Five Waterways in a Week; Nene, Wash, Witham, Fossdyke, Trent!

 

Brayford Basin

Several libations were taken on the evening after crossing the Wash, a few bottles of red wine were sunk – rather them than the boat………  So it was with slightly woolly heads the next morning that we went to watch the group of six head out.  In addition two were heading over to Kings Lynn and then the six in a convoy going over to Wisbech with Daryl the pilot.  They had a glorious day, clear skies and sun (as we did!) but no wind!!!  So conditions on the Wash should be better for them.  To put them out, the lock keeper waited until the tidal water was level with the river above and then opened both sets of gates so they could all just shoot straight through.

Waiting for the water levels to equalize - two in the lock for King's Lynn and six under the railway for Wisbech

Popped out the lock and heading downstream with the tide

We then spent the rest of the day exploring Boston and giving the boat a much-needed wash, to get rid of the crust of salt that was on her.

Not a lot of water at low tide

St Botolph's Church with its 'stump' - the highest church tower in England

Nice pontoon moorings at Boston, handy for washing your salty seadog boat!

The good weather stayed with us the next day, Wednesday, so we had a leisurely start and set off.  It’s a fairly uninteresting bit of navigation, the Witham, but it was so nice to be doing a nice easy cruise in the warm sunshine.  The monotony was broken as we passed the vicinity of an RAF base where several jets were coming in.  Then suddenly two spitfires appeared and began to perform some aerobatics, it seemed just for us!!

Name that jet

Name that pilot, it's so close - this was with the normal lens on the camera as well!

Spitfire show

And the other one doing a tumble

Should really be looking where I'm going, but hey ho.....

We moored up at Woodhall Spa and began to do some paintwork on the boat.  As it had been a quiet cruise Mike had been rubbing back and preparing whilst I steered the boat.  There was quite a lot of work to be done where the anchor had rubbed on it’s way back up, taking off blacking and paint on the gunwhales and bollards – what a mess!  After we got some paint on where needed we walked into town to get some bits and pieces from the Coop and an ice cream.

On Thursday we headed into Lincoln, a place neither of us had ever been or really knew much about.  It’s a pleasant cruise to Lincoln and contrary to the forecast the sun burned through the cloud and was making for a lovely sunny day.  The navigation through Lincoln is lovely, they’ve really made the most of the river running through the town and although there were plenty spaces on the moorings through the town, we kept on until we popped out of the other side into the Brayford basin, or pool as the locals call it.  We moored on CRT moorings across the other side of the basin, next to the University and student accommodation which appeared empty for the timebeing.  We were taking the opportunity of being the furthest north we’ll be this year and had booked train tickets up to York for a night, to catch up with friends for a curry, so went for an explore around Lincoln and collect our train tickets for the next day.

Lock en route to Lincoln

One of the sculptures on the Sculpture Trail heading into Lincoln

Stamp Lock taking us up into Lincoln

past more sculptures in the town centre

through the Glory Hole

Winding our way out the other side

Leaving the town centre

And into Brayford Basin

Steep, cobbled streets lead you up to the castle and cathedral

Back at the boat on Saturday afternoon, we were soon joined by Fran and Sally, also taking advantage of the fact we were close-ish.  We went out for some food at Wagamama’s, got soaked in torrential rain on the way back and watched the football.  On Sunday we had planned to go back up to the Castle and Cathedral and visit them properly, however, after having breakfast and doing a foodshop at Morrisons, we just got back to the boat before the heavens opened and remained wide open for the rest of the day……..  We were so bored.  It was too heavy to do anything.  It dwindled a bit around 5.30pm so we went to the water point, filled up and headed to Saxilby for the evening.  It’s quite nice doing an evening cruise, it’s very quiet and everything had become quite still after the day’s rain.  I saw my second snake of the year!!  A grass snake swimming alongside the edge of the canal on the outskirts of Lincoln, with its head high out of the water, so I could clearly see the yellow flashes on the side of its head.  I’m glad we were heading in opposite directions….

At Saxilby we were joined for drinks by the delightful Frank and Jean, parents of our friend Stuart, who used to live next door but one to Mike in York.  We’d bumped into Stuart’s wife Debbie while in York for our curry, and when we said we’d be going through Saxilby she gave us Frank and Jean’s phone number to get in touch.  Mike duly called and they popped down for a glass of wine – just the one as they’d already had a few with dinner….. They are in their 80s!!!  Great entertainment, we spent a very nice hour or so with them on board.

On Monday we set off with some trepidation to Torksey Lock, which would take us onto the tidal River Trent for a few hours to Cromwell Lock.  We’d spoken with the lock keeper a few days before and he reckoned the best tide and conditions would be Monday afternoon, around 2.30pm.  When we got there, we were met by Dave, who having heard Fran had visited was keen to score some points on the Most Frequent Visitor chart……..  There was also another boat waiting to go and as we waited another arrived.  We went through the lock and should have been going up with the tide, but there was so much fresh water coming down the river after a lot of rain, that you couldn’t really see the tide.  The risk on this stretch of water is sand and gravel banks and shoals, and there is a danger of running aground – although if you do, you just wait for the tide to lift you off!  We had charts marking the route, but we ended up being first in the lock and would be leading the way and having found out one of the other boats had done the route a couple of times, I thought it would be best to follow someone in the know.  So once out of the lock, I held back and waved Yorkshire Bourne to come forward, saying I didn’t want to go first.  The driver laughed and said I wasn’t to blame him if we ran aground.  We needn’t have worried.  When we got through the next lock and spoke to the folk on the cruiser that had come up with us, they said there was so much water their depth radar was showing 3 metres most of the way up – even over the sunken island that usually shows 1 metre.  Wish I’d known that when we’d set off……  The journey is normally around 3 hours, but because we were going against quite a flow of fresh coming down it took us 4.  One of the boats behind was much older and not such a good engine as us and took six hours to get to Cromwell Lock.

Dave scoring some MFV points as we wait for the green light at Torksey Lock

Once through the lock, at the end of the channel it's left for Nottingham and right for York - hmmmm shall we turn right???........

The large lock accommodated all three of us going down easily

And having waved Yorkshire Bourne in front of us, turned left to Nottingham

Four hours later we were very happy to fight our way through the froth and into Cromwell Lock

We spent the night at Cromwell lock and then after filling with water (having done a couple of loads of laundry en route the previous day) set off for Newark.  The lock keeper said we’d be fine getting to Newark, but advised against going on to Nottingham as there was a lot of fresh water about and it could be hard going.  We had planned to spend a few days in Newark anyway but there was quite a flow coming off the weirs on the way there so we were pleased to get through the lock and moored up on the Wharf.  Newark is a nice market town but not good for running.  What looked like the towpath continuing on past the lock towards Nottingham went so far and then was fenced off by a farm.  I came back and tried to pick it up elsewhere and ended up in a strange area of permanent caravans and trailers, like an area to accommodate travellers and it reached a dead end at the same farm that had fenced off the path.  So I came back and ran back along the other way, until I lost the path in a housing estate…… However, I managed to clock 4.6 miles, but it took me 47 minutes to do it with all the stopping and starting!!!

On Wednesday, again taking advantage of being northwards, and on the East Coast Mainline, I took the train up to see my mum and collect our papers for the referendum.  And today, Friday, I am back on the train to Newark in a very noisy coach full of young lads partying……  They’re quite funny and offering beer to everyone, but my ears are starting to hurt so I might move shortly……….  Can’t handle noisy crowds these days…….

We will stay at Newark for the weekend, not least because the constant rain over the last few days has flooded the Upper Trent and Soar and both floodgates and navigations have been closed. Good old British summer time….