SLOW AND STEADY

 

The Silk Mill

This describes being back on the canal, and us trying to kill time before heading up the Erewash at the end of August. CRT have agreed to assist boats who have bookings at Langley Mill boatyard up the affected part of the canal.

It’s slow and steady on the canal as the speed limit is 4mph, but you rarely achieve this, if ever. Going past moored boats is done at tick over which is a slow walking pace. The slow speed does allow you to take in the beautiful countryside and interesting sights along on the way. And there is no rushing at locks, they fill in their own time, and no pushing or pulling will open a gate before its ready.

We spent a few days on the pontoons, and were entertained by a group of teenagers who were doing water based activities at an outward bound facility opposite. There was much yelling and lots of laughter as they learned to canoe, and had a go on an enormous paddle board that held 6 of them in one go. It was fine until one person started to wobble, this caused everyone to lose their balance and in the water they all went. It looked great fun.

The river was busy the days we were moored, boats going in both directions, and boats came and went on the pontoon, but on our last morning we were ‘billy no mates’.

We decided to do a short hop to Shardlow and go for tea at the New Inn. There are 4 double locks between Trent Lock and Shardlow, 2 are flood locks which at this time of the year are open. The first lock, Sawley Lock is an electric lock and usually manned by lockees, as it was on this occasion.

The next lock is Derwent Mouth Lock, it is a deep long lock. I spotted a boat coming towards us, it was fifty/fifty whose lock it was, but as I decided as we were already there it was ours so I started to empty it. I was just opening the gate when the boat arrived at the lock landing and its crew came to give me a hand.

As I have said it was a long lock, and the Captain put a line on a bollard well away from the front gates, he used this to hold the boat there. After both me and my helper got the Captains ok we opened the gates paddles fully before turning our attention to the side paddles.

This is were I must explain that everyone has a different way of operating locks, the safest way, if you are not particularly experienced, or its a short lock were the front of the boat is near the front gates, is to opened the side paddles first, allowing the water to come in below the waterline until it’s above the gate paddles, and then open these, it stops water from the gate paddles possibly flooding the front of the boat, something we have seen happen.

As you can imagine with the amount of locks I have done in the last 16yrs, I know how to assess how best to do a lock, don’t get me wrong, you never stop learning, and things can go wrong.

However we had a couple of Gonegoozlers watching us, and one decided to lecture the crew from the other boat (she was on towpath side), on how dangerous the way we had operated the lock was. The other crew took no prisoners and informed her that we knew what we were doing, the boat was never in any danger, and that the Captain had given his permission.

After the Gonegoozler walked off we had a laugh, she was a live-aboard for 18yrs, and me 12yrs so I think we knew what we were doing. I know some will complain, that in writing about this I may encourage others to put themselves in danger, my advice is always to assess each situation yourself, taking in the conditions and your capabilities, and do what you think is best.

We were now on the Trent and Mersey canal.

We got good moorings in Shardlow, right outside the pub, and after a quiet afternoon we tried a pint in the Malt Shovel first, they stopped doing food on a Wednesday at 5pm, but the menu looked interesting.

https://www.maltshovelshardlowpub.co.uk/

Then on to the New Inn, we have eaten in here a few times and the food is always good, as is the beer, they have a decent selection of real ales on, and usually a dark for the Captain, Titanic Plum Porter this time. The food was excellent, so if you’re ever passing this way I would recommend giving it a try.

https://camra.org.uk/pubs/new-inn-shardlow-143269

We only stopped 1 night, before moving on to Swarkestone for the next night. There were 4 locks for me to do, at a couple of these we managed to share with other boats and met boats coming towards us. Sharing the double locks were you can is always good for water management, even more so now with the lack of water due to the dry summer we are having.

At the last lock we joined another boat. The Captain was new to boating and was taking a helmsman course on his brand new boat. The gentleman instructing him was doing the locks, so when I went up to help we did it ‘the right way’, side paddles first, wait for the water to rise, then the gate paddles. We had a chat and I told the story from the day before, and he kind of agreed with me and said he was showing his pupil the right way, but afterwards it was down to him how he did locks. Its a personal choice.

Sunset on the Trent and Mersey

After another quiet night we headed to Willington, only 1 lock today. A popular mooring spot as there are pubs, shops and a railway station in the village. It was quite busy but we found a spot not to far from the Dragon pub. After picking up a few bits from the Coop we had a pint in the Green Man, nice local pub with Murphys on for the Captain, and an interesting and reasonably priced food menu.

https://www.greenmanwillington.com/

Then onto the Dragon, more of a gastro pub, with a large beer garden right on the canal. They usually have a good selection of real ales, and the Captain was very happy with The Panther stout by Little Brewery. We sat in the garden and enjoyed the beer.

https://thedragonatwillington.co.uk/

https://www.littlebrewing.co.uk/

We decided to stay in Willington next day and took the bus into Derby. We visited the Silk Mill which is now the Museum of Making, a fascinating place steeped in history and well worth a visit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derby_Silk_Mill

We were going to visit Bess of Hardwicks tomb in Derby Cathedral, but there was a wedding on and we didn’t feel it was right to disturb the ceremony.

