have done a couple of miles. You’re
limited to four miles an hour, so progress is
obviously a lot slower. But, as with any
boating, you get used to travelling at a
leisurely pace and get to enjoy the wildlife.
I spotted many different birds and even
saw a stoat swimming in the canal at
Chester.
Previously we’ve had a 3.3hp 2-stroke
engine, but I opted for a 5hp Honda
4-stroke so we could charge the lights,
radio and instruments. Because we were
going quite slowly the engine was just
above tick-over. We went all the way from
Rhyl to virtually the end of Shropshire
Union Canal on one 25-litre tank of petrol.
We had two 12-litre back-up tanks too. As
canal boats run on diesel it’s very hard to
find petrol. When I needed to refill, I had to
use petrol stations.
Just north of Wolverhampton, Sandra
returned to work and Anne rejoined
Scooby with a frozen chilli. We set off on
the Stafford and Worcester canal, which
was much smaller and narrower. There
were quite a few tight bits and places
where we had to pull aside to let
narrowboats past. Here, it was an
advantage being small and manoeuvrable,
but our main concern was that Scooby is a
glassfibre boat weighing 800kg, whereas
these canal boats are 10 tonnes or more
and made of steel. If we saw one coming,
we’d get out of its way. The canal itself is
typically 16ft wide but often it was narrower
where trees and bushes were overgrown.
I liked the variety of the inland waterways.
Sometimes we were in a narrow tree-lined
cutting and others we were on an
embankment looking down onto a valley.
We passed through lots of towns as well
as countryside; places such as
Kidderminster, where a lot of the derelict
buildings have been renovated and
suddenly become desirable.
Next it was the Stourport on Severn,
where river and canal traffic meet. The only
town in Britain to be made as a result of a
canal, it was here that exotic goods were
once brought from Bristol and Gloucester
to be exchanged with manufactured goods
from Birmingham and the Black Country.
The River Severn is a large, navigable
stretch of water, kept full by a series of
weirs with locks at the side to drop you
down. These are big, manned commercial
locks and you have to radio ahead so they
can get them ready. Once in the first lock,
the lock-keeper called ahead for us, which
worked really well. On the Severn, from
Stourport to Gloucester, we did 46 miles in
a day, which was good going, helped bythe flow of the river.
Worcester is a picturesque city, and it
was surprising how, once out on the river,
you don’t see much because it’s tree-lined.
We met lots of commercial traffic along this
stretch – big barges moving aggregate
and stone. We even passed a vessel that
looked like a floating hotel, similar to those
you find on the Rhine.Back out to sea
At Gloucester, Anne returned home and
Tony joined me for the second part of the
trip. The Gloucester Sharpness canal is
virtually as wide as the Manchester Ship
Canal. In days gone by they used to take
ships to Gloucester. There’s a big basin
where the warehouses have now been
converted into houses and offices; it has a
really vibrant feel to it.
As we had to wait 24 hours for the two
traffic bridges to open, we spent an
interesting morning in the National
Waterways Museum, then lifted Scooby’s
mast in preparation for the seaward leg.
Scooby was looking like a yacht once more.
What was surprising is that the bridge
operator travels ahead of you. So the guy
we met in Gloucester we then saw in
Sharpness. There were also operators on
each bridge. We left the last lock and
sailed out into the Bristol Channel – back
into salty water. Here, the challenge was to
get down through the majestic bridges
with 7 knots of tide under us. You can’t go
against the tide in a 20ft boat, so planning
ahead was essential. Had we encountered
a south-westerly against the tide it would
have been far too rough to go out, but
once committed in Sharpness lock, there’s
no turning back!
Fortunately, we had light to medium
easterly winds along the Bristol Channel,
and sailed all the way down to Barry. Here,
we took a mooring in the outer harbour,
which a contact from Rhyl had arrangedCRUISING
RESOURCES FOR NAVIGATION
Scooby was already equipped with
everything I needed – from flares and
lifebuoys to a VHF and handheld spare.
Whilst I don’t have chartplotter, I do
carry all the charts and pilot books,
and have the Navionics app on my
phone. It’s amazing – I’ve used it for
deliveries across the Irish Sea and it
still works offshore.
Navigating the inland waterways is
very straightforward, but I did find the
Collins Nicolson Waterways Guides
to be useful. These are the equivalent
of pilot books with OS-style maps,
featuring all the pubs and places you
might like to visit.
The Canals and Rivers Trust manages
the waterways. You can buy a key for
their buildings, which have toilets,
showers and waste facilities.BELOW Shropshire Union Canal in ChesterShropshire Union
Canal near SoudleyAnne Grace SFL Travel/Alamy