It was another cold, bright morning with a good coating of frost everywhere. Stephen got up quite late (for him) and we left the mooring at Stoke Prior around 7.30am. The frost meant there was to be no roof-walking for 2 or 3 hours and, as we were going downhill, this meant hauling Chyandour out of each lock.
Gwyneth emerged after only the first lock (having made cups of tea and fed the cat - yes, Susie is with us again!). We stopped at Hanbury for coffee and then had lunch at Tibberton before starting down Otherton lock flight. As we had done reasonably well, we decided to try to get to Worcester so we could have a full day there tomorrow.
The weather was again fine for working locks, dry and sunny, although the North-east wind picked up during the day and ended up quite a bit stronger than yesterday.
We crossed paths with another couple from BCF (Michael & Janet Jefferies) in their boat Shekinah who were in the process of traversing the Droitwich Ring. Apart from them there was next to nothing coming up, so there had to be a lot of lock filling!
We had invaluable assistance from a very nice man at Diglis. He is a continuous cruiser and was moored there in the basin. He had been helping folk through the locks if he was around, and proceeded to do that for us. Whilst we worked the top lock he set the river lock and then closed the bottom gates of both. This was especially helpful to Gwyneth as the gates are so heavy.
Stephen took Chyandour out downstream into the fairly strong flow of the river which, together with the wind, meant picking up speed quite quickly. He steered down into the lock channel so that he could wind in the lee of the island and come back upstream to collect Gwyneth from the lock landing.
Upstream was slow against the flow and the wind but we arrived at the visitor moorings by the railway bridge just before 6.00pm.
An evening walk into Worcester with a meal at The Crown (Wetherspoons) rounded off a purposeful day.
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