Monday 1st June
Today the weather was bright and breezy and before embarking upon our long and arduous trip of 1 mile and 1 lock we first pulled the boat up to the nearest water point and filled with water. Then we turned round and went back to Sawley Marina for diesel.
As we approached the service wharf there was a gust of wind which blew the front of the boat just far enough away from the side so I couldn’t get off! I had to let the front swing round to the adjacent pontoon, get off with the rope and walk the front round to the wharf. Fun in the wind.
Unusually Sawley Lock was manned by volunteers today so I didn’t have to get off and operate it. Having descended the lock on to the river we travelled from Sawley to Trent Lock where we moored on the pontoons instead of on the wall in Cranfleet Cut for a change.
After mooring up we walked in to Long Eaton, about 2 miles and did a few bits of shopping before having a rest in The Twitchell Inn, as we do and walking back.
Tuesday 2nd June
Today was our 16th wedding anniversary and we decided to go to The Trent Lock for a meal in the evening. It was incredibly windy over night and for most of the day in fact. Having nothing in particular to do we got up rather late. For some reason my back was really playing up so we just titted about doing very little in the morning, then went for a walk to Sawley and a pint in The Harrington. We had intended to walk up to the Coop for a paper first but after clambering over the rather high stiles on the footpath I decided to go straight in the pub and have a sit down!
When we got back we went for a lie down, me for my back and Ken just because he could! We had just dropped off when all Hell broke loose as a small narrow boat made a rather disastrous attempt to moor on the pontoon next to us in the gale force wind. There was much revving of the engine and shouting and panicking. Eventually they went off, turned round and had another go at it. More revving and shouting but they managed to get tied up in the end.
Fortunately I managed to get back to sleep and when I woke up my back was a bit better. We went to The Trent Lock for a meal and it was very good. When they found out it was our anniversary they gave us a complimentary bottle of Prosecco which was very nice of them. We decided to have the next day as we had already had a bottle of wine with our meal and I was on a lot of painkillers.
I think I fell asleep again almost as soon as we got back to the boat.
