Dissapointment.

 Jan 19th

 High hopes this morning that we may be able to leave. This screenshot taken from my phone on the GOV.UK site. It states the level to be steady and in normal levels. Yippee, we might make it onto the Erewash Canal today after all.

 After breakfast, off we set by foot to see if the flood lock light was on. 

 Blast, red light displayed for both River Trent and the Soar, okay, so what would it be like at Derwent Mouth lock. We decided to veer off the towpath and take the path running alongside the field, less muddy and had a better surface to walk on. Didn't get too far though, blast again...well that was a waste of time. Turn around and walk back!

 Derwent Mouth lock, not a chain or padlock to be seen so did that mean the river was truly down. 

 

Our hopes were dashed when we walked to see the gauge below the lock. Clearly it was still very high!

Looks to be like any lock landing on the canal but on normal river levels there is quite a step-up and sometimes the ladders have to be used.

This taken in 2023 showing why the ladders would have to be used.

So disappointed and upset that the app on Gov.uk was wrong. Why say it's normal river levels when it clearly wasn't! 

We couldn't believe what we were seeing when starting the walk back to FS. A boat on the move heading for the lock. "You're not going onto the river?" I asked the lone gentleman boater. He said he was, and even though we mentioned the height of the river, he was undeterred. "Been here long enough" was his reply, "I'm not staying any longer." Even when we mentioned his insurance would be null and void and how would he get off his boat to operate the floodgate paddles at Sawley, he still said he was going. I do hope he makes it, especially as coming from the lock channel onto the river, he will have to cope with two rivers coming into one. The Derwent flow from the left and the Trent from the right. It's hairy at the best of times as power has to be put on to cross the currant, but today....with the rivers as high as they are....well he's either very brave or very stupid!

 

 Oh, and remember I mentioned that widebeam on Weston lock landing yesterday. Well, early evening (dark) it came past us and pulled onto the landing. "Bet they are still there in the morning" I said and sure enough, I was right. It's now 5pm and they are still there!

 

 

Wow, River Trent higher than we thought.

 17th Jan

The couch to 5K run was in progress opposite the park just as we were about to set off. Wow, it was well attended, over a hundred I think, some in fancy dress, some pushing buggies and some parents running with their children. I'm more of a couch to kitchen person, just to make a cup of tea, and all that running looks far too strenuous for me! I'm blaming my flabby muscles, old age and not being as agile as I once was.

 

Leaving Branston Water Park, that nice gentlemen on his boat, the one who tried to moor yesterday but failed because we pinched his mooring, waved us goodbye. Probably glad to see the back of us! I still feel uncomfortable about what we did. 

 

First lock of the day, Branston Lock

We stopped just past bridge 33 for a Morrison's shop and then continued to Shobnall for diesel. 85p for over 50 litres, take less than that and its 90p litre. It was an easy reverse through the entrance to the marina, the pump is at the far end and this is the best way to get your filler near to the pump. Hardly a whisper of wind to make this manoeuvrer difficult today. 

 

Our aim was to moor past Willington, (after using the facilities) near to the Mercia Marina entrance. OMG, on the skyline before the entrance was this monstrosity. What was being built now? Ian thinks it's flats, I will have to do a bit of research to find out.

 

Jan 18th

Rain was falling heavily as we woke so no thoughts of even attempting to leave for Shardlow. The plan was for a lazy day catching up on TV programs but by 10 am, the rain stopped. A look on AccuWeather for this area showed a window of about 4 hours when no rain would fall. Decision made, we would leave.

No sooner had I cast off when a sudden reverse was needed as this dog jumped out in front of FS. The owner's fault for not looking for boat movement and throwing in a stick. They took note pretty sharpish when they did see FS almost level to them! 

 

What a far cry from when we left mid-October with very low water levels to now. Bywashes by the locks running rapidly and part of the offside bank before bridge 25 had collapsed leaving the canal water to flow into the field.

 

Willington Cooling Towers have become local landmarks. There have been many development plans for the site, but all have been rejected. We personally want them to remain, it's a landmark we welcome, knowing Willington is not far off. 