We nipped into the Standing Order for a quick one, I was hoping to see someone I knew and I wasn’t disappointed, as suddenly Ann Rhodes appeared, we had worked at Denby together for many years. It was great to catch up. After walking round Derby Museum, and seeing the Joseph Wright of Derby exhibition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Wright_of_Derby

A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrey by Joseph Wright

We stopped for a pint in the Tannery on Saddler Gate, a micropub belonging to the Ashover brewery, they had Stout Coffin by Church End brewery on, so the Captain was a very happy bunny.

https://ashoverbrew.co/pages/tap-rooms

He was even happier when we went to The Exeter Arms, this one belongs to Dancing Duck brewery, so of course it was Dark Drake in here, and Shiny lager for me from a brewery based in Little Eaton, we also had a most amazing meal in here. So a great end to a wonderful day.

Nom Nom

https://exeterarms.co.uk/

We left Willington next day and headed to Burton on Trent for a couple of days. But that’s for next time.

14 miles, 9 locks, 1 river the Trent and 1 canal the Trent and Mersey

DECISIONS DECISIONS

 

Who's a naughty boy

And that’s our problem at the moment. As we all know this summer has been very dry, and its playing havoc with the water levels on the canals.

We spent 5 days in Nottingham and had a great time, but it wasn’t really through choice, we were waiting for an update on the Erewash canal. This canal has been closed for many weeks, and we are due to go up to Langley Mill boatyard to be blacked at the beginning of September, but through the power of Facebook we found out that they have had a number of cancellations due to the closure.

We have decided that when the Erewash reopens we will see if we can bring our booking forward, but its just a waiting game, and we don’t want to travel to far only to have to rush back if everything falls in line. Which it probably won’t with our luck this year.

We did have a great time in Nottingham and visited a few pubs we hadn’t been in before as well as some of our old favourites. We went to the pictures, first time in many years to see Moana, it was great. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson played a wonderful Maui, the part he voiced in the original cartoon, and Catherine Laga’aia, as Moana in her first leading role was amazing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moana_(2026_film)

But the best place we visited was the National Justice Museum based in Nottingham’s Victorian courthouse and prison. There was so much to see, and a lady dressed as a female warder, gave a fascinating talk on capital punishment in the yard that housed the gallows used for execution. Sounds a bit grim I know but it was entertaining and informative. We spent a good few hours there and I think we still missed bits.

https://www.nationaljusticemuseum.org.uk/

Who's a naughty girl

New pubs we visited were The Salutation Inn, the Navigation, which is right on the lock, and Lillie Langtry’s near the Theatre Royal, and they all had a stout or porter on for the Captain, so happy days.

We still visited The Old Trip to Jerusalem and the Canal House well, we couldn’t miss them could we.

But after 5 days we had to move, we are used to moving every day, but this year its just seems to been about killing time. We made our way down to Beeston for the night and moored against a highish wall, I got off but it was a bit of a struggle to get back on, so we gave the pub a miss that night and planned to walk into Beeston the next day.

However it turned out we had a problem with our electric. As some of you might know boats run on 12volt batteries and use an inverter to convert 12volt into 240volt. Our electrical set up is amazing, we have 3 large solar panels, 2 lithium batteries and 1 lead acid starter battery. With this we can run, on 240volts, a freezer, electric kettle, air fryer, washing machine and a TV plus a few other bits. We charge the batteries 2 ways, solar obviously, but also by running the engine, so every time we move we top the batteries up, and we usually move every day or every other day. But with all the issues we have been having this year this hasn’t been the case, and we have been stopping for longer periods of time in one place. What we didn’t realise was that although the solar was putting power in, we were taking more out. The Captain usually keeps an eye on our usage, but on this occasion took his eye off the ball, and we were rudely wakened in the early hours of Saturday/Sunday to the low battery alarm going off. The only thing to stop it was to turn the inverter off and sort it out in the morning. By turning the inverter off it cut power to the freezer, which was worrying, but luckily for us the freezer was so full it would have taken hours and hours to defrost. In the morning we ran the engine (after 8am) for a good couple of hours which meant we could switch the inverter back on. I checked the freezer and everything was fine.

Now the issue was that we were moored in the shade with overhanging willow trees, and this has been true in quite a few places which didn’t allow the solar panels to take full advantage of the sun. The decision (there’s that word again) was to give Beeston a miss, and make for Trent Lock and the pontoons there which have no over hanging trees. The run would also help with the batteries, the Captain decided to leave it until early afternoon, in the hope that anyone out for the weekend would have vacated the pontoons to go home. It was a very windy journey with gusts of 32mph making waves on the water, only 2 locks for me to do but it took a good few hours.

We managed to get a spot on the pontoons but it was on the inside, which meant the Captain had to reverse the boat in, with a manoeuvre that could go very well, or very wrong. Well because of his expertise he did it very well, and the boater moored on the outside of the pontoon who came out to help congratulated him on his skill. Well deserved of course.

Veiw from the pub

We headed to the pub, The Steamboat, and told Simon the owner all our woes and had a couple of pints.

