Many Meetings' 1,000th Lock!

Wednesday 13th August, 2014 in Tewkesbury.
M was not amused to be woken yet again at 5am by bickering seagulls! A dawn chorus of songbirds is a delight; a cacophony of raucous quarrelling gulls is most definitely not!
This week, there are exceptionally high tides that create the famous "Bore" in the Severn Estuary. When the tides are this high, the Severn between Gloucester and Tewkesbury becomes tidal. So we needed to be through the town lock and be on our way by 10am to catch the rising tide as we sailed upstream.
Two other boats shared the lock with us as we went down from the harbour basin on to the river.

As on our trip down, the Severn was very impressive - but quite monotonous as it is flanked by high banks, usually covered with trees, so that the views are limited.
Where the bank was not covered, we could see the dark water mark from the previous night's high tide some three feet above the normal river level.

The first couple of hours were relatively slow going against the river flow but as the tide started to rise the river flow stopped and then reversed - so that in the last hour we were being carried upstream at a very fast speed! After about four hours, we arrived at Upper Lode Lock, which qualifies as the largest lock we have ever done; it's absolutely huge. This picture is taken INSIDE the lock!

It was also memorable as it was the 1,000th lock that we have done with "Many Meetings" in the two years and ten months since she was launched!  Here she is leaving her milestone lock. Well done, old girl!

We decided to go back on to the Avon in Tewkesbury for the night as there are no good moorings on the Severn outside the town and we wanted to have another wander around the lovely town. We went through the Town Lock with a Dutch family on a hire boat who seemed to be having some problems sorting out their mooring ropes until helped by the lock keeper.
The town is delightful and the Abbey (now the parish church) is one of the most beautiful that we have seen. They had set up a mirror to make it easier to see the wonderful ceiling.

We had moored up next to the lock and the evening light cast a glow on MM (and her washing line!) as she celebrated achieving her 1,001st lock.

Today: 14 miles, 3 locks and 6.6 hours (power for two days).
Trip: 192 miles, 107 locks and 137.7 hours.
Since Launch: 1,474 miles, 1,001 locks and 1,174.6 hours.