From Willington we cruised to Stenson and the start of the broad locks that we now have to endure right up to Langley Mill. Stenson is a deep lock, it took forever to fill and nearly as long to empty! New gates have been installed, (not sure when) but still there remains a problem when the nearside bottom gate wouldn't open sufficiently to let FS out. (to make life easier for us only one gate needs to be opened) There is a lot of debris in the water from rotting reeds and penny wort, which may be the culprit, but I suspect it's something more substantial.

 

Swarkstone lock is by the junction of the Derby canal. Only a short section of the arm is still in water, but the TRUST are confident that one day the whole length will be restored.

The River Trent flows very near to the canal at Cliff Wood, bridge 10. We knew the Trent was on red boards, but had no idea just how bad it was. I can't see us getting back to Langley Mill any time soon!

 

Approaching Weston lock, I got such a shock when a loud thud was heard right at my feet. I was mortified to see our tiller pin dog lying in two halves on the deck. Crikey, one of the halves could easily have disappeared into the depths. We sure were lucky they stayed on the deck!

 We were helped at Weston, by the gentleman that lives in the lock cottage. He's been helping boaters for the last 5 days because a widebeam was moored below on the lock landing. Previous to that it had been moored on the water point for three days.  CRT have been informed but to date, nothing has been done!

The rain held off until we reached Shardlow. Not sure if we should attempt to go down the lock and then be faced with no mooring space so we stayed at the top. Tomorrow we will walk down to see what, if anything, is available

 

And seen on route

Offside mooring near Horninglow

Egret

 

Making a break for it

 14th Jan

Woke to ice....yet again! Thankfully, it didn't last because the temperature throughout the day rose steadily. 

 

With only a couple of bags of coal left, and not knowing how long we would have to wait for the river to come down, we were told the garage at the end of Main Street sold 20kg bags of smokeless coal for £18. From this mooring, Google Maps estimated a 10 to 15-minute walk, not too bad, so armed with a trolley, set out.  These days I can keep up with Ian's longer stride now that I have a new knee, so I think we made it well inside the 10 minutes.

 

 We found an app showing river levels for this area. It's the monitoring station at King's Bromley and can be found on the Gov.UK site 

 

We religiously looked at it hourly, probably a bit OTT but was pleased to see the levels to be dropping and had high hopes that we might be able to get going tomorrow.

 

Jan 15th. 

 

Our first thoughts when we woke was would we be able to leave. Rain was forecast for later, getting a bit paranoid that the levels would rise before we got away.  The app showed the level to be only slightly above normal, looked promising. Another walk to the lock late morning and was pleasantly surprised to see the marker to be in the amber. In our book there was nothing to stop us going except for one thing...the chains were still on the lock!

 We met another boater at the water point. He had already phoned CRT asking why the chains were still on the gate. The reply was they expected the river to rise and didn't want to have to come out again! So we showed him the app, proving the Trent was falling, and it was agreed that we would also phone CRT asking for the chains to be removed. Anyway several hours later a return phone call to tell us the river was now open, time 2 pm and much too late for us to set off especially as the first decent moorings after the river was at Barton Turns, a good 90 minutes cruise away. And to top it all, rain had started. Nop we would descend onto the river tomorrow.

16th Jan,

 Rain was intermittent overnight and did nothing to make the Trent rise again so by 9 am we got ourselves underway.

 We were beaten to the lock by one coming off the river, it was the start of meeting several boaters all trying to get through before another stoppage occurred.

Boat had just descended Wychnor Lock

At Barton lock yet another boat was met. The chap happened to be the one we talked to yesterday and had gone down the river as soon as it opened. He had moved to the lock landing, the perfect place to await CRT with their padlock key and no sooner was that chain off, he was gone!

 Below Barton Lock was the water point. Two taps and plenty of room for boats to water up without getting in the way of the lock landing. We chose the second tap furthest from the lock to top up the tank. Unfortunately it didn't work! The pipe below the isolation valve had a 2-inch split in it, obviously from a burst pipe. So a phone call to CRT to report it and then pulled back to the first tap. This one did work.

Kat was due to come past today, not sure when, but we had been told she had loaded Bagus with coal, diesel and gas bottles at Horninglow. Not wanting to miss her or pass whilst travelling, we decided to stay on the water point but pulled forward again to where the broken tap was. Several more boats came past, none wanting water.

Early afternoon we heard the sound of Bagus in the distance. Ian hurriedly took our empty gas bottle from the gas locker ready to exchange and decided we would also buy another 2 bags of coal. 