So we are here on the pontoons, the batteries have recovered, but I am still going easy on the using things like the electric kettle and air fryer, and I really don’t know where or what we are going to do next. We could head up the Trent and Mersey to Burton. I just don’t know. :(

Just an update, we have spoken in Vikki at Langley Mill and at this present time she doesnt have a slot for us any sooner than our original booking. The Erewash is still closed but when it does reopen we will ask again.

10 miles 2 locks, 1 canal the Nottingham and Beeston canal and 1 river the Trent.

GLORIOUS GAINSBOROUGH.

 

The Power of Water

There are visitors pontoons at Gainsborough, but even though we have done this stretch of river many times in the past we have never stopped on them to explore the town. So we decided it was about time we did.

Sunday was spent travelling to West Stockwith for a pump out and overnight moorings, and of course our Sunday lunch. We accessed the pump out with no problems. A local boater who had appointed himself king of the machine came to see if we were doing it right, and make sure everything was done to his satisfaction.

The Sunday roast at the White Hart was a little underwhelming, but it filled us up and meant I had no cooking or washing up to do.

It was and early start next morning as we had to go out with the tide, the Lock Keeper gave us a call to say the lock was ready for us, so off we went, but not before I had counted over 30 bunnies in the field by the moorings.

Our trip down to Gainsborough took about 45mins and the tide was running quite fast. The Captain instructed me to go to the front, and be ready to get a rope on the bollards to help with stopping the boat against the flow of the tide. It didn’t go exactly to plan, and we hit the pontoons side on at quite a pace. But no damage done and we were soon moored securely. As I said we have never stopped at Gainsborough before, so after lunch we took a walk into the town and were pleasantly surprised by what we found, plenty of shops, including a Lidl a short walk from the pontoons. The best find was Marshall’s Yard, a lovely open space with a dancing fountain feature, which the children were enjoying on the hot day.

https://www.marshallsyard.co.uk/

Marshall's Yard

There was a good selection of shops and restaurants. Its called Marshall’s Yard at it was the site of Marshall and Sons tractor factory, it was the largest employer in the town in the 19^th and 20^th Century, covering an amazing 16 acres it was called the Britannia Iron Works. The most famous of their tractors was the Field Marshall.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall,_Sons_%26_Co.

Before we left for our stroll round the town the Captain had met a local lady, and she had recommended various things to see, the Heritage Centre and Gainsborough Old Hall being 2 of the things. So we decided to stay another day. But first we had to try the pub, a micro pub called the 8 Jolly Brewers. Great beers and loud locals.

After a couple of pints we headed back to the boat. We were just unlocking the gate on the pontoon, when a cheeky lad of about 12/13yrs, asked us to let him onto the pontoon, and when we asked why would we do that, he pointed to the good ship Avalon Two and said because that’s my boat (we were the only boat there). Of course we laughed in his face, the cheeky sod.

We were joined later by NB Star, and we had a good chin wag with its Captain and crew but never got their names.

We planned next day to go out before lunch, there was a market on and we wanted to visit that, the Heritage centre, the Old Hall and the Church.

https://www.gainsboroughheritage.co.uk/

The Heritage centre first after the market. Interesting displays about the Marshall factory, and Rose Brothers who invented a machine for wrapping individual sweets such as Quality Street. During the war visitors to Mrs Rose were asked to sign a tablecloth, rather than a traditional visitor book, she then embroidered the signatures, Guy Gibson and Arthur ‘Bomber’ Harris of Dambuster fame were 2 of these visitors, and we managed to find both of their signatures. An interesting piece of WW2 memorabilia.

https://www.life-publications.com/gainsborough/gainsborough-heritage-association-7/

Then on to All Saints church, a beautiful building with a 14c tower, but the rest was rebuilt in the 18c. It has unusual enclosed pews that may have been reserved for the upper class families of the town, and

a first floor gallery for the rest of the congregation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Saints_Church,_Gainsborough

Then on to Gainsborough Old Hall, a magnificent 15c Manor house. It was built in 1460 by Sir Thomas Burgh. Henry VIII visited in 1541 with his 5^th wife Katherine Howard, and then went on to marry the widow of Edward Burgh, grandson of Sir Thomas, Katherine Parr. The kitchen is thought to be the most complete medieval kitchen in England, it has 2 open fireplaces big enough to roast an ox in, and 2 bread ovens. A fascinating building with a rich history and well worth a visit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gainsborough_Old_Hall

The Great Hall

Then off to the pub for lunch, The Sweyn Forkbeard, the local Wetherspoons. Mr Forkbeard was a Danish king of England for 5 weeks in 1014 and held his court in Gainsborough, he was succeed by his son Canute.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swein_Forkbeard

We left Gainsborough next day and headed for Torksey for the night, we had not long moored up when NB Avalon turned up. There are a few boats named Avalon on the system, but its unusual for us to cross bows.

Both Avalon's at Torskey

Next morning as we got ready to set off the Captain of Avalon asked if we were heading for Cromwell lock and Newark, and we said we were. They asked if they could join us as it was their first time on the Trent, we happily said no problem and we set off in convoy.

