From Brian.Holt@tesco.net Sun Aug 29 20:07:00 1999 Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 17:36:56 +0100 From: Brian Holt Reply-To: Canals To: Canals Subject: Trip Report Part 1 Braunston to the Tidal Trent [ 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. ] The final plans were made; we would do the tidal Trent after all. All the help and advice received from the group was read again as were Trevor's reports from Lady Elgar. The Car was loaded and full speed made to Braunston, there we packed the boat "Waterwitch" and had lunch with John and Gillian who took our car back to theirs for a fortnight. We got away about 3,30 and spent the first night just past Weltonfield Marina. Next morning we set off to Watford where we had to wait for 4 boats coming down, it seemed to take for ever, but we cleared the flight at 12 O'clock and checking with our "Sid Arkless Canal Planner" we were running to schedule. That night we moored at the top of the Foxton flight. Next morning as I walked the dogs Crystal and Mick came past on their boat having been for their weekly battery charge run. We approached the top lock with one boat in front of us and we were surprised to find it was John and Joan Finch from the Ipswich IWA. It was the first time we had seen them since John had had his bypass operation, so we stopped at the bottom of the locks for coffee with them. The G.U. Leicester branch was almost deserted and we only met 2 boats all day plus one BW workboat at the tunnel. Passed through Leicester with nothing to report and onto the Soar. Passed Little Mo and met a man at Redhill, stopped for coffee and a look round Rumpus, I thought I had taken a lot on fitting out a new boat but Brian is going great guns. We moved on to the Trent, it was as smooth as a millpond and we went down in the company of a Stowe Hill boat. I don't remember the name of the boat but it had a gizmo on the tiller that looked just like a collector control from a helicopter. Moved off into the Nottingham canal without incident and moored for the night at the lock that drops back onto the Trent. I thought this would be a secure mooring when I saw the ride on lawn mower parked by the lock keepers office with no one on duty. In fact the lock is completely fenced in and the gates aren't even fitted with BW water mate locks. Next morning onto the Trent again and down as far as Cromwell Lock where we had a BBQ. I was very impressed with the locks on the Trent; they were all as well kept as the Thames locks but a lot more boater friendly. No notices saying "keep off the grass" or "No mooring" and "No dogs" They even have BBQs that you can use and pontoon moorings, which are ideal for narrowboats. We had a chat with the keeper at Cromwell lock and he suggested that we set off between 7 and 8 the next morning, there was a cruiser locking out as he was in a hurry to get to Hull and then Yarmouth. As we didn't have any charts I asked the lock keeper if he thought I was a complete idiot heading down the tidal Trent. He assured me that it was a very mild tide and as long as I didn't cut corners and watched for the notices I would be OK and that the keeper at Torksey was expecting me. They had even laid on a Brass band and another narrowboat called K2 was waiting to go down to West Stockwith that afternoon. I later discovered that the Brass band was not for us but had been arranged for some time and that there were only two members of the band. --- The UK Waterways Network - http://www.ukwaterways.net/ * bringing the inland waterways community together * You are currently subscribed to canals as: george@adiva.com To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-canals-407N@ukwaterways.net