Friday 26 September 2014

A walk up the Erewash Canal & into new marina & home

Friday 26th September

Yesterday after mooring on the pontoon at Trent lock, we went for a walk onto the Erewash Canal, passing the Steamboat pub we passed several houseboats


 This houseboat has an upstairs!
This boat made us laugh when we read it!
 We walked back towards Trent Lock and we went into the Steamboat pub for a pint and sat outside in the sunshine then went back to R&R for some tea. Nigel drove over to see us at 7pm and we the had a walk back to the Steamboat pub for a couple of drinks and a chat. The pub is very dog friendly and the landlord said that one night there were 16 dogs and 12 people in the pub!
It was a bit cloudy this morning and a bit breezy but we had a good cruise to Sawley locks and then onto our new marina Chapel Farm &  Kev managed to reverse onto the berth  although it was quite breezy and we then packed the car and Kev checked that the water & gas was turned off on the boat and then we set off for home. As we arrived at our house the for sale sign was up! We will get the keys on Monday for the cottage, my daughter Kirsty will be coming over from Majorca next Thursday as it is Sam's 16th birthday on the 6th October so its all go!!

Thursday 25 September 2014

A short trip today

Thursday 25th September
Yesterday I had a bit of a clean up and a walk into the shopping centre for a browse around. As for the man looking for his mobile in the canal never found it after all that! I hope he went home for a shower too, the man who was moored behind me was telling me that he had spoken to the man and it was a camera that he had lost and not his phone and that as he was walking along he went in his pocket for something and pulled out the camera by mistake and it dropped to the floor in front of him as he was walking and kicked it into the canal. He had all his surveillance material on it thats why he was eager to find it, oh well now if he had any evidence for a client it is well and truly lost!
Kev returned back the boat around 11pm last night, it was about a 20 minute walk from Nottingham train station.
The trams run frequently around the centre

This morning we decided that we would leave the mooring and get to Cranfleet cut and moor up for the day so we are now on the pontoon moorings at Trent Lock.
We left just after 9am and haven't seen many boats about but it was peaceful on the river heading here although it was quite cool and there is quite a lot of cloud about and a bit breezy but at least its not raining. We had only been moored here for about half an hour then a cruiser who was with a wide beam came from the direction of Sawley and they both turned and are now moored here too, so now the pontoon is full as there is another narrowboat on here too.
This Heron wasn't at all bothered about us passing
 The swan ahead kept just in front of R&R for quite qa while before deciding to fly off
 Kev went to empty the loo & get rid of the rubbish here at Beeston Locks
He then went to get the lock ready for me
 Think the Heron was in the Cormorants spot!

 The Trent Lock Pub is opposite us
 Looking back at the entrance to the Cranfleet cut
Facing towards Sawley with the rowing club just to the left

Tuesday 23 September 2014

Nottingham Castle & a canal search!

Tuesday 23rd September
Nigel left this morning heading back to Shardlow and Kev left to catch his train to Edinburgh at 7.45am. I popped Buster for a walk and went to Sainsbury's for some shopping when I got back to the boat I had a nice cuppa and a doughnut and then had a walk to Nottingham castle.
I was expecting to see a Medievel castle but that had been destroyed and there was a mansion built above the old walls and there were man made caves that they did tours round but unfortunately not today!
 The statue above is outside the castle
This one is in the grounds

 Good views from the castle
The canal is where the line of trees are
And there is the old BW building
When I was walking back on the towpath towards R&R there were some men at the bow of the boat and one had a fishing net and when I got to the boat they said one of them had lost his mobile phone in the canal! He was only wearing his skiddies and said he had been in the canal to feel about for his phone but no luck.They all tried and tried and couldn't find it and then they went off and then returned half an hour later and the man who's phone it was had a snorkel!


He was very determined to find his phone as you can see! he said he knew the phone wouldn't be any good but that he wanted the sim card as it had some important stuff on! I said I was taking his photo for my blog but he wouldn't let me take any before he put on the snorkel as he didn't want to be recognised so I said: Are you a wanted man? He replied oh no I am a private investigator! Now I am not quite sure if I believe that but anyway I waited while he had his snorkel on anyway! It all happens on the canals eh!!

Monday 22 September 2014

A Trip to Jerusalem!

Monday 22nd September

This morning we decided to go through the next lock & turn around and move moorings so we could be in the sun for the solar panels! So we are now moored close to the Sainsbury supermarket and it has been a lovely day with plenty of sunshine and warm too.
 This is the old BW building and we winded here 
The building to the left is the HM customs!
 The entrance to the canal is just to the left where the narrowboat is moored on the pontoon
Once we had got on our new moorings, Kev Nigel & myself went for a walk and got to the Trent river and then we walked back along the canal and headed into the town and we wanted to find a pub which is the oldest one in England!
And we found it! 

 The pub was like a rabbit warren  with lots of little rooms, the monks used to have a brewery in this building.

 Looking up this was a chimney when the monks had the brewery

Of course we had to have a pint while we were there & we sat outside in the sun for a bit before leaving and headed back to the boat but I will go back tomorrow while Kev is in Scotland & Nigel is leaving too & he will get back to Shardlow as he has things to do. The castle is just round the corner from the pub so I am looking forward to that.

The rock is like this all around the castle with newer buildings built into it.

Sunday 21 September 2014

Buying & Selling Houses & Moving Marina's!