It was plain to see they weren’t used to the big river locks were we use risers (steel cables in the side of the lock), we use these to anchor the boat with stern and bow lines whilst in the lock so we dont get battered around when the water enters or leaves the lock. This means I stand in our front cratch and hold the boat at the front. Unfortunately they couldn’t do that, and had to go along the gunnels to achieve this.

In the Lock

But they managed and we made it to Newark without a problem. And there was room on the pontoons for both of us YIPPEE !!!

We spent a couple of days in Newark and introduced Wendy and Dave to some of the best pubs, including the Prince Rupert and Just Beer, which is now called More Than Just Beer. In the Prince Rupert an old gliding mate of the Captains appeared, we haven’t seen Pip in quite awhile, so it was great to catch up with him.

We stayed with Wendy and Dave all the way to Nottingham, they were moving there boat from Brighouse in West Yorkshire, to Castle Marina in Nottingham due to all the problems on the northern canals.

On to wildlife. This leg of the journey has all been about Oyster Catchers, pretty black and white wading birds with a striking red beak and legs, and a strident but plaintive call. We are still seeing plenty of Little Egrets, Herons and Cormorant, but the beautiful kingfisher remains elusive this year.

Oyster Catchers

An anomaly I have been meaning to mention for a couple of blogs, is the way distance is measured on the canals and rivers. On the canal everything is in miles, but on the rivers and the Fossdyke it is measured in kilometres, I have no idea why it is done this way. Answers on a post card please.

60 miles, 10 lock 1 river and 2 canals.

STUNNING SHEFFIELD.

 

Cruising the Cut

Well you can get into Sheffield by boat but we went by train. The route to Sheffield is up the Trent from West Stockwith to Keadby lock and the sliding Vazon railway bridge, onto the South Yorkshire navigation, and down Tinsley lock flight (made famous by that fantastic film The Full Monty), and you eventually arrive at Victoria Quay.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Full_Monty

We have done this trip once before, but a number of obstacles stood in our way, the lock at Keadby was closed for the week, the sliding railway bridge is only being opened when the temperature is below 16 degrees, and we know how hot the last week has been, there are low water problems on the Tinsley flight, and you have to book these is advance.

So the simple solution was to catch the train from Retford, at £18 return for both of us it was a bargain.

But back to our time at Ranby, the moorings were good, if a little noisy with road noise from the A1. We had arranged with my kids to visit a local micro brewery, The Ticking Clock at Shireoaks. We had intended to moor at Shireoaks and make our own way to the brewery, but as we had decided it wasn’t safe for us to go through the 2 dodgy locks before Worksop, we couldn’t get to Shireoaks. So my daughter Jess and Hubby Stuart agreed to pick us up from the pub. It was a bit of a squash in the car with Lowen in her car seat, but it was only a short journey. We met my son Adam and wife Julie there with Dylan. We didn’t just go for the beer, surprising for us I know, but for dinner as well. My son has a friend who runs a mobile pizza van called Pizzolu, and he was serving at the brewery that day. The pizza were amazing, as was the beer, and the 2 grand kids had a great time. The brewery had a selection of kiddy games, and I think they tried everyone. It was a great afternoon, but very tiring. 2 toddlers have so much energy.

https://www.tickingclockbrewing.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556032576246

Dylan and Lowen

So next day was a gentle cruise and moorings in the middle of nowhere. One thing I must mention about many of the mooring spots on the Chesterfield, they look great, but its so shallow you simply cannot get to the side. Even our spot for the night, which is an official visitor mooring, wasn’t the best, and we had to go half way past the start of the mooring before we could get anywhere near. But we had a much needed peaceful night.

Next day and back to Retford, mooring outside Aldi once again.

What I forgot to mention in the last blog, were the 3 very short aqueducts we crossed as we left and entered Retford. Aqueducts are used to transport the canal over things like rivers, roads and railways. The best known of course is the Pontcysyllte on the Llangollen canal. (and yes I did have to look up how to spell it). The Aqueducts at Retford are only about 50ft long, but come one right after the other.

Wednesday was our day in Sheffield, the railway station in Retford was about a 15min walk from our moorings, the train was on time and we were soon whizzing along through the Nottingham countryside and into South Yorkshire.

At the railway station in Sheffield we were greeted by a fantastic water feature, it really made us feel welcome to the city, and on a hot day it made things feel cooler. We were heading to the Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul, but it took us some time as there was so much else to see on the way. We used the Millennium gallery escalator to avoid walking up the hill in the heat, called in to look at a John Ruskin exhibition, and then discovered the Winter Gardens, I had seen this name and assumed it was a theatre of some kind, but no it was an actual tropical garden in the centre of the city, what a find. As we continued our walk to the Cathedral we passed through the cities Peace Gardens by the splendid town hall.

Sheffield Railway Station

The Winter Gardens

Our eventual destination the Cathedral did not disappoint either, I don’t think I have ever been in a church with such a mixture of styles, parts date back to the 13C, and then others are as new as 1966.

It was so interesting and we spent a while looking round. It also has connections to one of my favourite historical figures Bess of Hardwick, the founder of Chatsworth house and Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire, and the most powerful woman in England after Queen Elizabeth I.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheffield_Cathedral

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bess_of_Hardwick

After one Cathedral we decided to check the other one out. St Maries Roman Catholic Cathedral.

