THE RIVER AVON

On the 29th July we each paid £50 for a 2 week licence to cruise down the R. Avon as our BW canal licence is not valid on the privately owned Avon. It was a lovely day when we set off cruising with the flow of water making it`s way to the R. Severn at Tewkesbury and in the picture below is Bidford bridge and just through the bridge our first overnight mooring.

Andy/Tina on `Ytene` were in front and had moored by the time i arrived so i went through the bridge and moored alongside them waiting for John on `Tui`. Now if you enlarge the picture you can see on the left arch 2 arrows showing the navigable channell, the red no entry on the centre arch was not in place at this time as i took the picture on my way back but even so i think it is plain for all but an idiotic moron not to be aware of which arch to use.
In the picture below that i took as i went through the arrows are plain to see and no i`am not heading for the second arch just following the approach to the left arch avoiding some reeds on my left.


Below is the picture i took as Andy and i were making our way back through the bridge to attempt to rescue a thick stupid boater of below average intelligence who decided the centre
arch would be nice to cruise through, oh did i mention it was John on `Tui` and as you can see he is well and truly aground as the water under all the arches except the marked navigable one is only about 12 inches deep.
So off we set Andy and I to try and pull him back but as the pictures tell the story going through the arch and trying to get in position was not helped by the flow of water coming towards us and i ended up well and truly aground as you can see in the picture below taken on the other side of the bridge.
Andy went back and got his boat and came through the arch to try and push my stern into deeper water in the hope i might reverse away but the flow was to great and his boat just lacking
the power and in the picture above no matter what revs i used it was not gonna move. Perhaps in some of the pictures you can see a muppet or even John sitting on the back of his boat with not a care in the world and at one stage drinking a cup of tea so i shouted across and i won`t print here what words i used but the general idea was he should phone a boatyard and get some help.
Above and below are pictures of a Dutch barge that arrived from a nearby yard to sort things out but even he had trouble even with his powerful engine and it wasn`t until 4 local lads walked along my boat and standing knee deep in the river used lengths of timber to lever the front off the river bed so that the Dutch barge could push the back end without the front going more aground. It worked and as the rear of my boat was pushed into deep water i was able to reverse.
He then pulled John out of the bridge arch.
Alls well that ends well i hear you say, i only wish it was because on mooring up my engine was not sounding to good. To cut the story short it appears that the excessive revving of my engine had damaged the piston rings and with engine removal, gaskets, labour etc i ended up with a bill of £1003.
I suppose you must be thinking John must have been beside himself with all the trouble he had caused but you `d be wrong, no thanks for attempting to help him, no asking what the engineer had said after listening to the engine in fact he never said a word but disapeared into his boat when Andy who at the time was standing next to me told him it was something serious, nice bloke eh well it was then and there i decided no longer would i be cruising with him but i needn`t have worried because the following day when Andy & Tina were leaving to attend to some business in Evesham that he decided he was going to head back to London and that was what he did no goodbye or thanks no hope all goes well with the repairs he just left. Well John if you or one of your mates read the blog GOOD RIDDANCE your an ar.....e.
So after getting the repairs done i had been at Bidford 13 days after waiting 3 days for the engineer to find a time slot to start and with parts ordered from Holland and other complications i was ready to leave and catch up with Andy/Tina who had returned to Stratford on Avon as we had decided not to carry on with the planned trip to Gloucester as the heavy rain had caused the Rivers Avon and Severn to run fast.
In the picture below is the reason i ended up stuck at Bidford for an extra 2 days, the Avon rose 2` flooding the mooring. So all in all our trip on the Avon has been a nightmare and as i write this i`m back in the Basin at Stratford so just this once the blog is not of past cruising but bang up to date i`m here now but not for long.

Although i`m the sort of person who would always try and help anyone with a problem of any sort i think in future i`ll just take a step back and give the matter some thought.