This morning the river had gone down a bit and was in the amber. Ken decided that we had better get down to Kingfisher while the going was good.
First things first though, we had to go to Long Eaton to get our weekly fix of fresh fish and a few things from Tesco’s. After this we went to Kingfisher to let them know we would be turning up later on. We left the car there and walked back to Sawley to get the boat.
The wind had increased considerably by the time we set off but we had made up our minds to go. The locks at Sawley were manned today which was nice and I had a very easy start to the trip. Unfortunately I saw a lone magpie on the way down the Trent so I knew it wasn’t going to be all plain sailing!
The river was still flowing fairly fast and we nearly arrived at Trent Lock before we had left Sawley! Because of the fast flow and because of the fact that we had to make a 90 degree turn across the flow to get on to the Erewash Canal we went past the entrance to the Erewash and turned at the Sailing Club just in the entrance to cranfleet Cut…….
……..Or we would have done if it hadn’t been for the strong wind which conspired to blow us straight on to the bank! So not only were we on the bank in Cranfleet Cut but we were facing the opposite direction to that which we wanted to go!
Extensive use of the bow thruster got the front off the bank but the wind blew it straight back in. I had to get off the boat with the bow rope and pull the front round while Ken drove the back round. After this manouvre we were at least facing the right way. Now to get off the bank and get going. Easier said than done with a cruiser moored just in front, which needed to be avoided at all costs and a dinghy moored just behind so we couldn’t go back very far to get a ‘run up’ so to speak.
With more bow thruster and me pushing the front out and we were off missing the cruiser by a few inches, much to the delight of it’s worried owner!
Next we had to get into the entrance to the Erewash and stop on the lock approach. The lock approach was swathed in a thick layer of mud left by the receding flood water and was a bit slippy. Also I deposited much of it on the front of the boat getting on and off and I also dropped the rope in it and made a Hell of a mess. Ken fared little better becoming covered almost from head to foot!
The lock was difficult to operate too. For a start it had anti vandal locks on so I had to return to the boat (depositing more mud) to get my anti vandal key. Then I couldn’t get one of the locks undone so we had to wait for the lock to empty with just one paddle opened.
A combination of the wind and the flow of water past the boat while the lock was emptying caused it to end up broadside across the lock approach. I had to help Ken pull it back in and we were both hoping we wouldn’t skid over in the mud.
We eventually managed to finish doing the lock and the next thing was to turn round in a very tight winding hole with 2 breasted up boats moored opposite and get in to a space ready to go in dry dock on Monday. John from Kingfisher came out and helped us by hanging on to the front while Ken brought the back round.
So we are finally here ready for the work to be done and it can rain as much as it likes if it wants to!
