A fraught day!

 Feb 26th 

Talk about a restless night! On my mind, will we or won't we be able to leave! At 5.45 am I got up to check the river app and sure enough, it was down to 1.42 and still falling. The marker was still showing red though, but we could just see the slight shade of amber under the water line. 5.45 am was a silly time to leave, it was still dark, although in the distance a glimpse of light was appearing. So we had a cup of tea, or was it maybe two?....anyway by 8.am Ian was doing engine checks and then decided to do an oil change! What!!!!! Patience Irene...patience..... I just wanted to get going! In the end we entered Derwent Mouth lock at 8.30. And onto the river shortly after.

 

I think we both expected it to be a nail-biting ride, but really the flow was not as bad as we first had thought. Crossing the junction of the River Derwent and Trent was the only hairy bit and once past the weir, the rest was easy. Ian got off well before the flood lock, the upper ground paddle and lower ground paddle both were raised. This to allow a thorough flow of water to continue into Sawley, so of course he had to walk to the bottom gate to drop the paddle first. What was very noticeable was the flood marker was in the amber, no wonder that boat came up yesterday!

 With a tap just past the flood lock, we filled the tank. Poor water pressure along the canals are always remarked upon, this one was amazing. In fact, we had to slow it down a tad as the water kept shooting back up the pipe!  Took under 10 minutes to fill the two tanks and only a quarter was showing on our gauge before we filled, that's how good the pressure was.

Heading off towards Sawley lock I was again dismayed to see the red light and flood boards showing. We stopped on the landing, and while Ian did the biz with our cassette at the facilities, I walked to the flood markers on the walls.

 

I swore!!! Now what do we do. Just as I was about to go back to the boat, Ian appeared. And not only that, a boat was seen on the river at full throttle heading toward the lock.

 

Ian helped him through, and we found out that he had come out of the Erewash at Trent Lock with the marker almost in the green. Not only that, but he had a different river height app than us, and it stated that the upper Trent (Shardlow to Granfleet) was now in the green!!! What is going on? Derwent Mouth marker in the red, Sawley flood lock in the amber, Sawley lock on red lights and boards and Trent lock nearly on green. CRT need to address this. One cant allow a boater to go onto the mighty Trent thinking it's okay to do so and then meet red boards further up. It's all one river after all! Anyway, this chap told us the only difficult bit was coming out of the Erewash and onto the river. He advised us to head toward the Granfleet cut, wind and then come back on oneself going against the flow and onto the Erewash that way.  

With that in mind we decided to go for it and he was right. Winding and getting onto the Erewash canal was extremely challenging. Ian was at the helm and decided to go straight for the entrance. Crikey he nearly missed and power had to be put on pretty sharpish. Phew, what a relief to get in, but then we had another problem. The wind was blowing a holey and pinned FS onto the right-hand side, This meant the bottom steps were still underwater. All Ian could do was leap off and in doing so fell onto one of his knees. He managed to get up, but I could see he was in pain. Thankfully two chaps were at the lock with windlasses and emptied the lock for us. For me to get away from the side, Ian had to use the pole against the side of FS and push the bow away from the steps. In the lock and chatting to the two men, we were told they were very concerned about our manoeuvre off the river and the difficulty we had getting under the bridge. Watching it all unfold from the lock, hitting the bridge was a great possibility as well as cringing at the alarming tilt FS was at! Of course, we were oblivious to that fact being more concerned about getting off the river than the risk we took. But hey ho, at least it gave them something to talk about and at least we made it!

Waiting below lock for Ian to return

The Gods were shinning on us today because although I had a CRT stoppage message to say the Erewash would be closed for one day on the 27th before Long Eaton Lock, one of the guys at Trent Lock told me that it actually wouldn't reopen until the 13th March. Crikey, if we hadn't left today, that would have been a further delay to getting back to Langley Mill! 

 

Making it past that due stoppage, what should we encounter but this!

 

Now what do we do??? Just as Ian was about to get off FS, two men arrived and said they would pull the pontoon out of our way. 

 

We eventually arrived at Sandiacre a lot later than we thought. Ian had to catch the bus back to Shardlow to get the car and didn't want it to be late in doing so. It was as he was about to leave that realisation hit hard. His wallet with bus pass and credit cards were still in the car! What a bummer....so my purse was raided, and enough money found for the bus fare. Today then has been a bit fraught to say the least but so thankful to finally have our wait over. I think we may stay here for a few days before making the journey to the Mill.