Bank Holiday Chill-out

Yesterday and today - Moored West of Sedgley's Bridge (9), Market Harbro' Arm

So the bank holiday has come and gone, and we chose a delightful spot to spend it. Half way along the arm, very quiet apart from the A6 softly moaning in the background. Actually, quite a few boats have been up and down over the weekend, of course Canaltime have a large number of 'shareit' boats down there in the basin.

The zip never did get done, well there was so much to do here, like total relaxation, and that takes time! We will leave that to AJ in Braunston to sort for us with some 'anti Lucy' zips.

I think we will probably move off tomorrow, Chas and Ann and NB Moore 2 Life are just a day or so away, so we won't be going too fast to allow them to catch up. We have been really looking forward to seeing them again since we last said goodbye back in May at Braunston.

Ah well, short little post tonight, must get back to this relaxing stuff!

The Family visit on the Flooded Soar

Mon 23rd - Barrow upon Soar to Hope and Anchor Bridge (19), River Soar, 6 miles 5 locks
Tue 24th - Hope and Anchor Bridge to Blue Bank Lock (37), River Soar, 9 miles 9 locks
Wed 25th - Blue Bank Lock to Foxton, GU Leicester Section, 16 miles 21 locks
Thu 26th - Foxton to Market Harbro' then Market Harboro' back to West of Sedgley's Bridge (9), Market Harbro' Arm, 3.5 miles 0 locks
Fri 27th - Moored West of Sedgley's Bridge (9), Market Harbro' Arm
Today - Moored West of Sedgley's Bridge (9), Market Harbro' Arm

A few days spent with the family, and no chance on getting to this blogger!

We set off after a lazy morning and had just dropped down the first lock when we were asked for a tow from a broken down narrowboat. I wasn't overly happy, only for the reason that the Soar was definately in flood, and I didn't want to overheat the engine, but the rest of my now expanded 'crew' overruled the skipper, so we braced up and set off for Silby Bridge Boatyard. It was very hard going, and I did have to push the engine far more than I wanted to, at one point only just moving as we punched upstream. It took well over 2 hours to cover the 2.5 miles with just Mountsorrel lock to negotiate.

After 'dropping' the stricken boat off at the boatyard we then had to get across the river to Silby Lock with the wier overflow extremely vicious. Quite a frightening moment with the front end of the boat suddenly caught in the flow and trying to swing the boat back downstream. I had to take some paint off by steering straight for the concrete on the other side to stop the swing, and quite a bump it was too, all in the pouring rain!

What with the rain still coming down, the stressful towing and not been fully recovered from the 'night before' decided to stop at the Hope and Anchor for the evening.

Was just perfect for the kids, a play area and the 'kids' grub at the pub they really enjoyed.

On Tuesday we spent a relaxing morning before setting off planning to moor in Leicester that evening, but it was miserable weather and Leicester showed a few of its drop outs and drunks so we carried on through and settled for a quite mooring just short of Blue Bank Lock. The river was certainly high, a good 6-9 inches above the red, but I had been phoning BW constantly at Newark for updates, and got back "Yes it's ok, just there is a bit of water about" You can say that again BW! Leicester towpaths were under water and bridge clearances not that clever.

Having gone through Leicester we now had decisions to make, a long day on Wednesday to catch a train back to Barrow to fetch the car for families' departure on the Thursday, or a short one and lots of buses to have to catch. I didn't mind either, so left it to them to decide on the longer option. Dan enjoyed the locking very much and he and Wends took turns between locking and entertaining the youngsters. We eventually tied up at Foxton about 7pm planning to go to Market Harbro' the following morning. Dan and Wends went over to the pub for a meal down the hill at Foxton, can only presume it's the Shoulder of Mutton, and came back with "You really must go there on your way back Mum, the food is out of this world", so there is a good recommendation for all you boaters out there.

Moving on down to Market Harboro' the following morning, we sent Dan off to the station having checked train times on qjump.co.uk, an excellent site by the way, and I took the children off to explore the basin while Wendie did the packing. It was great to see them all again, and this time I felt that the total bond was there between me and my 15mth old Granddaughter, it's difficult when you don't see the little ones often, but she was much happier and confident with her Grandma this time.

