Goodbye to Little Nell (for now)

After a few frustrating days, when everything that could go wrong did go wrong, Little Nell was finally loaded onto a trailer to be taken to a boatyard at Semington in Wiltshire, where she will hopefully find someone to love her as much as we do.

It seems an appropriate moment to revisit some of the trips we had on her.

We bought Little Nell over 13 years ago from Chirk Marina. She had to be taken out of the water and trailed to Tewkesbury and then sailed to her mooring in Gloucester.

She was first moored at Quedgeley on the banks of the Gloucester Sharpness canal...a not altogether pleasant experience as the new, very expensive outboard that we had on her was stolen within the first few weeks.

We have taken Little Nell along the River Severn, cruised the River Avon and Stratford canals (we completed the Avon Ring in 9 days one year by cruising and working locks from 6:00 to 20:00 every day). We have completed the Worcester and Birmingham canal and some of the Brimingham Canals Network. We've been along the Staffs and Worcester canal well past Bratch triple staircase locks and detoured to do some of the Grand Union canal. We've also completed the Stourbridge canal. She did us proud.

In the course of this, we have completed Tardebigge locks, a flight of 30 narrow locks, several times and the final time I managed the whole lot on my own in 3.5 hours!! We also conquered the Stourbridge flight, Black
Delph and another long flight on the Stratford canal. I always did the locks while Rod steered! We also negotiated some very long tunnels such as Netherton , Wast Hill and Tardebigge.

The final couple of years on other canals were not so much fun. The wet summers meant the rivers were in flood or flowing very quickly and it got scary at times. The River Avon flooded unexpectedly and we got stuck several times for days and only got as far as Evesham in 10 Days.

So with Rod's balance and walking problems and my deteriorating health, we decided to stay on the Sharpness canal for future holidays.

Little Nell at Quedgeley