Wolverley - Dimmingsdale

Captains Log Canal Date 28th August 2009 Travels 16 Miles 17 Narrow lock 2 Staircase Locks Current Location Dimmingsdale Near Womborne (No Pub!!!!!!!!!) OS REF SO 859 961 Lat Long 52 33 46.9N 2 12 31.2W We set sail on Thursday morning with every intention of making the voyage from Wolverley to Dimmingsdale in one trip. We had to stop at Kinver to get some help from Wilsons. That should only take 5 minutes. We were told to come back in an hour so we went to a local pub for a quick lunch. The quick lunch took just less than an hour to arrive, this was followed by a quick shopping run in the town, and this also took about an hour. So you can see my time estimate was slipping backwards. Just to make things even worse there was a queue at every lock. We stopped at a service point and refilled the water and emptied the poo tank. This took the best part of another hour! We soldiered on regardless. By 19.30 we were still several hours short of our destination so we started to look for a suitable mooring for the night. This is not usually a problem but we did need to be by a road as Glyn & Rosemary were coming to visit us and deliver our mail. At each road bridge was lined with moored boats! We eventually found a suitable location. This was by far the longest time we have travel on Daddy Cook so far. After a good nights sleep we set off to complete the last leg of the journey. It should not take more than a couple of hours. With this in mind we set off at the crack of dawn (about 11.30) and soon ran into the same traffic as before. Each lock had a queue. Still not far to go. When we arrived at Botterham Staircase lock we noted several BW vans and a posse of workers all looking into the top lock. I would appear that the paddle gear had failed and needed repairing. We were assured that this will not take long. 2 hours later we were moving again! When we set off the sun was shining, by now it was pouring with rain and little Pam was soaked (Shame) We eventually arrived at our intended destination 24-hours later than predicted. I think I need more training in this boating malarkey! This is a nice location and for a long time now we are nowhere near a pub. I am hoping to remain here until late September when we shall embark on our next world cruise. This time we are looking at Llangollen.