From ian.cardinal@lichfield.anglican.org Fri Nov 5 13:43:00 1999 Date: Thu, 4 Nov 1999 13:17:06 -0000 From: Ian Cardinal To: george@adiva.com Subject: Part 2 [ The following text is in the "iso-8859-1" character set. ] [ Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set. ] [ Some characters may be displayed incorrectly. ] and part 2 Ian Cardinal (aka Norman the Narrowboat) Tuesday 6th Woke up to a cloudy/hazy sunshine-y sort of a morning. Hadn't slept terribly well, but this was nothing to do with the boat, which was extremely comfortable. Kids woke fairly early for them, and we were showering and washing at around 8 - 8.30am. Oh, yes and I boobed. I carefully turned the thermostat down on the heating (which wasn't on) which had the effect of not letting the boiler keep the water warm. Consequently the third shower was cool, the fourth colder and the last one almost cold. Glad I didn't go last.....! We were off by about 10am and cruising up the Trent. But the first lock was Sawley. Last time I passed this way we had to operate it ourselves with the BW key, but the lock keeper did this for us. But why was he so grumpy? We had difficulty understanding his accent (Dutch?) and he treated us like idiots: unfortunately this had the effect of making us behave like such. In some peculiar way we shattered the wooden tiller handle here by mis-manoevuring. Still we got through & took on water (against the lock keeper's wishes - why didn't he want us to do so here?) and then cruised on under the M1. The Lorry drivers seemed to enjoy hooting at the teenage girls, I wonder why? The Trent and Mersey came soon enough, and seemed like cycling in treacle after the Trent. We stopped below Shardlow lock for the Bridge stores: good supplies, helpful staff and reasonable prices for a small shop:- even the teenagers were impressed. Then onwards; but aren't the locks deep and heavy along here. We stopped near Aston Lock for lunch then cruised on through mizzle that quickly turned to drenching rain as far as Swarkestone, turning round in the old Derby canal - and prognosis for re-opening here? This lock was the scene of a near accident: a tug style boat was going down as we were waiting to come up - and it caught on the brickwork. As the woman steering aboard screamed to shut paddles she jumped back aboard to get her daughter. Just as all was looking lost "Ellie" slipped off the side and levelled up in the water. A nasty moment, but a good lesson for the crew about how dangerous as well as tremendous fun canals can be. But they were getting tired now, especially of getting wet. And it seemed a bit of a slog back to Shardlow as we cruised slowly back. Fortunately we met other boats to share the locks with, and the rain finally stopped as we moored above Shardlow lock. Just time to try out the disposable barbecue & I fancied a trip to the pub - but no-one else did. Tomorrow would be another day -- Ian Cardinal (aka Norman the Narrowboat)