Nottingham to Shardlow 13 miles, 7 locks

Nottingham had never been so quiet!  We pulled into the first of the 3 double locks on the 'cut' through the city and raised the boats by slowly filling the lock.  A small cruiser was already on it's way out onto the river, so I had some help opening the huge gates.

We wiggled along the urban waterway after I had taken the dogs for a leg stretch between bridges.

Whoops! A bit narrow for us both!  The guys on this floating pontoon, doing some work under the bridge, kindly shoved their scaffolding boat over to the other bank to let us pass.  Very friendly they were too!  We sailed on through to Beeston and popped back up again onto the river, which was now 2" below the 'Red'.  Normally, we would have said 'nerr, we shan't bother', but as it was only a brief (about an hour) to the finish line, we went for it!

Tranquil  moorings later in the week at Shardlow.

Cranfleet Cut approach off the Trent, proved to be the worst, quite eventfully fast flowing part of the river as the weir contained the river Soar as well as the Trent water.  Richard skillfully (sideways a bit) steered the boats into the relative calm water on the lock approach.

Swans along the canal

The engine turned off, safely moored along Sawley cut, Richard checked the engine over as we had given it a fair bashing getting up the river, which was now properly in the Red.  Imagine his horror as he discovered the radiator was nearly bone dry!  It turned out, we had developed a leaky seal in the water pump.  The next day, he walked into Long Eaton and bought some K Seal to try to bung the hole up, which, touch wood still holds, until we can get the pump repaired.

We had a great weekend visiting both Richard's brothers (Mark and Ian) and their families before mooring the following evening at Shardlow.  Watching with surprise several 'hire' boats be allowed onto the approach to the Trent and Mersey, we took the plunge and followed them, albeit at a distance...

We had the same experience getting into the entrance of the canal as before at Cranfleet as fast flowing water from the Trent met with a washing machine agression, the water from the river Derwent.  I shut my eyes as Richard again safely steered us into the canal mouth.

Two minutes after mooring, and we had bumped into Sue and her husband Vic and their narrowboat 'No Problem'.  We read their blog,  http://noproblem.org.uk/blog but had never met in real life, and their collie pup Penny charged around with Lister, leaving him behind.  Must try to behave more like a whippet Lister!   I wish I had taken some photos, but completely forgot, you will notice the distinct lack in this blog!

Later, we went for a walk into the village to collect my stock order for the butty and noticed another familiar boat!  It was Matti on his narrowboat 'Old Friends' moored directly outside the Malt Shovel.  We arranged to meet up in the evening with him and girlfriend Kathy. A mini 'banter' (Canal World Discussion Forum http://www.canalworld.net members will be acquinted with these!) thereby ensued catching up and slowly getting sozelled!