Saturday was a funny old day. It started off ok with nice weather and we set off for Nottingham. Our intention was to moor on the County Hall steps, walk in to town and watch the football on tv. However, the best laid plans etc ………………
When we got to Stoke Lock it was ready for us so we quickly ascended and stopped for water at the top. Just as we were pulling away from the tap two narrowboats came out of the lock and went past. They were going so slowly that we thought they must be going to moor up.
But no, they crept past the moorings and slowly chugged along. We passed them easily as the river is wide and they really were going slow. When we got to Holme Lock it was ready and we went straight in. Obviously with the lock using a million gallons of water at a time and taking about 20 mins to fill we had to wait for the others to catch up.
We had been there a good 10 mins by the time the first one appeared and they had been moored for ages before ‘tail end Charlie’ got there. Then they titted about interminably getting their ropes on the straps and getting settled. Finally the lock keeper could fill the lock.
The entrance to the lock at the top is quite narrow and there were boats waiting to come in we were on that side so we had to let the others out first. Then we had to creep along the row of moored boats behind them until the river widened and we could get past again.
We got to Trent Bridge and they were far far behind, not even in sight. We had a look at the mooring situation and it was hopeless. No room at all on the steps. we got halfway down and decided it was no use, we would have to go up Meadow Lane Lock and moor in the town. We turned round and headed for the lock …………… by which time there was a wide beam just going in and these two slow coaches waiting to go up! Aaaargh!
Suffice to say it was ages before we actually got up this lock and then Castle Lock. It also took ages to get in to a mooring near Sainsbury’s because for some reason we got grounded! By the time we had got moored up we had been travelling for 5.5 hours and we had missed most of the football match!
We went off to The Watersedge for a well deserved pint. This wasn’t the end of the day’s cruising however. We had a bit of an altercation with a group of local youth who couldn’t see they were doing anything wrong in climbing all over our boat. I’m afraid I got the red mist and handled it rather badly.
Cutting a long story short we decided discretion was the better part of valour and moved on to Beeston for the night in case of a return visit later. I did phone the police but of course there was nothing they could do.
We got to Beeston well after 6pm but were lucky and found a nice peaceful mooring there.