This didn’t disappoint either, a beautiful building with a stunning interior.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_Church_of_St_Marie,_Sheffield

By this time we were ready for a pint and headed to the Two and Six micropub. The walk took us past the picture of a Steelworker on the side of a building, commissioned by the council in 1980’s, it uses bricks to make a mosaic picture to commemorate the cities steel industry.

We finished the afternoon with a wonderful Vietnamese meal at Pho. A great day out and a city I would recommend visiting anyway you can.

https://www.phocafe.co.uk/locations/sheffield/

Back to the boat and we left Retford next day, it was still slow going on the canal, due to weed and shallowness of the water, but the water is so clear that it gave me the chance to do loads of fish watching. I can’t name the fish I saw, but they varied in size from tiny minnows at less the an inch, up to big daddies at over a foot. I did spot a couple of Zander, these pike like fish are an invasive species introduced into UK waters in the 1800’s.

At the wonderfully named Whitsunday Pie Lock I met a friendly group of Gongoozlers, and had a lovely chat, passing the time whilst waiting for the lock, and they helped out too. Many thanks to them.

We have also seen plenty of beautiful butterflies, including Red Admirals, Peacocks and plenty of Cabbage Whites.

Peacock Butterfly

We stopped at the Boat Inn at Hayton for the night, there are mooring for one boat on the off side by the pub. Of course we had a walk and tried the beer. Run by a friendly Romanian couple the beer was great, Hawkstone Black for a very happy Captain, and a decent lager for me. The food menu was interesting, and they do nightly specials, including on a Thursday night 2 ribeye steaks for £26. The barmaid was very friendly and we had a great chat with her.

https://theboatinnhayton.com/

After another night in the middle of nowhere, we headed back to West Stockwith for the weekend and a pump out, but we didn’t quite make it and decided to stop at Misterton for the night, we needed milk and there is a Coop in the village, and a pub, the Red Hart, of course we gave it a go. It was quiet for a Saturday afternoon, but I think everyone was saving their energy for the footy, England v Norway for a place in the semi finals, which start at 10pm.

We watched it on the boat and we won, YIPPEE!!

Our plans are still fluid, but we have decided not to go through Keadby lock, it is open, but the language of the notification of this suggested they may have to close it again for more repairs, and we don’t want to risk getting stuck oop norf.

So we will be heading south. The Captain had booked us to go out of West Stockwith on Monday, and is taking me out for Sunday lunch at the White Hart. Happy times.

36 miles, 2 canals, 1 river, 13 locks and 1 tunnel 154yrds long and 3 aqueducts I forgot about last time.

NORMAL SERVICE HAS RESUMED.

 

The Chesterfield Canal.

At last.

We had to be up reasonably early on Monday, the Lock Keeper said we would hopefully be going out onto the river at 7.45am, a bit early for us, but we were up and ready in plenty of time.

Of course nothing goes to plan and our departure time was pushed back to 9am. The lock keeper has to wait for there to be enough water to get us over the lock cill, and this took more time than expected.

It was great to be back on the wide river. The trip would take us between 3 and 4hrs depending on how fast the tide was running, and how much the Captain decided to push the engine. We also had to liaise with the lock keeper at West Stockwith, again to ensure there was enough water to allow us to enter the lock and join the Chesterfield canal.

It was agreed that when we reached Gainsborough we would assess the lock situation, as there are pontoons which we could stay on if we had to wait until the next day for the right conditions.

The news was good, and the lock would be ready for us when we got to West Stockwith, this was also good as the pontoons at Gainsborough were full.

Now West Stockwith lock is notoriously difficult to enter without hitting the right hand wall. This is because the tide is still running quite fast, and you have to turn sideways on in the flow which pushed you towards the wall, if you time it just right you leave the flowing water before you hit the wall, allowing you to power into the lock. Its not easy. And we didn’t make and hit the wall with a thud, thing rattled but no damage was done.

West Stockwith Lock

Once up the lock the Lock Keeper directed us to a good mooring, and then imparted some bad news. It came in 2 parts, one we knew about, West Stockwith lock was closing for 5 days from the 6^th of July, which meant we would have to be on the canal for 2 weeks, not a huge problem. The other news however made us change our plans once again. We had intended to go all the way to the end of the canal, but now found out that 2 lock before Worksop, which is about half way, were only open at certain time with assisted passage due to leaking, and may close at any time if the situation deteriorated. If we went past these lock and they closed them then before we returned, we would be stuck on the canal for an unknown amount of time. After discussing it we decided to go as far as Ranby, just taking our time.

We just don’t seem to be able to catch a break this year.

The first night and we headed off to the pub, of course, The White Hart. It has its own brewery The Idle brewery, which is named after the Idle river which runs at the side of the pub. Of course they had a stout on so the Captain was a very happy bunny. We did get chatting to a very friendly local and had a great time.

https://thewhitehartinn.site/

We set off next morning and had 4 double locks and a short tunnel to do, before mooring up at Clayworth. We were joined at the first 2 locks by NB Mithril, he was single handing with 2 very noisy dogs, so I locked both boats through. He was making his way back to his moorings at Retford but stopped at Misterton to go to the butchers there. So we went on alone. The canal is very shallow and weedy so it was slow going. It did give us time to take in the magnificent views of North Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and South Yorkshire. The water was very clear, with plenty of fish of all different sizes. And we watched on aerobatic tern catching fish for his dinner at the back of the boat.

