Left at 09:50
(Holme Lock – 16:10) arrived at 17:20.
Awake at 6 as usual,
its bright and breezy, Derek literally up and at em, me up for 7 30. Derek
spoke to a lady who was going to open the lock herself for her husband, the
lockie doesn’t come on till 9 30, they were on the NB Dreamcatcher. Derek
walked dogs and went for the paper the shop didn’t open till 8 or course!! The cruiser in front of us on the pontoon
with a little NB went through early under their own steam. A NB called Ethel May pulled into their
space and pinched the water pipe, we
were about to top up the water, so we had to wait for it. Whilst waiting Derek
got chapter and verse from the skipper of Ethel May, he was delivering it
to Nottingham Marina to the brokerage
there. He had already broken down twice on the way from Thorne Marina! Derek
decided to let him get ahead of us as it sounded like a barrel of trouble. At the first lock out of Newark the lockie
said with all the rain the water had
gone up 6 ins. After getting through the
lock I remembered that we had got mince out for the slow cooker for tea, I
prepared the veg and mince and put the cooker on. A canoeist came down the side of us and there
was yet more ponies with foals at the side of the river, there does seem to be
lots of them about !!! hope its not for Tesco.
As we approached a weir there was
Ethel May only doing 2 m.p.h so Derek decided to overtake him, he gave him a
shout that we were on the radio it he needed anything and overtook him. Just
before the weir we saw a Heron, it was only the 4th we had seen so
far, he was standing on a pole quite unconcerned about the raging waters round
him. There was a large group of Canada
Geese on what looked like nests(think they may be called scrapes similar to
nests that Ostriches and Swans make). We
passed Farandon Marina, which looked lovely and tidy, it had a white metal
bridge over the entrance to it. Made lunch as we approached Hazelford Lock,
Derek radioed ahead to tell them we were on our way, there was another NB
already on its way in, just in front of us. We shared the lock with Khaffra,
the lock went smoothly and as we left about 1 30 the heavens opened, it really
did belt down. Derek had shut the engine
room door and I fastened the kitchen hatch down, it was literally batten down the hatches. Shared the next lock with Khaffra and
cruiser Black Sheep, the lockie was lovely and appreciated that we waited for
the others to join us. The sun came out
on our exit, there were just 2 more locks , one of them being Holme Lock into
Pierrepont. A small two man canoe
appeared at our side, they were paddling like madmen, no wonde they needed to
be as they cut across the front of us to the other side of the boat. Further on in the pouring rain they crossed
us again, it seemed really close, back to the other side, the madmen, they must
be crackers. Ahead of us there was a flock of Greylag Geese right out in the
middle of the water, as we approached they sailed majestically and quite
unhurriedly in front of us back to the bank.
We passed the Ferryboat Inn and there, as usual were a great flock of
swans, we gave a little thought to Alan and Margaret Reynolds, this was their
stomping ground when they were young and Alan requested that we think of them
as we passed by, happy thoughts to you both.
A Grebe was next on the scene, this is only the second one we have seen
so far, then a dragonfly flew over the bow, the first this trip. It stopped raining again at 3 30 and it was now quite sticky, Derek
was steaming at the back in his wet gear.
Tea was all ready and put in the oven for when we stopped. We entered Holme Lock after what seemed to
have been a really really long journey, more was to follow. In Holme Lock with Khaffra and cruiser
Gemstone, I looped the rope through the Hawzer on the side of the lock and
waited for us to start going up. It
seemed to be taking and eternity to fill, I was even nodding off holding the
rope. Derek gave me a shout from the
back when the lock was half full, to say that the lockie had problem with the
back gates. He took us back down asked
us to tighten the rope on the hawzer and (as he put it) flushed lots of water
through the lock with the back gates open.
He then closed the gates and sent us back up. It certainly worked, we went up a lot faster
and finally got out of the lock 5 20 ish.
Wow it had been a long long day.
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