Winsome at Saul Junction

The Saul Canal Trust is keen for us to bring Winsome to their 2007 festival at the end of June. Understandably, they were anxious to check the boat out first from a safety point of view, given that we are keen to encourage members of the public to try the boat out.
So, on Easter Monday, we took the boat to Saul junction on the Gloucester and Sharpness canal to let the festival organisers try her out.

Saul is a lovely spot, the canal is surprisingly wide and the sight of interesting passing boats instantly gives the keen Winsomer a hankering to get on the water and go places – upstream to Gloucester docks or downstream to Slimbridge and Sharpness.

First of all, we gave a number of Canal Trust members a go in the boat. They were all narrow boat owners but seemed enthusiastic about the different, more flexible and slightly more active experience which Winsome offers even a seasoned narrow boat owner. The comfort of Nick’s reclining seats and the touch sensitive tiller attracted particular praise!

Promising to return later, we then set off downstream to Slimbridge where we had been promised we would find ‘The Black Barn’ café.



There are numerous bridges over the canal with operators on duty and a red/green traffic light system in operation. It transpired that the system was for powered boats only and we discovered that the operators tended to ignore us in the hopes (probably) that we could squeeze under the bridges without the hassle of them opening them. Fortunately, we found that this was indeed the case although squeeze was an apposite term – we developed a technique of pedalling fast up to the bridge with the crew trustfully relying on the helmswoman shouting “DUCK” just before his head hit the oncoming bridge. We both then slid down in our (very comfortable) reclining seats until our heads were just above the gunwale and shot the bridge in impressive fashion (continuing to pedal risked banging our knees!).

Apart from shooting bridges, much of the interest (to us anyway) on this canal was the other boats, including huge commercial barges.

After 50 minutes, we arrived at the Black Barn café and moored alongside and purchased a welcome cup of tea and sausage roll. The photo shows the skipper consuming the same.




The return trip to Saul passed without incident. The GPS showed Winsome travelling significantly faster (when we pedalled at our ‘normal’ cruising speed) than on our considerably narrower and shallower home waters. We had noted this effect on Lake Windermere previously. The Mon & Brec canal is only 4 foot deep and very narrow and one can see (let alone feel) the volume of water which Winsome (and her pedallers) have to displace in order to move along.

After providing more Canal Trust members with go’s in Winsome, we reluctantly took the boat out to go home. But our appetites are now whetted for a passage to Gloucester docks – and even maybe linking through to the River Severn and up to Tewkesbury – an overnight passage beckons….