The plan was to start off early and get to Hempstead bridge about 8 o’clock as they come on duty, then make an early start up the river. The plan was foiled on two counts. Firstly we didn’t get out of bed on time! Secondly Llanthony bridge doesn’t open until 9:00 to allow all the foot traffic to get to work etc. But we started going down the lock shortly after 9:00. The lockie told us that tne previous evening’s high tide had brought down various tree trunks etc and to be careful. We did encounter a few. He also said that another high tide was due in two hours. The flow up the parting was quite strong, and with quite a bit of engine revs on we were only doing just over 3mph. But later in the main river, with the rising tide behind us we were zipping along at 6mph. The trip up river was pleasant in the warm sunshine, but fairly uneventful and we reached Worcester just after 4 o’clock. There was no room on the river pontoons so we came up the two wide locks to tne visitor’s moorings by the basin.