
Bats: Pipistrelle
Dragonflies: Banded Damselfly, Common Damselfly, Red Darter, Four Spot Chaser.
Today's Total.
Miles: 11.0
Locks: 1
Swing / Lift Bridges: 0
Tunnels: 0
Pump Outs: 0
Engine Hours: 3.0
Solar Panels: 54 Ah
Locks: 1
Swing / Lift Bridges: 0
Tunnels: 0
Pump Outs: 0
Engine Hours: 3.0
Solar Panels: 54 Ah
Accumulated Total.
Miles: 2273.3
Locks: 1428
Swing / Lift Bridges: 302
Tunnels: 48
Pump Outs: 23
Engine Hours: 3223.9
Solar Panels: 22001 Ah
Miles: 2273.3
Locks: 1428
Swing / Lift Bridges: 302
Tunnels: 48
Pump Outs: 23
Engine Hours: 3223.9
Solar Panels: 22001 Ah