A windy trip up the Trent

Friday 13 November  .... and back to a safe haven and victory!

As it was dry and mild, John got the angle grinder out and cleaned rust and paint of the Z bar (tiller) down to metal and put a coat of iron oxide primer on it to weatherproof the new weld and improve looks. After winding (turning round) in front of the Clock Warehouse, we headed homewards, blown by a very strong wind.

Trent Lock is under the bridge, with Cranfleet cut to Nottingham ahead, to the left of the yacht club

Trent Lock. Left to the Erewash, ahead to Nottingham and right to the River Soar and the South

Despite the date, our short voyage ended safely as John turned Annie to face upstream just before entering Trent Lock

Liana definitely needed her coat in the cold wind, despite the winter sunshine

The Steamboat, Trent Lock as Liana crosses over

After a second coat of paint, we journeyed homewards to compete in our local church quiz at Market Rasen, always a good night out ..... and our team won!  :)

Thur 12 November Giving Annie a run

Great to be back on the boat! The day turned out better than the dire weather forecast predicted, so Liana operated Trent Lock to take us from the Erewash Canal down onto the Trent.

John dressed to cope with wind, rain and (hopefully not) total immersion!

Turning upstream in the sunshine, into the wind, we headed up to Sawley River Lock, where Liana hopped off and operated the push buttons herself to open the hydraulic mechanism. The strong wind was bringing lots of dark clouds, past which the bright, low sun peeped. Having popped into Sawley Marina chandlers recently, we idled through, looking at the boats, and headed though the flood lock back onto the river. Soon we passed through Derwent Mouth Lock up onto the start of the Trent and Mersey Canal. Mooring  at Shardlow, on the bend next to the New Inn, we met the Sheffield fender maker Wayne and Jo Fearn, who we bought our new front fender from last year. We bought a front fender with two Turks Heads to hang low down near the water, to protect the bow from lock sills when going uphill. After a walk around  Shardlow in the twilight, enjoying all the old original warehouses and wharves, we had a very pleasant and cheap meal at the Clock Warehouse pub.