What CRT does with a settee in a lock

After visiting the large new Lidl very near where we were moored at Sandiacre we carried on up the Erewash to the IWA festival site in Ilkeston. We stopped at what I thought would be the beginning of the moorings and cycled up to look for a harbourmaster so I could find out where we were meant to be. I soon came across some blueshirts marking up the moorings, and discovered that our spot was 47B, even further back from where we had stopped. They were able to tell us that the boat on our inside had gone up to wind, so we decided to do the same. That way we would be bow-to-bow and stern-to-stern, which would probably make it easier to get on and off.

At one of the locks we went through was a CRT drop-side truck with a settee which they had removed from Stenson's Lock, a little further than we were going.

Some people appear to have no brain.

Me. I should have walked round to the other side of the truck to take the photo. Well done CRT for hoiking it out.

We winded immediately above Green's Lock in an unofficial winding hole (not marked on Nicholson's) at the entrance to the bywash. There was a fair amount of boat juggling, with two boats waiting to go down the lock and us and another boat wanting to wind. It all worked out in the end, and we returned to the festival moorings. The single boat ahead in the photo is Alice, against which we moored.

The canal was covered in a white powder which someone said was ash.

It's been humid and warm today, but with no rain. Until now. It has just started.

This afternoon I helped with marking out the site for the locations of the marquees and catering stalls. We were quite surprised when we got here today to see the field completely empty of anything. The marquees etc. arrive tomorrow - no doubt I shall help with putting everything up.

We got us a convoy ...

We left Willington at 0900 and continued our way down to the Trent. We managed to share all the remaining locks, initially with our friends Alan and Glenda on Tranquility and then with Keiwa. On the way I touched up paintwork on the wooden front doors.

On the Trent I was looking forward to opening up the throttle but there was a slow boat in front of the boat in front of us.

He waved us on after we'd passed through Sawley Flood Lock.

We almost flew between Sawley Lock and Trent Lock - and suddenly we were on the Erewash Canal. There were two volunteer lockies at Trent Lock. The older one evidently hadn't operated wide locks before. He raised the ground paddle on the opposite side to the boat, causing the bow to swing over across the lock. The younger volockie gently instructed the older one how to do it, and we ascended the lock with no further problems.

A boat was tied up at the water point meaning we had to use our long hose. It had been there all day, apparently, and the volockie phoned CRT to ask if they could move it out of the way. There will be a large number of boats wanting to top up there over the next few days on their way to the IWA festival at Ilkeston. The message came back to move it, so the volockies and another boater did so. I was staying well out of it.

At Long Eaton Lock I saw an iPhone abandoned on a bench. There was no-one around, so I took it. At the next bridge I cycled to the police station in order to hand it in, but the police station was shut. Outside was a yellow phone for contacting them, so I tried but there was no reply. As I was hanging on the iPhone rang. On the other end was the owner. We arranged a rendezvous; a few minutes later he turned up and was reunited with his phone. He was understandably grateful.

We made slow progress along the pound above Long Eaton Lock. At the next lock I removed a large amount of plastic sheeting and a fair amount of weed from the propeller. This made an appreciable difference to our speed.

Sandiacre Lock

We tied up in Sandiacre and I cycled back to Swarkestone to get the car. Tomorrow's leg is very short, we should be at the festival site with the car shuffle complete by lunchtime.

Langley Mill to Shardlow

Wednesday 10th June 2015

We left Great Northern Basin, Langley Mill, sharing locks with Gabriel.

At Hallam Fields we had a very enjoyable meal on board Gabriel - thanks, Hazel and James - before walking to Ilkeston Rugby Club for a folk evening. We were down to be the first act after the interval; meanwhile we enjoyed some talented musicians playing the guitar and singing.

The guitarist above played some intricate stuff very well; the man in the photo below played some mean rock 'n' roll on his slide guitar.

Thursday 11th June 2015

There are some lovely views from the Erewash Canal; this is Sandiacre with St. Giles Church on the hillside.

After emptying/refilling at Trent Lock we popped out onto the Trent. Ah - depth at last! That's Gabriel in front.

We had lent Gabriel our jerry can with diesel in it as they were concerned that they were low on fuel. They stopped to refill at Sawley Marina while we continued to Shardlow.

Here we tied up on the 48 hour moorings and met Ally and Ben who had come to drive us back to their house for a couple of days of gardening!

Up the Erewash and beyond

Whoah! Where has all the time gone? My last post was eight days ago. Then I was desperately trying to play catch-up and get up-to-date; now I am woefully behind again. So ... I'll try again. This time I'll be stricter with myself about the number of photos I publish. But first, where we were on Monday a week ago two weeks ago (eek!), using photos I had already resized.