Fighting back the emotions, we waved them off, did the services and turned the boat to head for a quiet mooring out of the way of the normal busy traffic on a bank holiday weekend.

Yesterday I spent the entire day wandering around half of Leicestershire trying to change my new data card for my internet connection which was faulty, ending up in Loughborough...... not a nice day, 9 hours it took in all, bike, buses, trains and of course a lot of shanky's pony involved, but it's sorted now I hope!

Today we are doing what we like to do, just relaxing, catching up with this blog, I'll do a bit of fishing later I expect, oh and there is that darn cratch cover to fix at sometime, the zips need re-doing after Lucy managed to burst through the cover in her excitement to get off the boat and she has done in both sides..... oh well I think fishing has the priority, and anyway the sun has just come out.

On through Loughborough to Barrow Upon Soar

21st - Kegworth to Barrow upon Soar, 9.5 miles 5 locks
Today - Moored Barrow upon Soar

I had forgotten how beautiful the River Soar was, my last visit was in the 70's, when the river flooded overnight. My memories of that make me smile, a narrowboat was seen the next morning in a field astride a cow trough, and I remember a narrowboat being half over a weir. My memory takes me back to that day, it was very difficult to navigate through the 'fields' trying to steer a course between trees just guessing the way.

It's all very different now with boats put on stop at various traffic lights and flood locks, and the wiers have booms across, much the better way to do things!

I phoned BW yesterday morning just to see all was safe to travel on, and yes, no flood gates had been closed, and continue with care was the reply.

A lovely trip down to Barrow yesterday, the sun was warm and a welcome too after all the rain lately, certainly people we shared locks with were fed up with their 2 week holiday, having had a soaking most days.

It had been a long time since we had seen any hire boats too, way back on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal I think, and for sure it was much busier with boats now we had turned on to the 'Leicester Ring'

This morning we busily tidied around and Kiera and I made some cakes ready for Mum and Dad and her little sister to arrive.

Now they are all aboard, it's going to be very hard to keep ship shape I think this week

Trent to Soar, and still it rains!

19th - Holme Pierrepont Lock to Nottingham, River Trent and Nottingham Canal, 4miles 1 lock Today - Nottingham to Kegworth Shallow Lock, Nottingham Canal, River Trent and River Soar 11 miles 5 locks

It was strange to come off the river after so long, and lock through the double normal sized lock on to the Nottingham Canal, not made any easier by a boater shutting one of the gates with his boat inside, its always very difficult to enter locks out of the stream of the river, let alone into a 7ft gap! No bump though, my past experience in the last two months paid off!

So, yesterday was spent mainly in Nottingham, the castle, the city and of course, with a 6 year old, McDonalds was must!

We planned to travel on to Trent Lock, but after picking up supplies at Sainsburys (gee expensive or what!) we had travelled no more than a few hundred yards when we were yelled at to stop. A tree had fallen across the canal, and yes there would be a wait, and hey do you know, you are boat number 10 to go through. It was about 4pm, so I decided to reverse back to a mooring outside Nottingham Marina and stay there the night.

Today it rained just about all day, and BW were back at the scene of the fallen tree the evening before, clearing the rest of the debris, but the 10 boats had gone, and we made our way along the final stretch of the river through the junction at Trent Lock and on to the Soar wondering if the rain was ever going to stop!

I really enjoyed the Trent, and was sorry to leave it after what seems ages since we joined it initially at Keadby, for sure I will be back, and anyway it was so wet I couldn't even take a pic of the Trent Lock junction, so I will HAVE to return!

We are moored at Kegworth Shallow Lock this evening feeling lucky that we managed to find a fairly safe place on the river with the water rising once again. It has risen a foot since we have been moored, I wonder if we will get 'stuck' on the Soar now!

Magnificant Trent

Farndon Marina to Holme Pierrepont Lock, River Trent, 17.5 miles 4 locks

Superb day today on the river, I think one either loves the Trent or hates it. I love it, it's so remote and open, today the wind was blowing warm in the sunshine and we hardly anyone, just a few boats on the river. The flow is still very strong, but just kept our engine reving at its usual canal rate, so progress was slow but very enjoyable.

