These old warehouses have been turned into trendy apartments.
Approaching Castle Lock, too early for any lock keepers unfortunately.
Although my hopes were raised as we got closer and I could see a bloke with a windlass in his hand at the far end of the lock. Lovely, I thought, a boat is coming up and the lock will be in our favour. But it wasn't to be, the boat had just gone down through the lock and the chap was waiting to see if we were going through the next lock, and if so he would wait for us in the lock.
I filled the lock and worked Aqua Life through Castle Lock and we set off through the rest of Newark for Meadow Lane Lock. Sure enough there was a boat in the lock waiting for us. Lawrence made a seemless entrance and slid in beside Daisy May like a pro. Introductions were made, travelling info exchanged whilst some rapid character assessments took place and Andy, The skipper of Daisy May announced that we should travel together which Lawrence readily agreed to. Andy and Danny are travelling as far as West Stockwith and we will accompany them at least as far as Torksey, so we will have experienced 'boat buddies' for the first third of the Tidal Trent at least, for which we are really grateful.
Andy wants to do Cromwell Lock (start of the tidal section) to West Stockwith, 32 miles downstream, in one day. Lawrence, who has been doing tidal, distance and time calculations all evening doesn't think it is doable as we would get to West Stockwith when the tide is too low to get over the chill and into the lock and there are no moorings out on the river. I can feel a sleepless night coming on!
Back to how our day went. We followed our boat buddies out of Meadow Lane Lock (the last lock at which I will need a windlass until we exit Keadby lock) leaving the Cranfleet Cut behind us as we once more ventured onto the Trent.
Approaching Town Lock. At the end of the 18thC JMW Turner painted the scene we were just about to enter.
After the lock we passed the remains of Newark Castle
The first lock we encountered out on the river was Stoke Lock, where this fellow Australian wished us well
These locks are big, originally made for vessels up to 165' long which means we could fit in 12 boats of our size.
After exiting the lock we had some slower boats to overtake.
And looking back at the boats we passed - a slow process in a Narrowboat
Following NB Daisy May
More Trent views near Burton Joyce (11.00am)
The Trent Hills (1.20pm)
Lawrence enjoying the wind in his hair
The entrance to Hazelford Lock
Exiting the lock
Coming into Newark
The Newark Cut dats from 1772 and old canal warehouses and malting mills have been turned into des res's and offices making the entry into Newark via the water particularly attractive.
The castle looming over the canal
We moored up at 4.00pm managing to squeeze most of our length onto the Crt visitor mooring behind Daisy May - the des Res's of visitor moorings because they have water and electricity on tap. Lovely. After sorting ourselves out a boaters confab naturally occurred.
Taking narrowboats onto tidal waters warrants some serious chat and swapping of horror stories.
"The typical steel Narrowboat is totally unsuitable for cruising on tidal waterways .... Passage is possible if careful consideration is given to the weather conditions, tides, crew experience, the condition of the boat and its equipment" says our Nicholsons Guide. Not very reassuring, I find!!
Later, before we wandered up into the town, Joe , a single a hander on the 67' NB Lynnes, who had joined us in the last few locks and who had moored further back up the canal came down and asked if he could breast up to Daisy May and Aqua Life. I think he wanted the company. We went looking for a supermarket (we are headed into the 'wilds' for the next four days -which, to a Pom means no shops) and to have a nosey at Newark. When we got back NB Lynnes was breasted up alongside Daisy May with his stern tied onto our bow. And as Danny, Joe and I smoke and the evening very balmy we spent most of the evening congregating round the point where the three boats met.
Even tho' I went to bed replete with nicotine, a yum dinner cooked by Lawrence and eaten listening to Cesaria Evora and good conversation, sleep was elusive - I kept replaying the horror stories of groundings and broken crockery etc, at least no fatalities) plus the night was bloody hot (by English bedding standards).
23 1/2 miles. 6 locks 8hrs
No comments:
Post a Comment