Easter 2011 -Part 3

Day Five – Gunthorpe to Nottingham to Stoke Lock

We split up again today. NC is heading for Nottingham and a supermarket the others are hanging around in Gunthorpe to meet family and friends. We set off reasonably early to negotiate the two locks to Nottingham and still leave plenty of time for shopping. We reach Nottingham in good time and despite a stiff breeze have few problems along the way. We then head off in search of beer supplies before returning to the boat and heading back downstream.

Naughty-Cal in Nottingham

We have our first scare of the break at the next lock heading back downstream, Holme lock. We enter the lock soundly enough rope up and descend as normal, however on the exit from the lock I drop the bow rope which is more than long enough to snag the props, so Liam drops the boat into neutral whilst I recover the rope. In which time the wind has blown NC sideways across the lock straight towards the top gates beam on. With a lot of shuffling back and forth Liam manages to turn the boat in the lock, NC is about 25ft long the lock is about 26ft wide. He never touched a thing forward or aft however now we are facing the wrong way in the lock so he has to reverse out of the lock and cut before using the flow of the weir to turn the boat the right way around and continue on our travels. Even the lockie was impressed and gave us a round of applause.

Finally we moor topside at Stoke lock for a quiet evening and a pleasant walk around the nature reserve. Again this is an underused quiet spot to chill out in the middle of nowhere.

Stoke Lock Visitor Moorings

Day six – Stoke Lock to Fiskerton to Hazelford

Day six and we head off downstream earlish to meet up with the others with no great plans for the day. We stop at Gunthorpe for a swift coffee and a refill of water before heading back downstream for yet another BBQ at Hazelford. En route we pick up Chrisnico and crew and have a few ales in the Bromley Arms at Fiskerton before heading back upstream to Hazelford Lock to cook some food. BV joins us later in the day having had a slow cruise down from Gunthorpe to recharge their batteries.

Hazelford Lock Island

Day Seven – Hazelford to Newark to Cromwell

Again the group split up today. We stop over in Newark for some more supplies and some shore break before heading for the nicely remote Cromwell Lock. As luck would have it one of the serviced floating pontoon moorings was free so we had a night with electric hook up and water supply on tap adjacent the boat. Not strictly necessary but it was nice all the same to wake up to fully topped up batteries, hot water and the electric kettle. I hate waiting for the gas kettle to boil in the morning. A quiet night ensued with a few beers and another BBQ in the nicely laid out BBQ areas at Cromwell. Cromwell lock is certainly going to become high on our list of places to stop over during the longer summer weekends.

Cromwell Lock at the head of the Tidal Trent