Gloucester - Sharpness - Gloucester

After two overnight moorings on the River Severn Cleddau and crew had arrived in Gloucester Docks.Once errands had been completed, a few key locations had to be checked on: the Beatrix Potter house,  the Cathedral Green (key dates now shown on stone cubes) and Gloucester Cathedral with its superb ceilings, tracery and windows… There was a morning spent wrestling with a reluctant shower pump (the Captain) while Boatwif pootled across the wet dock side surfaces for a second dose of local exploration. The overnight rain had been very heavy and a rhyme came back to mind:Doctor Foster went to Gloucester  In a shower of rain.He stepped in a puddleRight up to his middleAnd never went there again.Despite the incessant rain some Gloucester places do still deserve a re-visit. The Mariners Chapel is always one of them. (Click on the link to read a brief history and back story).Around the docks are the splendid warehouses, restaurants and the National Waterways Museum. Under canvas over in a dry dock is the shrouded Kathleen and May. Does anyone remember her days of delivering coal and grain to North Quay opposite Pembroke Castle?The G and S is not shorthand for Gilbert and Sullivan but for the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal. It is a ship canal which allowed sea going vessels to deliver goods inland into Gloucester. Completed in 1827 the canal extends for 16 miles between the city and the old dock and the newer port (completed in 1874) at Sharpness. The canal is lock-free but crossed by 19 bridges, 5 of which are still hand cranked by a bridge keeper. Most of the bridges use traffic lights: red for a boat to stop, a flashing red to indicate that the bridge keeper is preparing to swing the bridge and green for go!Views from the canal at its northern end feature light industrial units,   old wharves, new housing, a large Sainsbury’s. Gradually the canal meets city suburbs. Some of the bridges are high and unmanned, some require contact with a bridge keeper.  A particular feature of the G and S are the small Neo-classical bridge-men's houses beside the bridges.Saul Junction, the midway point, is a busy spot.  Here is a large marina, a boat building yard, a school rowing club, two charity run trip boats, private and public moorings, a café and the Cotswold Canal’s Trust Visitor Centre and shop… There was a liaison to be made here – and in swirling high winds it took a monumental effort and the help of several other boaters to bring Cleddau alongside… Fellow Wash Crossers from 2014 , the Chouettes, helped with the mooring up before handing over home grown fruit and veg and a home baked cake. Tasty and delicious! After a splendid lunch at The Stables Cafe   there was an adjournment for tea and cake on board Chouette.   A great day (despite the squalls and the rain) was topped by news of the Cheshire One’s acceptance at her first choice university.The final 8 miles of the G and S become increasingly more scenic, hills to the east, the River Severn to the west. This was what the Cleddau crew had come to revisit – easy cruising, an eclectic variety of boats to see and outstanding views…On a narrow canal Cleddau can feel quite large – on the G and S she is towered over by larger vessels… The Edward Elgar holiday boat, here pulling in at Patch Bridge, very close to the Slimbridge Wetland Centre.The Willow Trust  charity boats from Saul Junction providing day trips for special needs groups Heading for Sharpness Port was a tug towing a larger tug with a small braking boat to help with the steering: On past Purton, where a sign notes the riverbank as a graveyard ….. Then to journey’s end, Sharpness, a remote place where light and tide, wind and water, space and sandbanks, reeds and rushes are endlessly fascinating.Sometimes there is the absolute sound of silence - though in a breeze the reeds might whisper and rustle.     Moored beside the low grey wall the changing state of the tide is observed by the amount of water visible below the Old Dock House… Sometimes the river is barely visible across the expanse of sand, mud and reeds. A silver band of water pushing upstream. Three yachts at the top of the tide one evening (from Lydney Yacht Club?) At low tide vast expanses of sand are revealed; the Captain recalls that (in 1957) a Bristol Britannia prototype made an emergency landing on the Severn sandbanks when an engine fire disabled the aircraft. (Picture and account here)A stroll from the estuary grey wall round to the Old Dock will provide a very special view. Diagonally opposite is Lydney Harbour, seen here at low tide. Downstream are the road bridges: the first Severn Bridge (opened in 1966) and a little further on is the Severn Crossing (opened in 1996). Can those graceful structures really convey huge volumes of traffic between England Wales each day… As the evening draws in seabirds squeal and wheel low over the river’s edges, the geese gather and depart for their evening’s roost while small birds twitter and squabble their way into the tall trees the other side of the canal.Unless you are brave (or brazen) enough to attempt the tidal Severn (did that in 2015)  Sharpness is the end of the line, in effect a cul-de-sac.The boat was winded on Sunday morning, with a first stop at Purton to walk beside the hulks. Since 1909 ships have been sunk in the river’s silt and sand to reinforce the canal bank.  Modern thinking would regard these now skeletal remains as a fine example of re-using and repurposing old hulls. But there is something atmospheric here, a place to pay respect to many mariners who have faced danger in their working lives… On from there to Frampton on Severn, for another glorious overnight mooring -   church one side  and a fine red sunset casting a pinkish glow over the Forest of Dean on the other side of the estuary. En route back to Gloucester there was a peek inside the bridge keeper's office at Saul Junction.  (Just look at that high desk and visualise Bob Cratchit ** standing there on Christmas Eve!) The bridge keeper uses CCTV cameras to monitor boat approaches from three different directions. The raised console on the left of the TV monitor are the "traffic light" controls. There had been a play for time while Gloucester Lock was closed for a day for engineers to conduct an underwater survey.  How satisfying it was, though, to arrive back in Gloucester Docks, to slide neatly (and undramatically) into a 70 foot mooring space. Many watching visitors were very impressed!Next time: Cleddau’s back catalogue of calamities while down on the G and SGloucester Docks - Sharpness - Gloucester Docks: 30¾ miles, 0 locks, 22 swing bridges2024 Totals: 385¼ miles, 12 tunnel passages, 196 locks, 30 swing bridges *2024 Monkton Moments* (Monkton Moment*- a reference to / recognition of Cleddau’s Pembrokeshire connections) – now 18 (“Is that a Pembrokeshire flag? I come from Cardigan…”)Tudor Rose enquiries: 2Footballs floating in the cut: 8Supermarket trolleys visible in the cut: 3Rescued: 1 garden gnome** Bob Cratchit, Scrooge's clerk in 'A Christmas Carol'