Butty Stretching - Part 1

Today, we took the boats down to Sheet Stores to get Paul to have a proper look at the job.

Leaving the marina mooring

The weather was perfect and the Trent for once was behaving.

Looking back at the walkway over to the marina

Richard had breasted the boats together, for the penultimate time, thank goodness as it steers like an aeroplane wing.

Down to the locks to drop down onto the river - power station in full flow

Looking back to the railway bridge and the locks - with squinty eyes...

The river wasn't pushing much, so we glided gently with the flow and after a few minutes reached the entrance of the Erewash Canal.

Erewash Canal entrance

Woah, Richard had to hard reverse as the entrance is more than 90 degrees and the aeroplane wing is on the inside.  It was a push but he got it in without scratching anything!

Getting Richard to do the work for a change lol

I normally do the gates, but this time I brought the boats in, as the anti-vandal mechanism worked a treat on me!

Dragging a large tarpaulin out of the canal above the lock - wouldn't want that round the prop!

Such a good boater, taking it to the bin

Interesting porch arrangement!

Clearing the prop was a nightmare leaving the lock to travel along the short stretch to Sheet Stores.

One of many wonderful houseboats along the lower Erewash Canal

As the steering was rubbish, the canal and houseboats got closer to the edges of our boats.  It was so close at times, especially one houseboat which had a bay window.  But close doesn't count, we didn't hit anything!

The entrance to Sheet Stores, off set from the canal just like Trent lock below.

Getting into the entry was interesting, as we had to go past and then back into and under the bridge.
The 'appropriately moored for the challenge' widebeam just past this entry made life even more tense as the angle increased to reverse in.

Up on the trailer ready for scrutiny, my butty....

Paul greeted us as we tied up under the bridge and separated the boats.  Next, we walked the butty around to the trailer waiting in the water.  After a couple of attempts at dragging it out, the butty decided to play ball and dropped centrally on the trailer, and off she went up the ramp.

So, now we wait until New Year for D Day.  The steel is ordered and we are back in the marina unscathed.   We are so excited about it.  the butty will be 19feet longer matching the length of Comfortably Numb and therefore easier to breast up, bigger shop/storage area and cheaper trading license!

As we think it all is going well, notification form the garage that the car's ecu has gone and so we have to arrange the final demise of our wonderful Renault Scenic.......bu$$er