It was great to phone ahead to let the lock keepers know we were arriving so locks were on a green light and ready on our arrival. The lock keepers have been so friendly on the Trent, huge locks that they are, taking craft up to 165ft long, our narrowboat has been always been made very welcome and just as importent as the huge craft that we have seen up and down the river.

We arrived at Holme Lock just as a thunderstorm erruped overhead, and locked through in the pouring rain tying up just beyond on the visitor moorings. And what a day it is to be here too, Kiera and I walked across to have a look at the canoe slalom course to see TV cameras and people being interviewed, finding out later that Helen Reeves, who won a bronze at the Olympics today, actually trains here. Tomorrow we shall have a good walk round, it really is a lovely place

Goodbye Newark

Newark to Farndon Marina, River Trent, 3 miles 1 lock

After over a week at Newark we finally were on our way again. We totally enjoyed our stay there and the BW people were excellent, updating us on water levels etc, wonderful people in that office at Newark!

Yesterday we had our Boat Safety Certificate given for another 4 years, No Problem had no problem passing with flying colours, not one thing wrong at all, we were very relieved. Four years is a long time between checks as they keep updating the 'rules', but we had already had some BSC work done on the boat when it was surveyed before we bought her. We did quite a lot of work at that time with safety stuff that the surveyor had found that wouldn't pass the next inspection.

I went off to London yesterday to meet daughter Wendie and to pick up granddaughter Kiera, who is spending some time with us at the back end of her school holidays. We spent most of this morning doing what grandmas do to granddaughters..... spoiling them!

This afternoon we left for Farndon Marina in all of a panic, when I realised that Vic was not on the front of the boat when he shoved off, and the back going away from the pontoon rather quickly in the flow of the water. I still had hold of the back rope thank goodness, and managed to drag the back in for him to jump on. The flow wanted to take the front end round downstream, so we had to work fast, phew he was on...... but oh no! There was Lucy still on the pontoon looking at us!!

So reversed back downstream before going back into the pontoon to pick her up. Now we were ALL aboard!

The flow against was quite fast and we made slow progress to Farndon Marina, glad really to just do a few miles, I was shattered after a days travelling yesterday and a day today with a 6 year old.

River Trent Floods

Moored Newark, River Trent

Well we are still here at Newark with the Trent in flood further upstream. The flood gates have been closed, and crews have been told to stay put for a few days.

BW have been very good, and have allowed us to stay on the pontoon mooring here until Tuesday. I am going down to London on Monday to pick up granddaughter Kiera who is coming to stay for a week.

We have arranged for our Boat Safety Inspection to be done here while we are waiting. Newark is a lovely place, I am so glad that we are 'stuck' here

Rain, rain and More Rain at Newark

Moored at Newark Town, River Trent

We woke up to rain, torrential rain, and I write this blog with the rain still pouring down. Collected the post from Post Office, and a disc full of lovely photos from Chas and Ann. Here is one of my favourites of their new boat, themselves and little Ally who died just a few weeks ago.

Lucy and I got soaked even though we waited in the town for the rain to ease, after half an hour decided to get a cold shower eak!. The main road ended up river like. Moved over to the other side of the river to the BW moorings which are on pontoons that rise and fall with the river levels. We are on our own water point, and there are electric hook ups here, so we won't have to keep running the engine. Just going to ride out this storm here in Newark, then check the state of the Trent re flooding before moving on.

Hottest Day of the Year at Newark

Newark Nether Lock to Newark Town, River Trent 1 mile 1 lock

Had a relaxing morning before moving down to Newark to get some supplies and some lovely meat and potato pies from Morrisons. Didn't take any photos today, so here is one from yesterday of Cromwell Lock, it is really well kept by the lock keeper and a huge lock.

Lucky enough to moor on the left before town bridge here in Newark, Morrisons is only just across the road from the visitor mooring, tis a long walk if you have to moor the other side of the river!

