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.