Monday 8th June 2015

We left Cotmanhay and continued up the remaining locks to Langley Mill, the head of the Erewash Canal, and Great Northern Basin.

Some of the bridges are on the low side.

This was the second time we have been through the top lock; the last time was Easter 2013.

We tied up on the left beyond the lock in front of Remus. Eric and Sue came for a meal on Jubilee; during the meal I leapt out to take a photo of the Nottingham Canal Toll House lit by the setting sun.

The next day we explored our surroundings, finding a large charity shop next to B&M near the station. Walking in the other direction we looked for and found some remains of the Cromford Canal still in water. I stood on an old railway bridge to take this picture.

And this is the railway bridge from under the lattice girder bridge.

In the evening we ate at the Great Northern pub with James and Hazel from Gabriel, who tied up behind us.

Halfie, Jan, Hazel, James

Right, I'm only 13 days behind now. At this rate I might have caught up by autumn!

Cotmanhay events end with Indian fare

Last Sunday was the final day of the BCF at Cotmanhay event. Eric and Sue carried on with taking small groups of excited children and adults on mini boat trips; I assisted with Remus winding above Stenson's Lock, whizzing up and down on my bike (and clearing the towpath of all litter).

We served cream teas in the afternoon; there were enough for the helpers to have one - they were very good.

At 1600 we started clearing up; packing away the gazebos in their various conditions, doing more litter sweeps and dismantling the games/crafts.

In the evening 23 of us invaded the Shah Jahan curry house - they didn't have a huge amount of warning - and enjoyed a final meal together. The food was good; the staff brought out complimentary poppadums and melon salads while the chef slaved away on our meals. We were there a long time, but it didn't matter at all as we had plenty to talk about.

I got one of the staff to take this photo - look, I'm in it!

Cotmanhay Saturday: massive effort to secure marquee against wind, but ...

Saturday 6th June started with a cooked breakfast in the Bridge Inn. Yum.

James's wait was rewarded when his belly buster turned up.

Triple bacon, egg, sausage etc!

The energy was needed for erecting the various stalls, gazebos and large gazebo/lightweight marquee. Once up, some of the roof struts came adrift. Henry and Chris managed to get these back.

It was very windy, but it was decided that the side panels should be added. The photo shows ropes - and gaffer tape - trying to give extra support.

At 1300 the punters arrived. There was a very good atmosphere; youngsters enjoyed the bouncy castle while parents had a drink, the gazebos didn't blow down immediately and people generally had a good time. Jan and I did a one-hour stint looking after the bouncy castle - I have seldom known sixty minutes go slower.

Hazel put her litter picker-upper to good use.

Andy from the Elim Church performed some magic tricks with a Christian message. I have no idea how he got the coin in the bottle nor how he did the rope trick.

Adrian took on a young competitor at the blowing-a-narrowboat race.

And then the wind got just too much for the marquee gazebo.

Oops! Two other gazebos had already been taken down and one of Bob's had been similarly destroyed.

As far as I know no-one was hurt and people went home happy. BCFers went back to their boats tired!

Ten BCF boats at Cotmanhay on the Erewash; back to school for Jan

We have been busy. That's my excuse for not blogging for the last week and more. We had joined up with several other members of the Boaters' Christian Fellowship for an event based on the Bridge Inn at Cotmanhay on the Erewash Canal.

The idea was to organise a family fun weekend for the local community where there would be opportunities to share a little about our faith. On Thursday morning, 4th June, we had the first of several 0800 briefing meetings.

The boats and personnel there were

• Dilly-Dally (Alan and Hazel)
• Essence (Adrian and Chris)
• Gabriel (James and Hazel)
• Gospel Belle (Peter and Lin)
• Jubilee (John and Jan)
• Mistol (Rob and Trish)
• Remus (Eric and Sue)
• Tumzel Cloud (Don and Celia)
• Trinity (Henry and Lin with grandson Jack)
• Ultreya (Chris and Di)

One job we volunteered for was to help in a leaflet drop to the nearby housing estate. The weather had certainly heated up by this stage.

Before the weekend schools in the area had been asked if they would like to visit some of the boats; on the Friday Adrian and Chris entertained several groups of schoolchildren on Essence with an interactive presentation on safety on the waterways.

Here's Jan on her way to take a school assembly (she might have thought all that was in the past - not so!) on the parable of the lost sheep.

We were at the Bridge Inn at the invitation of Bob, the landlord. He kindly provided us all with a free barbecue.

Some of our number provided an evening of folk music in the pub. Hazel and James graciously allowed Jan, on violin, and me, on recorder, to join in for the second set. We supplied some harmonies and the occasional twiddly bit.

That takes us up to the end of Friday; on Saturday there were activities for families in the garden. More to come.