Phew it has been so hot today, made us extremely lazy. Off for a couple of pints on the floating bar moored just up from us. We will stay here the night, Chas has sent some photos of his travels, and will pick them up from the Post Office in the morning before moving down to Farndon Marina to check out this alternator. Has been working OK today, so maybe it was just a wire loose, hope so!

Superb River Trent, but not our day today

6th Aug - Torksey Lock to Cromwell Lock, 16 miles 1 lock - Today - Cromwell Lock to Newark Nether Lock, River Trent 4.5 miles 0 locks

Yesterday went down as one of the best most enjoyable days that we can ever remember. The sun was warm, we left Torksey with the incoming tide, very gentle flow, and we got almost to Cromwell when the flow started going against us. The scenery along the Trent is absolutely fabulous.

Moored below Cromwell Lock, it was very busy and we had to moor against a very high wall, having to climb the ladders to get ashore. This posed a problem for poor Lucy, well trained as she is, I forgot to teach her how to use ladders in walls! So we got her harness out, tied a rope to it and hauled her up the wall......... she didnt go much on it to be honest, and hated even more the return trip down!

We were going to stay at Cromwell today, its a beautiful place, so peaceful, not a sound only the birds. Not really being able to find somewhere else suitable to moor with all the cruisers around decided to move on to Newark.

Change of plan again, when suddenly our ignition light came on... Oh no, not another alternator gone. So I phoned a marina ahead, and arranged for a mooring this evening.

We arrived at Newark Nether Lock, and a green light there let us enter the lock. Bad news from the lock keeper, one of the bottom gates wouldn't shut, so we waited an hour in the lock while a BW engineer did what he could, but a pump had broken, and yes we could back out to the visitor moorings because it looked like a 4 hour wait. We had stopped the engine in the lock, and when I fired it up again, hey presto our alternator was working again! Vic had had a fiddle, as men do, with the wiring round the alternator. I wonder if it's just a loose wire? Phoned the marina, told them we would arrive on Monday if all was ok, and we stayed put at Nether Lock to do some relaxing. Certainly hasn't been our day today! Biggest perch I have ever caught this afternoon, a smidge under 2lbs, landed with Vic's help

Sliding Railway Bridges and the Mighty Trent

4th Aug - Maud's Swing Bridge to Keadby, South Yorkshire Navigations, 8 miles 0 locks - Today - Keadby to Torksey Lock, River Trent 29 miles 1 lock

I totally enjoyed the remoteness of yesterdays 8 miles, the only company was a railway line and a few brave fishermen who had walked miles to find their ideal spot. Quite a few swing bridges, all operated with a BW key bar one of them. The land was flat, and you could see for miles with just the odd farm or two in the distance. A most interesting point was this sliding railway swing bridge just before reaching Keadby.

It was built in 1915, and is thought to be one of only three of its kind in Europe. Winches slide the bridge deck sideways to clear the canal, and wire cables and pullies put it back in place after the boats have passed.

We moored at Keadby, and after tea sought out the nearest watering hole to raise our spirits for the big day to come.

Early start for me this morning, seeing the lock keeper at 8am, and by 9am we were on our way down the mighty Trent. Much bigger than the Ouse or the Thames, so were the coasters up from the Humber and North Sea! This was our view as we left the lock at Keadby

Now I thought the Ouse was a fast river, but now I know different, the Trent is very quick. Up with the tide we went, a spring one too. I learnt quickly how to negotiate the bends at cracking speed, at times the boat lurched under the pressure, I sure could have done with some camber on the river!

Passing through Gainsborough and round hairpin bends at a speed of probably 15-20mph by Vic's reckoning was certainly a thrill probably never to be repeated!

We managed to get hold of a Sissions Chart of the Trent, excellent information, landmarks, shoals and which arches to take under bridges. Makes things a lot easier when you know where TO go and where NOT TO go. Suddenly we were at Torksey, and still the tide was running up river. We covered the 29 miles in 2 hours 55 mins, it doesn't take much working out the average speed!

Relaxing afternoon here at Torksey, the sun has come out and it's lovely and warm. Tomorrow we catch the incoming tide again at 12.30pm for the last stage of the tidal Trent up to Cromwell Lock and from there make our way to Nottingham with a few days moored up somewhere in between.

