ANNOUNCEMENT, PANIC, A MAD DASH.

 

Beautifaul Sunset

And this describes our life over the last week or so.

We did as we said at the end of the last blog get to, and stay in Newark for a couple of nights. We spent the first night moored on a highish wall, not the best for me but we did make it to the pub. I was up early next morning willing one of the boats on the pontoon to leave, and my prays were answered and we were able to move over mid morning. I picked some blackberries and made a crumble for the Captain.

We discussed our plans, and after visiting Boston at the end of the River Witham, we would have time to go up the Erewash in time for a heritage weekend being held by the preservation society on the 13^th September, leaving us enough time to get back to Swan Lane in time for the wedding of the year.

https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/things-to-do/events/canal-events-canal-festivals/2025-09-13-echoes-of-the-erewash-canal

Thursday and on a bright sunny morning we set off for Cromwell lock and the tidal part of the River Trent, which would then take us to Torksey and onto the Fossdyke, and then the Witham to Boston.

Facebook can be a wonderful thing, and it was here I first got an inkling of the announcement which would change all our plans. I did not think a lot about it to start with.

Coming off the Trent at Torksey we decided to push on, and got to Saxilby (a favourite of ours because of the chippy and a couple of good pubs) around 7pm. For a change, and because it was quite late, and we had had a long day (well for us) we decided to give both the chippy and pub a miss. The Captain checked out exactly what the announcement from CRT was all about, and it worse, so much worse than we had thought. It announced that all the locks on the Coventry canal were being closed from the Monday the 26^th August, and that this decision would not be reviewed until the end of September.

If we didn’t make it up the Atherstone flight of locks before then we would be stuck, unable to get home to Swan Lane until at least October, and even then there was no guarantee the locks would reopen.

Panic set in. We basically had up to 11 days to do a journey which had taken us 3 weeks. But we knew we had to do it. This meant early starts and long days, which the Captain hates, but needs must.

It started the very next day, up early and off by 9am (usually just having our first cuppa in bed at this time) we winded the boat and headed back to Torksey. The Captain had spoken to the lock keeper as usually this needs to be booked 24hrs in advance, as did Cromwell lock, but given the circumstances they waved this, and we were able to lock out with the other boats waiting. We made it as far as Newark for the night, and yes we did go to the pub, and we tried a new one called The Loose Cannon, it was very nice and had a decent stout on for the Captain which made him feel better after the long day. 27 ½ miles and 3 locks in 9hrs. This included a couple of hours wait for the tide at Torksey lock.

https://loosecannonnewark.com/

Next we did Newark to Nottingham, and off to the pub again, the Olde Trip to Jerusalem. I did have a quick chat with Caroline once again, as we had planned to go for a drink when we stayed in Nottingham on the return journey. 24 ½ miles, 7 locks, 8hrs.

Next day was the real killer, we travel faster on the rivers usually, but now we rejoined the Trent and Mersey canal at Derwent Mouth Lock, and things would slow down.

From Nottingham we decided to make for Willington, but it nearly didn’t happen. As we approached the first lock I could see a lock keeper on the phone, but he walked away from me, strange, but hay ho I am quite capable of doing the locks on my own. We realised as we exited the lock that the pound above was extremely low, and many of the boats moored there were sitting on the bottom. We chatted to a Captain of one as we cruised by, and he said that CRT would probably be closing the Trent and Mersey, but wasn’t to sure how far would be affected. This made us panic even more so we kept going, the pound through Shardlow was very very low, at times we could hear the bottom of the boat scraping the canal bed, but once up the next lock things improved greatly. CRT did close the pound at Shardlow for the next two days, but we were well away from the affected area by then. We made it to Willington after 10hrs, and yes you guessed it headed to the pub. 24 ½ miles, 11 locks.

Day 4 and we decided that we were on track and could have a slightly easier day and headed for Alrewas, 12 miles, 6 locks, 6hrs.

Things were definitely looking up, and we knew we would make Atherstone with time to spare but decided to push on just to be sure.

We left the Trent and Mersey at Fradley junction and joined the Coventry canal, it was so good to be back on our home canal. We stopped at Fazeley for the night, and after a couple of pints the Captain treated me to a kebab. 13 miles, 5 locks and another 6hrs.

Day 5 and we hit the first of the Coventry locks which were being closed at Glascote. There are only 2 locks here, but they were on reduced hours, which meant there were a lot of boats waiting for them to open at 10am. We were the 5^th boat waiting to go up, and 2 more joined us later, but coming down there were over 10 boats waiting, and more arriving by the minute. Of course off I went to help and was joined by Ann off NB Wild Swan. We locked boats up and down helping to speed the process up, if everyone did this life would be so much easier, but they don’t, and I actually had to ask for help as I locked a single hander through on my own.

Once through Glascote, our aim was to lock up the first 5 locks of 11 at Atherstone, CRT were only actually locking the top 6locks. This meant we would be there and ready for the final push in the morning. We were joined at the locks by Ann, off Wild Swan, and the single hander Debbie off NB Europa, helping each other out were we could we all moored between lock 6 and 7 for the night. On our return from the pub we had a drink and a chat with the other boaters. Jeremy and Ann were not stopping above the locks as they had much further to go, but Debbie was, so we said we would go for a drink next day to celebrate getting back in record time. 10 miles, 7 locks and another 6hrs.

Up bright and early next day, I didn’t get to say goodbye to Ann and Jeremy as they headed off as soon as they could, but we did help Debbie out were we could, the were Volunteer lock keepers on which made life easier.

6 locks later and we were home and dry. Moored at Atherstone with a deep sigh of relief and a large dose of regret that we didn’t get to visit everywhere we wanted. But there is always next year.

112 miles and 45 locks in 7 days.