Common Tern

We eventually made it to Clayworth and found a decent mooring spot. Last time we were here we visited the boat club bar which was very cheap, but unfortunately it only opens at weekends, so we headed off to the local pub, The Brewers Arms. A friendly village pub, and of course we got chatting with some of the locals again.

https://brewersarmsclayworth.co.uk/

Our next stop was Retford, and we desperately needed a big shop, luckily there is an Aldi right next to the canal. We only had 1 lock to do, and that had the unusual name of Whitsunday Pie Lock. Legend says it was given this name when a local lady living by the lock, baked a pie on Whitsunday for the navvies working on the canal. A lovely story.

The visitors moorings in Retford are right by Aldi and there is a path right onto the towpath. We did a huge heavy shop and managed to wheel the trolley right to the side of the boat. There is also a Lidl and Asda within 10mins of the canal too.

I checked my blog from our previous visit 8yrs ago, and much to my surprise because neither of us could remember much about the town, it said we loved it and had tried 4 pubs. 1 Wetherspoons and 3 micropubs. We looked forward to exploring the town again. But more important we needed to find a pub to watch the England v Congo DR match. I have already mentioned the Idle brewery, and they have a tap in the town which was showing the match (thanks Facebook) and the tap was opposite Aldi, so off we set and found decent seats. The pub slowly filled up and it was a tense match but we won, eventually.

https://www.facebook.com/Idlevalleytap2017/?locale=en_GB

We spent a second day in Retford, and were very pleased we did, as it was a very very windy day. We tried a couple of the pubs, The Brew Shed and Beer under the Clock which had been called Beer Headz previously.

https://www.facebook.com/BeerUnderTheClock/?locale=en_GB

Beer Under the Clock

Next day and more locks, but now they were single locks, much easier to do. At the first 2 we had an audience, and I explained that the name for people who watch narrowboats is a Gongoozler to a gentleman who found it very funny.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gongoozler

The canal became very rural after the first 2 locks, again it was very shallow and weedy making it hard going. We had hoped to moor before Ranby for the night, but it was impossible to get to the side, so we just had to keep going. We knew we could moor outside the pub, The Chequers, and a helpful boater told us there were good moorings outside the village hall to. This is were we ended up. The Captain had truly had enough, and I am quite pleased we are not doing to whole length of the canal if this is how it was going to be. We did head to to pub, a friendly gastro pub with excellent reviews for their food, and they had a stout on for the Captain which cheered him up no end.

https://www.thechequersatranby.co.uk/

So we are stopping in Ranby until Monday and meeting up with my kids whilst here, but that’s for next time.

36 miles, 2 canals, 1 river, 13 locks and 1 tunnel 154yrds long

And the engine ran great. YIPPEE !!!!!

WHAT A NIGHTMARE,

 

The Glory Hole Lincoln

And that’s exactly what these last 3 weeks have been and the extreme heat hasn't helped.

I had written a blog about our time in Lincoln and what we did, but due to the stress caused by the engine problem I couldn’t find the energy to post it, so I have decided to tell you about our experience with the engineer.

At the end of the last blog the weekend had come and gone with out hearing anything from the guy. The Captain messaged him on the Saturday asking if there was any update but we heard nothing. What I didn’t mention in the last blog, is that he left us with the belief any parts we required would be on next day delivery, so that shouldn’t hold up the repair.

It turned out this wasn’t the case. On the Monday the Captain gave him until lunchtime before calling him, no answer, but we got a text saying he would call us back. When he did he went through what he had done and the results. He then offered to send us an estimate which we politely declined, so as not to add any further delay, instructing him to just get on and do the work. He said fine, and hopefully when the parts arrive he would be back to fit the engine on Friday.

We heard nothing on Tuesday or Wednesday, but got a message on the Thursday saying he was till waiting for the parts to come from Holland, this was the first we had heard about were the parts were coming from, it did not make us very happy, as you can imagine.

The Captain went to Chorley for his daughters birthday for the weekend, whilst I stayed with the boat. This helped with the toilet situation, which I will come to in a moment.

So we heard nothing over the weekend again.

Monday and things were starting to look more serious, our toilet only lasts 14 days normally and Tuesday was the 14^th day. We still had no idea if the parts had arrived, or when we would be mobile again.

The engineer did message us to ask for the Captains details so he could send us an estimate, but said the parts had still not arrived, and then dropped the bombshell that he would be out of the country from Thursday for 4/5 days. The Captain, completely pissed off at this point, sent a strongly worded message back explaining about the toilet situation, and how ‘unprofessional’ he had been in dealing with us.

He did not like this one bit, and called straight away ranting for a good few minutes before letting the Captain get a word in edgeways. When he calmed down he explained that the parts had to come from Holland, and there had been some sort of hold up, which was out of his control. That was fair enough, the problem lay in his lack of communicating this to us earlier. We would have understood if only he had been upfront with us before this point.