A New Fishing Rod and Lots of Rain

Bramwith Lock to Maud's Swing Bridge, South Yorkshire Navigations, 6.75 miles 2 locks

Moved on today towards Keadby.

Met a fisherman boater yesterday, and after a long chat about carbon fibre poles, he knocked the door this morning and gave me one of his poles. He had rigged up a line and float for it too, so I am now the proud owner of a new fishing rod!

It was a very muggy day with rain and thunder on and off all day, but we managed to miss most of it. Stopped for a couple of hours at Thorne to do the laundrette at Stanilands Marina, and into the little town for supplies. The laundrettes at these boatyards are great. No lugging laundry through towns, and they are always so much cheaper, half the price in fact than normal laundrettes.

Quiet day today. Had a quick practice fish with my new aquisition before the rain set in for the evening. Hopefully try again tomorrow

Rude awakenings, Lock Dives and BW Keys

Pollington to Bramwith Lock, Aire & Calder Navigation, New Junction Canal and Sheffield & South Yorkshire Navigations, 8 miles 2 locks

A rude awakening this morning about 5.30am when a huge barge went past rather fast, I thought the boat was going to end up on the towpath, and no sooner had gone back to sleep than another one past. After a further pair, we decided to get up!!

Waited for the Tesco order, and went to collect post from the village Post Office before moving up to Pollington Lock where we had to wait for an hour or so while they were replacing a sluice arm.

It's surprising what comes up a ladder sometimes

The lock here was huge, with three chambers, on this occassion they used all three to lock us through because of the work that was going on there I presume. The lock has three chambers so the lock keeper can use just one chamber to lock small boats down a great saving in water.

Turned off the Aire & Calder on to the New Junction Canal, built in 1903, one of the last canals to be built, and it is dead straight for 5.5 miles. Vic is enjoying all the 'put the key in' jobs of lift, swivel bridges and the locks, I needed to remind him that when we get back down south its back to the ol' windlass again, to which he said something that I can't put in this blog!

We enjoyed the run through to here, the sun was warm and the going easy

Country Show and heading for The Trent

30th and 31st July - Moored at Castleford - Today - Castleford to Pollington, Aire & Calder Navigation, 14.5 miles 4 locks

On Friday I went into Castleford to check on the bus routes to the Yorkshire Country Show, and also to stock up on meat for the freezer. I found a large indoor market with plenty of butchers to choose from, and had a long brouse round before returning. Spent a lovely afternoon fishing and caught quite a few including a chub which weighed 1lb 3oz and another smaller one. I have only ever caught one chub before. I was surprised the fishing was so good with all the heavy river traffic going up and down.

We enjoyed the show very much the following day, sheep dog demonstrations was Lucy's favourite to watch, and you could almost see in her face that she wanted a go at herding the ducks, used for the demonstration, in and out of the various gates. The guy had won 'One Man and his Dog' and it was a pleasure to see how he worked with his dogs. We watched falconry, gun dog and dogs working with hawks. Also we saw the County Mounted Games Championship, with a very good team from Warwickshire winning. This brought back memories as Wendie was in the Hampshire Team for this event. Horseball was also an event in the main arena, played with a football in a sort of string harness, 4 riders and horses a side, and the hardest bit was picking it off the floor, some skill sure was involved in that!

Managed to buy ourselves some 'muckers' - hooray, the ones we had were just about worn out after 8 years, and we got them at a very good price too!

Last night when we returned we collected a Tesco delivery, but so many errors in the order I had to do another one for delivery here tomorrow morning, hope it isn't from the same outlet!

Today we left Castleford, and started to head in the direction of the River Trent. The Aire & Calder Navigation is very wide indeed, probably needs to be with these huge barges up and down from Goole.

It was nice to actually see the countryside again after being hemmed in by high banks on the rivers of late. The Kellingley Colliery is absolutely huge and is obviously still distributing coal in a big way, we counted over 100 rail wagons in the sidings there, pity none is taken by canal now though.

The weather this morning was very cold and damp, and we were wearing jumpers and coats, but this afternoon it has been very sunny, and very warm, and STILL the fishing is good!