Friday 19th September
We have been busy the last few weeks, as we were in the process of buying a cottage in Burton Pidsea a village a few miles from our present village of Roos, we hope to live in it in the winter months as now Kev has retired but may work in the winter time doing a coaching job offshore. He will be going up to Scotland on Tuesday for training. We also decided to get the estate agent round to our present home & we will have it on the market next Friday.
 Kev's friend Nigel has a permanent mooring in Chapel Farm marina in Shardlow & we now have one there from 26th September so we have given our notice to Barton Turns marina. We left home just after 2pm today as we had Derek the estate agent coming to get photos taken of the house inside & out. We went to pick Nigel up from the marina at Shardlow then carried on to Barton Turns & once we had unloaded everything from the car onto the boat Nigel left in our car and drove it back to the marina at Shardlow as we would be leaving Barton Turns in the morning and would be heading for Shardlow.

Saturday 20th September
Last night we had a walk over to the Waterfront pub on the marina and had a couple of pints and there was a band on, they were ok but nothing special. This morning we were ready to leave Barton Turns just after 8am and we never saw any boats on the move for a couple of hours! Then there were plenty of boats on the move we decided to stop for a bite to eat and moored just before the lock landings at Stenson Lock and as we were ready to leave for the lock a boat passed us heading for the locks we were able to share the lock with them! They were only going as far as Swarkestone where they were going to turn round so we carried on down the lock there on our own and not far from Weston lock we saw Nigel walking towards us on the towpath and we pulled over so he could jump aboard and he stayed with us until we got to Shardlow and moored close to the New Inn Pub at 5.30pm.

Once we were moored Nigel went back to his boat on his marina and we got ready to pop across to The New Inn for a bite to eat which was very nice and then Nigel came back to meet us in the pub for a drink and then we all went back on board R&R where Kev & Nigel had some cheese & crackers with a couple of glasses of wine. 

Sunday 21st September
This morning we sent Nigel a text message to let him know we were leaving about 8.30pm so that he could leave his marina and meet us at the locks heading to the river Trent, it was a lovely morning and the sun was out and was a lot better than all the cloudy days we had been getting at home.
A mini R&R!!
 Following Nigel on the river Trent
 look Kev needs his sunglasses on 


Leaving Sawley locks

Heading to Cranfleet cut

Leaving Cranfleet Cut Lock
 Here we are in Beeston Lock were Kev & Nigel emptied the loos as there wasn't any boats waiting to go up or down the locks.

 We then passed Galetea  moored not far from the lock a lovely boat!
This boat was moored at a boatyard & was a real beauty

We are now moored in Nottingham just beyond Nottingham Castle marina, Kev will catch the train on Tuesday to Edinburgh and Nigel will stay moored here with me while Kev returns on Wednesday.



Wednesday 3 September 2014

Back Home

Wednesday 3rd September

Yesterday morning we left our mooring and made our way through our first lock of the day at Shardlow, it was a lovely day and quite warm so it was a T-Shirt day! By the time we were at the lock at Stenson there was a boat already in the lock and we sounded our horn to try to get them to wait for us to share the lock, I managed to get Kev off at the landing and he ran up to the lock but the people were already filling the lock! We thought that they would have emptied the small amount of water that they had started to fill the lock but oh no they just carried on! Anyway I decided to let Kev take the boat in this lock and I would set the lock for him as he had done all the locks while I took the boat through the locks, well how lucky for him that another boat came up to the lock and so he had someone to share the lock with!
Anyway we carried on and was going to head for our marina but it was such a lovely day we decided to stop for the day after we had got through Willington and moored after bridge 25. We got the sun loungers out and sat in the sun with a couple of nice cold beers!!
This morning we were up and about early as usual and made our way to Barton Turns Marina and we passed a boat that we know is on quite a few people's blogs "Chance"moored close to Branston Water Park. When we got back to the marina we packed the car and walked the dog then once we were sorted we headed home and managed to get back before sam got home from school!
It is Sam's 16th birthday on 6th October and Kev has just taken him to buy him a 50cc bike and arranged his CBT.
No photo's left the camera on boat!!

Monday 1 September 2014

Back on the Trent& Mersey Canal

Tuesday 2nd September
Well we left Mount Sorrel & our travelling companions Steph & Pete yesterday morning around 9.20am, Pete pulled his boat out a bit so we just crept along from the inside of his boat & headed for the lock. Steph had gone to fill it for us & then once Pete had tied Maggie May up he came to the lock to help us go down so Kev got on board with me & it was goodbye for now. They are a lovely couple & we hope to meet up again soon, thanks for the good company & laughs!
Steph & Pete 
just leaving the lock with Steph & Pete at the paddles

As we were heading away from Mount Sorell we passed this row of Dutch looking houses with a small basin with moorings to let in front of them although it didn't look like there were any facilities i.e. water/electric but nice all the same.
We passed a few fields with travellers caravans & their horses & saw this man sat on what looked like a tyre being pulled around the fields by one of the horses it looked really good fun!
Heading through Pillings flood lock
We decided to moor in Loughborough so Kev could pop to the Homebase there to buy some wire & padlocks for the solar panels so we moored after bridge 38 and off Kev went  when he returned I made us a sandwich & cuppa, there were a couple of CRT volunteers picking up rubbish along the towpath & where they could reach out of the canal too! Once we had eaten we set off and when we got to Kegworth deep lock we were joined by another boat.

There were plenty of planes flying to and from East Midlands airport and are quite low here at Kegworth.

As we were nearing Ratcliffe Lock there was a swan with 7 cygnets we passed them but as we were tied up at the lock and the gates were opened they swam inside the lock and we were unable to coax them back out so we had to take them down with us! It just meant that the 2 boats had to keep back away from the front gates, they were fine and once they were safely out they are joined by the other parent so they obviously just used us like a lift!!
When we got to the junction at Trentlock the other boat went to the right towards the Cranfleet cut they were heading for Newark and we carried on to Sawley locks on our own and we finally got back onto the Trent & Mersey Canal and we moored for the night just before Porter Bridge 1.