Low pound on the Erewash but we get through

Today's weather has possibly been the best since we started in March. We had almost wall-to-wall sunshine and even the wind didn't seem to have quite the same bite to it. In fact, while sitting on a bench at Barker's Lock sheltered by trees but in the full blast of the sun, I actually got quite hot.

We did have one small problem, though, and that was at Long Eaton Lock. When we got there at about 0900 we found that the pound above was very low.

This is the bywash weir; the level is about two feet down.

I set off on my bike to see what was happening at the next lock; as I had hoped, paddles were open at both ends to let water down from the pound above. The low pound was a long one at over a mile, so refilling was going to be a long process. I carried on upstream on my bike, talking to towpath walkers who had never seen the canal this low before and reaching some other BCF boats tied up in a higher - and fuller - pound. They told me that CRT was on the case, so I returned to the boat and waited as the level crept up.

This was the predicament of two boats in the drained pound:

Eventually I deemed there to be sufficient water to risk venturing out of the lock, so I clicked into tickover and inched forward.

The CRT man on his bike zoomed up and down as we climbed the locks, assisting with them and making sure there was enough water for us.

Here he is (on right, windlass in left hand) on his way to the next lock.

We had no problems, we didn't touch the bottom and we didn't get anything round the prop, so it was a painless rest of journey to the Bridge Inn at Cotmanhay where we joined nine other BCF boats.

I don't suppose there has been as much concentrated boat traffic here for some time.

Tomorrow the reason for us being here begins in earnest.

Carrots roll as we cross the Trent

I don't think I have boated in such high winds before. Today has been mostly sunny, but with a strong southerly wind and frequent fierce gusts. But first I need to say a few words about yesterday.

We set off from the Hope and Anchor at 0730 in benign conditions but with rain forecast for the afternoon. We hoped we would make it to Loughborough before getting too wet. The Soar makes its way through countryside with only the occasional town or village for extra interest. Near Junction Lock the River Wreake joins the Soar's waters, and the navigation is called the River Wreake for a short distance.

Junction Lock

The wind was getting up as we made the left turn under Chain Bridge to go to Loughborough Basin, and it caught the bow pushing it against the sticking out concrete edge. This took paint off the edge of the gunnel at the bow, it also slightly damaged the front edge of the cabin.

After using the services we reversed onto a pontoon. As soon as we had tied up it started raining heavily. Phew!

We looked round the town and got some supplies from Tesco, then wondered how much more of the buffeting from the wind we could stand. The pontoons in Loughborough Basin are only about 30' long, making it impossible to use the front rope. In the wind the boat rocked around, cups on hooks constantly crashing against the side and the centre line creaking and straining. In the end we could take no more, and powered out of the basin in the rain. We tied up outside the Anchor pub past Chain Bridge and waited for my brother to arrive.

David is with us for a couple of days.

This morning the wind was possibly not quite as strong as yesterday, but it increased through the day making for quite interesting lock approaches. At Ratcliffe Lock we decided to sit it out for a bit and wait for the wind to abate before the last section of the Soar and the crossing of the Trent. I used some of the time to prepare and prime the damaged paintwork.

Eventually, with another narrowboat approaching the lock, I decided the time had come to go for it. We shared the lock with Eos, a boat we had seen several times on our way down the Leicester Line.

This is my favourite photo of the day; Ratcliffe Power Station.

At last, we came to the junction with the River Trent. Now the wind was strong and completely unhindered as it came at us across the watery expanse, this time from a more westerly direction. As we turned into the wind to head for the entrance of the Erewash Canal the boat leaned over somewhat; enough for four carrots which Jan was preparing in the galley to roll off the worktop onto the floor. I kept the power on as we shot between the masonry bridge supports into the Trent Lock approach, then stopped with a sense of relief as David went to prepare the lock.

Another "Phew"!

Incidentally, I'm really glad that we weren't trying to go up the Soar today. Against the flow would have been bad enough, not that it was particularly strong, but against the wind would have been a test of engine and steerer's stamina.

I've stowed the anchor again; we'll be on the Erewash for the next few days.

A look round Great Northern Basin

7th April 3013

At the top of the Erewash Canal is Great Northern Basin, where what remains of the Nottingham Canal and the Cromford Canal come together. Here are the Great Northern pub ...

... a Nottingham Canal toll house ...

... plenty of boats ...

... including Petrel, a 1914 Josher (according to the National Historic Ships Register).

Trying to get a bit of perspective at the far end of the basin, where the currently unrestored Cromford Canal continues, I walked to the end of a jetty.

A wire fence blocked access.

Poking my camera through the fence I was able to photograph the state of play as it was back in April.

Won't it be good when the canal is restored all the way to Cromford, with all the interest of Arkwrights mills and the connection with the Cromford and High Peak Railway?