What a weekend

Well a plan to leave Shardlow went to pot, when I turned on the tap expecting water , none appeared, it turned out the water pump,had tripped the fuse so switched it on and then noticed the water kept on pumping, so after checking all oblivious things that could go wrong all to no avail, so phoned the builder Findlay,who in turn phoned one of his workers who turned out to be our old neighbour Mark the electrician, who said he would come and see us, but he was on his boat so a couple of hours later he turned up an temporary fixed it for us for the night. Later in the evening we joined Mark,his girlfriend and his friend in the pub and had a good night chatting and supping beer before returning to the boat.

clocks went forward so had one less hour in bed, but we were not up as early as Mark and his crew he was up at five because his girl friend had work so they had to return back to Nottingham.

As the repair was only temporary we couldn't start the engine. So hence we couldn't use anything electrical, as the batteries were flat, also we didn't have much water, during the day was alright but in the night with out a telly........It was alright we played a few games and read, before of to bed and actually chatted to each other, most we have done in 30 odd years of marriage :)

Monday weather was fine again , so we waited for Mark to return with a new pump and pressure reducing valve,which he'd did and then fixed the boat, whilst waiting for Mark,I painted the side of boat to get some of the scrapes which I have required over last year.

After Mark finished we set off and filled up with water before going on for a little while before mooring out in the country side so we can keep the engine running so we can fully charge the batteries.

We then had our dinner before having a nice shower, bliss, before settling down for the night.

 

 

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On to Shardlow

 

They promised heavy rain today but the weather is sunny which is a blessing, we had a quiet night at our mooring, just the odd sound of an airplane going over to East Midlands airport, awoke early but didn't leave our mooring till 10.00hrs

We leave the Cranfleet canal and back onto the Trent for a short while, before going on to the Sawley cut, where we top up our water, then through the flood gates onto the Trent again before joining the Trent and Mersey Canal. Whilst going through the lock at Sawley we meet a group of French holiday makers setting out on their first narrowboat holiday. Altogether today Denise operated 3 locks today with. One of them being a electric push button lock, which makes it a bit easier.

 

We then moored at Shardlow which is a pretty village with a lot of canal history and a few canal pubs as a bonus. As said before it host an 18th century warehouse " the Clock Warehouse" and "Shardlow Heritage Centre . In 2009 Sawley was blighted with a smell coming from waste products being legally dumped onto nearby farmland. The smell was dubbed the Sawley Stink. A dedicated group of local residents campaigned successfully to put an end to the process and Sawley was soon free of the stink, thankfully for us. Saying that there are some nice house dotted around the village, another fact about Sawley is that the average age is above 65, for all of you that need to retire.

We walked around the village and stopped for a few shandies on he way before returning to the boat to settle down for the evening,

 

See you tomorrow

 

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On our waterway journey again

Today we broke our mooring in Castle Marina, a big thank you to the staff and our old neighbours that helped us whilst we been there,and our journey began , bur firstly  over old familiar  ground or more precisely   water, so back down the Beeston canal and through the lock on to the River Trent, the river warning was at Orange, which means proceed with caution, which we did, beginning with donning our life jacket, but the river was fine almost   like a mill pond, the sun did try to shine through the grey sky, but the wind was chilling.

The river was ours and no one else's today not passing a single boat we passed the houses that sit on the stilts and wondered if they were alright in the winter floods, and pass fields of geese grazing the farmers crops, then we reached Cranfleet lock and canal beyond it, this lock is a double and when Denise open the paddle the force of the water tosses the boat around in the lock, but no damage thankfully.Once through the lock we pass a few permit only mooring before find our mooring for the night, which is not far from where we moored last year, and settle down for the night.

Not a lot of information about this area, just to say Thrumpton a unspoilt village and  Thrumpton Hall which is famous for its oak stair case which dates from Charles 2nd era is close by.

See you tomorrow . Steve 

Sunny Nottingham

Can't get over this weather it's been absolutely gorgeous back on the boat, hope this stays at least till December :) We been busy on the boat with Denise, cleaning and myself installing the new solar panels which we bought, hopefully when we are off the mains power it will keep our batteries nice and charged without the need to use the engine to charge them, I used our neighbours Mark skills to do the final wiring.

Solar Panels installed, looking neat and sleek

 

As its Saturday, not going to do much, but watch all the rugby on television, three matches today, but Wales are out off contention to win anything this year :(, and later the boxing, after all of this sport we will be knackered.

On another note firking the cat has started to stop eating, she hasn't be right since her brother passed on to the cattery in the sky, so we will have to keep an eye on her.

 

 

 

 

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Pooooooopoh

Yesterday we returned to the boat, the drive back up to Nottingham was nice and dry with the weather sunny and bright after a miserable wet last few months. The boat was fine, but this morning we awoke to a not pleasant smell, unfortunately when we left the boat I turned all the electrics off, and hence the toilet gauge wasn't working correctly, so some of our toilet fluids backed up into the filter. So firstly we had to clean the mess up, and the have a pump out, we also filled up the diesel, why we were away from our mooring.

I had a shower and got changed, and we went to do a bit of food shopping, we also went to B&Q, and bought some plastic storage which will fit in our engine bay. When we got back to the boat I topped up the batteries with distiller water and a few other little jobs around the boat, and the day seemed to be gone, so dinner was had and we settled down for the night.