Good news came later, he had spoken with his supplier and the parts were there and he should receive them next day, if they came early enough he would come that day, if not it would definitely be the Wednesday, this was great news, and the toilet would last another couple of days helped by the Captain being away over the weekend. Tuesday came and went, , but we weren’t to worried. Wednesday and the Captain messaged him to find out what time he was coming. He came back, saying he was still waiting for parts which were due late in the afternoon, and if they came earlier enough he would come over then and put our engine back together. Good news he had got his dates mixed up and wasn’t going away until the Friday, so he would definitely do the job on the Thursday. Which he did, he came promptly at 9am and the engine was back up and running by lunchtime.

I cant complain about his engineering skills but his communication with his customers needs a lot of work.

Before I go onto the final part of this saga, as it didn’t finish there, I must talk about how much we rely on our engine. Obviously without it we can’t move, which means we can’t get water, our tank last about 5/6days, we cant empty our toilet using a pump out machine, and we can’’t abide by the mooring rule that you can only stay in 1 place for 14days, maximum.

The problem with water we solved by buying 2x15ltr containers and saving 4x2ltr water bottles. There was a water point with in walking distance of were we were moored, using our trusty granny trolleys we made a number of trip to keep our tank topped up.

The toilet was more of an issue, the Captain, of course came up with a solution, he bought a 12volt macerating pump and fitted it with 2 hoses, one to go into the tank and the other into a 25ltr container we luckily had. We would then take this to an elsan point and empty it like you would a normal cassette. A smelly job which luckily we didn’t have to do (this time).

The mooring situation was solved on line, the Captain applied for an extension explaining the situation and we were grant 2 more weeks.

The only thing we didn’t have to worry about, which some boats do, electricity, many boats run their engines to charge their batteries which then run things like lights, water pumps and anything else that needs power. We have such a great solar and battery system we didn’t have to worry about this at all. All down to the amazing Captain.

Now back to the rest of the saga. The engineer left us with a working engine so we could move, which was great, as the most pressing matter was empting the toilet, the pump out machine at Lincoln was out of order, the next one was at Burton Waters marina, and then there was one at Torksey.

We did stop at the services at Lincoln to fill up with water. The Captain checked the toilet and decided it would last until the next day, so we headed for Saxilby passing Burton Waters on the way.

After about 45mins we realised that all the work that had been done on the engine hadn’t actually solved the problem, and the water was still filling the overflow bottle and we were losing water. We limped to Saxilby and moored up. This day couldn’t get any worse, oh yes it could a notification from CRT came through the pump out machine at Torksey was broken. I don’t think I have heard so many ‘f’ words from the Captain ever but I couldn’t blame him.

We still needed a pump out, so next day the Captain sealed up the outlet pipe on the overflow bottle, so we didn’t loose any water from there, we managed to winded at Saxilby and headed to Burton Waters at a steady pace. We got a pump out and went back to Saxilby. That was one thing off our mind.

The Captain had been giving our engine problem some deep thought and came up with what he thought was a solution, I can’t explain what it was as I don’t really understand what he did, but it worked.

He tinkered with the engine and decided we should cruise down to Torksey using normal revs, and assess the outcome when we got there. The engine ran perfectly, the water in the overflow bottle didn’t come up more than it should, and we lost no water. He was a very very happy bunny and so was I.

We had had a serious conversation earlier in the day about our plans going forward, and I had expressed doubts about staying on the Trent, and going up and onto the Chesterfield canal with an engine we weren’t completely happy with. I didn’t want to be stuck on a rural canal (which the Chesterfield is) with a dodgy engine, and the only way back onto the main system down a tidal river.

I suggested heading back the way we had come, and maybe doing the Trent and Mersey canal and the Caldon canal. This would put us in a more accessible area for things such as boatyards, water and pump out facilities.

After a perfect run from Saxilby to Torksey the decision was made that the engine was ok to do the trip to West Stockworth and onto the Chesterfield canal.

And that’s all folks, we are moored on the visitors moorings at Torksey and going out on to the Trent tomorrow Monday.

A WAITING GAME.

 

What can I say! that’s just what the last few days have been about, waiting for Darren to come out and hopefully tell us what’s wrong.

But for me it’s also been quite a stressful time, as my debit card stopped working, and I didn’t know why.

Lets go back to Friday, we didn’t do a lot, but on Saturday we decided to have a walk round the shops in the afternoon, I picked up some lovely lamb shanks from a great butchers called F Pepperdine and Son, only a short walk from the boat.

https://www.cornhillquarter.co.uk/shop/pepperdine-butchers/

I got some money out of a ATM (good thing I did), we walked round the little market before heading up the hill to the Cardinals Hat. I paid for the first round by tapping my card as you do, but when I gave it to the Captain to pay for another, he came back and said it asked for my pin number, and he doesn’t know it so he paid. Then I tried it at Tesco to buy a bottle of wine and it came up with a very strange message ‘unsupported card not accepted’

Very strange. So the Captain paid again.