 

 Kat was worried she wouldn't get to Alrewas before CRT closed the lock again. Yet another mention of the locks being closed, most baffling. We showed her the app with the river levels still falling, she appeared relieved and also happier. Not long after she had entered the lock, we too set off.

Branston Water Park was our preferred mooring for tonight. Seeing a space free we pulled in, only to see winter mooring notices along the mooring. We deduced (quite wrongly as it turned out) that no boater had taken up the offer of a winter mooring and got ourselves nicely settled.

Blue sign with winter permit holders only.

 

Thirty minutes later, we heard a boat trying to reverse. Hurrying out, realised the space he was trying to get into wasn't big enough for him. We did the right thing and offered to pull back. A very pleasant gentleman then informed us that where we had moored was his paid for mooring, and he had only left to get to Barton Turns to water up. Oh dear, I was mortified and said we would leave immediately, but he wouldn't hear of it. Said if we pulled right back so he could get in, we should be okay to stay, as no other boater had arrived to take up that mooring. What a lovely person, and we had a productive and long conversation. And guess what... he also mentioned that Wychnor and Alrewas locks would be closed as from tonight. "They don't want to come out over the weekend if the river rises", he said.. I wonder how true that is!

We were also told of a police incident at the park. Drones and divers had been there for several days and a body was eventually found. This from the BBC news  So sad for the family. 

We would like to make Willington tomorrow, a nice mooring by the footbridge at Mercia Marina. It's also handy for Midland Chandlers to get some more 'blue' for our cassettes.

Made Alrewas. How long will we have to stay here?

 12th Jan

It was positively balmy overnight. 8 degrees, it hasn't been that high for weeks! Lovely to open the curtains and see clear water. A few floating sheets remained; those had been broken by nb Pilot when they left yesterday, so there was no excuse now for us to remain.

 

Before leaving, we filled the water tank and then Ian walked ahead to open the small footbridge and set Junction lock.

 

Saw Pilot again, moored almost opposite the facilities. They didn't get very far yesterday! Maybe the ice towards Keeper's lock was just too thick, even for an icebreaker. Anyway, this morning, although we did encounter sheets of ice on that pound, nothing to worry FS and Ian had Hunts lock ready and waiting as I approached.

 

 

In Keepers Lock

It was coming out from this lock that I spied what I thought to be a black cat.

 

 The lifting of its head and then running along the towpath had me thinking it was probably the unwelcome American Mink. 

 

I assumed it was a dog Mink because as it had a wee, it cocked its leg!

Looking beyond Common lock, I could see ice in places, but again, it was very thin. Thicker though towards Bagnall Lock, and I really had to put the power on after dropping Ian quite a way from the lock, as two boats moored close to the landing had FS's bow heading straight for them. A much thicker sheet of ice pushed the bow toward the first boat. I managed to miss that but had to reverse rapidly to avoid hitting the next. Thankfully, for once, FS behaved herself in reverse, going straight back, and I got myself out of a tricky situation...phew!

 

Stopped initially on the 7-day mooring, walked into town to stock up with supplies and of course, Coates the Butchers. 

 

 

We can never go through Alrewas without stopping at Coates. Their sausages, pork pies and sausage rolls are to die for. With Burns night on the 25th January, we treated ourselves to a haggis prepared by the butchers. The sell-by date was the 30th, so no need for freezing.

 

We walked back a different way, over a small road bridge close to the lock and noticed the moorings by that bridge were free. Having asked in the village about a coal merchant, we were told a 10-minute walk down Main Street to Ivy garage was where 25kg bags of smokeless coal were sold. So tomorrow, Ian will walk with our trolley to buy a bag, and therefore stood to reason that moving toward the bridge would be beneficial. He won't have to walk quite so far to the garage. 

 

 

Later in the afternoon, we walked toward Alrewas Lock. Oh, yes...A red warning board was present and the river gauge was well into the red. The flow was rapid, definitely not good for boats to try and navigate. Chains had also been padlocked onto the gate, so no one will be going anywhere until that comes off. We saw one of the CRT guys as we walked back to FS, and he thought the river may well drop in a couple of days. Fingers crossed. 🤞

 

 

Christmas has not left yet.

River over the towpath

The mill stream

Lock landing on the right. Water is nearly covering the bollards.