Lyra's Travels

She seems stuck

Bridge keepers cottage with Doric columns

Before leaving sharpness this morning we decided to take a walk along the edge of the marina to the bank of the Severn. To our amazement we found The Balmoral moored up alongside the old quay wall near to the disused original lock into the docks. She was taking on passengers for a day trip.

The fun started as she set off. The tide was running quite strongly as she let here stern rope go, but instead of reversing hard out into the stream it looked as if the bow rope was either too tight to undo or they were just a little slow in letting it go. The tide flow took the stern and started to swing it quickly and she seemed unable to reverse off the quay wall and was carried along until she dropped an anchor to stop her bow from moving any closer to what looked like rocky shoreline. Finally she was brought to halt, it looked like she might be beached with the tide running out quickly. The anchor was raised and the captain asked all the passengers to move to the back of the boat allowing the front to get a bit higher. Full reverse then managed to pull here clear with a tremendous cheer and clapping from the passengers on board and from all of us watching from the shore.

With that little drama over we returned to the boat and set off along the canal intending to stop around Saul junction for the night. On the way we stopped to pick blackberries from bushes on the off side where most people can't get at them. The pickings were great and in not too much time I got about 1 and ½ lbs. We'll start making jam soon!