Destination Droitwich 2014

Bratch

April 2014

We are finally on our way, the first real trip of 2014 en route to the St Richards Festival in Doritwich.

We are making a slow run down the Staffs and Worcester and out onto the Rover Severn before climbing up into Droitwich via the Barge Canal. Six days to do what can be a three day trip.

Wild Garlic and an interesting Cratch Board

Saturday was a bit of a write off in cruising terms as we had to sort ourselves out after the wedding in Scotland and then back for a three day festival plus cooking utensils for the nettle cordial, wild garlic jelly and red onion marmalade to be made as we travel. Safe to say the car was at its limits and the boat in riding an inch down along its length.

The Bratch

In the event we moved maybe three miles to Coven in the howling wing and settled down for a quiet night in a shallow cutting whilst the storm blew itself out.

Sunday suffered from a terrible weather forecast, heavy and unrelenting rain from noon onwards. To take full advantage of the good weather we set of at.... 11.00am! However, whilst the shy was very Black over Bills Mother's to the east it never did more than a couple of light showers which hade the sight of dripping crews coming uphill all the more remarkable. Our heating fuel is a bit low and I was delighted to chance upon a big pile of sawn 2x4 offcuts - plenty for a few evenings fires.

The Bratch Geyser

As you can imagine, I am a bit of a Butty field at the moment, gathering ideas for Montgomery which will be complete in a couple of weeks. First task will be to prepare the hold and cratch to make it watertight with temporary sheeting.

Plan one was to get to Compton but this stretched to Dimmingsdale and then to Bratch. In the event we carried on to Botterham when the charmed dry weather did ebb and we moored just as a terrific storm hit and drummed on the roof for a couple of hours. With the raindrops growing in size and frequency I did the bad thing and moored the front rope on the last of the lock bollards with the stern in the stinging nettles. Not that there has been any significant traffic on the Staffs and Worcester.