I wasn’t too worried at this point, just assumed it was a problem with Tesco’s card machine.

Next day and we decided to climb Steep Hill, and visit the castle and cathedral. Steep Hill as the name suggests is very steep, but we seemed to make it to the top with ease. We did stop off at the Captain favourite shop in Lincoln, J Birkett, an electrical equipment supplier, basically a shop full of old aircraft dials and parts. It was open, which I think is a first for us, so we had to have a mooch round.

https://www.visitlincoln.com/listing/j-birkett/96973101/

What it says on the tin

At the top there was a small flea market going on, but we couldn’t get into the castle as there was some sort of an event going on. We did find the oldest Roman arch which traffic can still drive through called Newport Arch.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newport_Arch

Newport Arch

We walked round the cathedral and were able to see the resident peregrine falcons and their chicks. The RSBP had 2 viewing points set up with scopes that you could look through, and very helpful volunteers to answer your questions. We did managed to see the chicks which were exercising their wings in preparation for fledging. The adults were more elusive.

https://lincolncathedral.com/peregrines/

It was an enjoyable walk round, and to make it better we found an Organ Grinder micro pub belonging to Blue Monkey Brewery. The Captain was very happy to find Cinder Toffee Stout, and Chocolate Coconut Mild on. He had a pint of each. And then we walked back down Steep Hill and straight into the Cardinals Hat.

There was a HSBC on the way back to the boat, so I decided to try my card in the ATM, as this is the bank I am with. But it didn’t even let me put my pin in, just came up with ‘card not recognised unable to proceed’. Now I was worried.

So I was up early next morning and headed straight to the bank. They were so helpful, and soon put my mind at ease, there was nothing wrong with my account, but it appeared for some unknown reason my card had stopped working. So they ordered me a new one Now this is one of the drawbacks of living on a boat, all our important post goes to my sisters address back in Derbyshire, and then we pick it up when we see her. So I don’t know when I will actually get my new card. I will just have to use cash for a while. The lady at the bank did say to keep trying my card, but I am pretty sure its a lost cause.

Monday was a wet day so we did nothing.

Tuesday was busy, we desperately needed to do a big shop, so a plan was formed to head to Lidl on Dixon Street, it was a bus ride away, and a Uber back. But we got everything we needed. The second job of the day was to fill with water, get rid of rubbish and pump out the toilet. Doing all this would mean if Darren had to dismantle the engine, we would be ok for water for a week and 2 weeks for the toilet, which gave us peace of mind.

Darren turned up promptly on Wednesday morning, and after testing the engine he could see there was a problem, but was unsure of exactly what it was, so it was decided it had to come apart and be fixed to be completely sure that the issue was solved.

When he took the head off we could see there was a problem with the head gasket, some parts of it had rusted, which meant it wasn’t sealing completely. This allowed exhaust gases to escape into the water, which over pressurised the system. He took everything away, so now we were without an engine.

Thursday was very wet, which was a shame, as there was a parade celebrating RAF Waddington being given the freedom of the city. We would have loved to go, but it was to wet. The Red Arrows were meant to do a flypast, but this was also cancelled due to the weather.

It did eventually dry up and we took a walk to the pub, it was busy. We had just got our second pint when a family of 3 asked if they could sit with us. We got chatting, they were on their way to see the band OMD at the castle, this is what we had seen being set up on Sunday. We had a lovely time talking to them, we even had a third pint. I don’t know if I could go to one of these concerts as it is standing only, your not allowed to take chairs in, drinks or food. Standing for a couple of hours does not sound fun to me. And after all the rain you couldn’t really sit on the ground either. But I bet OMD were great.

The weather seemed to be picking up over the next few days, which was good news, and as we walked back to the boat, we saw a poster advertising free recitals at St Swithins church the following day, so we decided to give it a try. We went to the organ recital, and it was ok, the compositions maybe not really our style of organ music, but it was interesting to hear the stories behind the music and who composed them.

It did take our minds off the fact we had not heard anything from Darren, even though we had been promised an estimate and update before the weekend.

Saturday was very quiet and we didn’t go anywhere, a day off from the pub as well, strange for us I know.

Sunday and I was going stir crazy. As it was a nice day we decided to tackle Steep Hill again and head to the Museum of Lincolnshire life. After a steady walk up the big hill we found yet another concert at the castle, this time McFly, one of my favourite bands. It was about 2.30pm and people were already queuing, even though the concert didn’t start until 6pm.

We found the museum, which is free to get in, and spent a very happy couple of hours looking round. They had 2 traction engines on display among their collection. For those of you that don,t know, I love traction engines. Silvie was a small tractor unit used to run threshing machines on farms until the 1940’s. John was a large Fowler engine used for ploughing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Lincolnshire_Life

Lincolnshire had many companies producing engines, including Clayton and Shuttleworth, and Ruston and Hornsby. We are actually moored opposite the Clayton and Shuttleworth works at Stamp End.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clayton_%26_Shuttleworth

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruston_%26_Hornsby

Sylvie and the Threshing Machine

We called and had a pint in the Organ Grinder, walked down the hill and into the Cardinals Hat, just for one and then home for tea.