Off to Worcester

A 9:30am start after a good nights sleep in the Stourport Basin. It was generally overcast with the possibility of some showers as we headed down through the two staircase locks and on to the R. Severn. A little tricky getting the boat around and into the second staircase, it was on a funny angle, so it took a little bit of maneuvering to get Serafina into the top chamber.

The moorings on the river had mostly been vacant last night and and even today, room enough for at least six, maybe eight 57 foot boats. We waited at the bottom lock landing while NB Chartwell negotiated the locks and with both boats through the locks we moved out into the centre of the river where the current is strongest and headed downstream for a three hour trip to Worcester. It was an uneventful trip, Rachael enjoying not having to leave the boat to do any lock work. Three locks on our trip today, Rachael popping her head out of the cratch to secure the bow of the boat in the locks. Coming out of Holt Lock there was a heavy shower that lasted about fifteen minutes but that was the only rain we saw although, it remained quite cool on the back of the boat for the whole trip, the river banks acting like a wind tunnel.

Coming into Worcester, I spied the moorings near the racecourse, marked in our Pearson's Guide. I wouldn't recommend these unless you are desperate, they looked rather dilapidated. As we passed the racecourse there was another fair going on, must be the season! There were huge dragon kites flying over the fair.

A few hundred metres on an we ran into the middle of the Saturday rowing competition. We were asked to stop while the marshal tried to organise the rowers but after 10 minutes of 'fluffing' around and the rowers no further advanced we continued on to our mooring, right near the finishing line.

After tying up we headed into the city centre to have a look around. The streets were full of historical cars, street performers and tent stalls as well as street after street of the usual shops. This was only a sortie for the a more organised shopping trip on Sunday but with all the extra entertainment there was plenty to see.

We stumbled across the older part of Worcester, Friar Street in particular with houses and shops dating back over 700 years, there weren't too many straight beams among them.

We stumbled across Greyfriars, a National Trust house on Friar Street so being Australian National Trust members we took a look inside. This house was lived in until the 1980's when the National Trust took it over. The previous occupants had restored it to a reasonable state after many years of neglect.

Greyfriars rear

We finished our expedition with a coffee as the heavens opened up again, rain gone for the time being we made our way back to the boat. I managed to get a shot of the medieval Worcester Cathedral from the river, burial place of King John (Magna Carta).

On Sunday Rachael and Silvie took off around ten o'clock for their shopping fix. Michael and I headed in a different direction, we were heading on a four mile (6.4 km) round trip over to Halfords (car spares retailer) to pick up a drill pump. At the start of last cruising season I organised for diesel in Serafina to be cleaned or polished at a cost £325. (See Getting Serafina Ready to Cruise) I thought that was a good investment and the diesel was pristine on completion. By the end of the 2016 season the diesel was murky again with water sitting at the bottom of the tank, no diesel bug though! How was my £325 investment looking now! After doing some research I took the do-it-yourself 95% solution to rectify the problem, a £12 pump.

After drawing 5 litres of murky, watery diesel from the bottom of the tank I re-dipped my trusty clear tube and 'presto', gone! Well I'm guessing around 95% or at least enough that the diesel filtering system on the engine can manage.