Friday 11 August 2023 near Castle Marina, Nottingham
Liana collected boat toilet parts, liaised with funeral directors about interring ashes, posted papers to the inheritance tax people (again!) and booked air flights for our holiday later in the year - busy, busy!!
John cleaned the engine and adjusted the starter motor fanbelt tension, as the ignition warning light had been staying on after starting the engine. A mooring pin was most useful for levering the alternator, once nuts had been loosened!
Leesan supplied a small spring cartridge to replace the broken loo foot pedal spring, plus two big round rubber loo seals. £112 seemed steep, but at least they had the parts. In fairness, Karl at LeeSan has been really helpful, selling us a “ new old” vacuflush toilet recently, to replace the 18 year old one …. as I said, everything is wearing out! John soon had them fitted, so we have a working loo again!
As a reward for our efforts, we ate a decent meal at the nearby Hungry Horse pub, next to Castle Marina.
Saturday 12 August Nottingham to Trent Lock (10 miles, 2 locks)
A blue sky day, so we have set off along the Nottingham Beeston Canal to the services at Beeston lock. After a takeaway coffee at the lock cafe and emptying the vacuflush loo cassettes while we filled the water tank, we passed through the lock onto the River Trent again.
This pretty five mile stretch takes you past Beeston Marina and lots of riverside chalets, many with moored boats. Walkers and cyclists use the riverside path to Cranfleet, where we found volunteers who operated the lock for us.
We squeezed Annie onto the river pontoon visitor moorings at Trent Lock, after which John had a Guinness at the Steamboat Inn, with its Dalek and Sinclair C5 , plus other exhibits.
Sunday 13 August Trent Lock through Sawley to Shardlow (3 miles, 2 locks)
Full, cloudy, windy but nearly dry! We set off upriver past the scout boating centre, but Liana had to bring John wet weather gear before we reached Sawley.
There, we saw the same helpful lady volunteer lockie , who saw us up onto Sawley Cut. We decided to continue past the huge marina, and travelled under the M1 bridge the mile or so to Derwent Mouth Lock, the start of the Trent & Mersey Canal.
The canalside marina continues most of the mile into Shardlow, where we found our favoured mooring outside the Malt Shovel free. We moored up and had their excellent Sunday lunch, with plenty of beef and all the trimmings.
Later, we walked along the towpath to the lock and clock warehouse pub, then visited the little heritage museum. The lady there was full of information about up and coming events. We then walked past the Navigation pub, now sadly closed, and down the lane to Shardlow Marina. We looked around and visited the little chandlery, where John bought some white silicon sealant for loo and shower. Boaters we’re blacking their boats. I so wish our boat club had this facility. We tried the Boathouse, for beer and coffee in the sun, then returned to Annie.
Later, it rained all night.
Monday 14 August Shardlow to Swarkstone (7 miles, 3 locks)
The rain had stopped when we awoke, so after tea and toast we set off along this rural stretch up the Trent valley. We passed quite a few boats. Aston and Weston locks have big gates, and the latter is deep. Going uphill, the ground paddles can cause an unroped boat to bang about as water rushes in, pulling it towards the top gates here. Swarkstone lock was straightforward, beyond which we moored, opposite Swarkstone Boat Club.
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