Made a break for Shardlow

At the coming together of the two rivers Derwant and Trent, this branch acted as the perfect place to observe the surroundings. Shame it was a seagull on it and not a kingfisher.

Kevin took us back to the boat this morning. As we came over the bridge at Trent Lock the river level gauge was just in the amber. That's it then. Its not the first time we have travelled this stretch of river just of the red. In fact we did our boat handling course at a similar river level so we made ready, released our mooring ropes and away. What we hadn't realised was the gale that hit us as soon as we left the protection of the lock. We had to make a sharp right hand turn onto the river against the flow. Sure was interesting!!!!!! Anyway we made slow but steady progress up to Sawley but trying to get Ian off to do the lock was something else. The wind kept blowing us away from the side. In the end Ian climbed onto the roof and just about made it onto the lock landing. Luckily the lock was empty so I didn't have to wait to long before we made it in. We could have stayed in the protection of Sawley Marina but heavy rain had again been forecast and as we still had one more mile of river to do we decide to go for it. This time all went according to plan and we are now moored up above Derwent mouth lock with the rain beating steadily on the boat roof. At least we are back on the canal system and no longer reliant on the state of the river, so rain do your worst, we don't care!