River mooring

 A beautiful late afternoon, mooring on a pontoon at Gunthorpe on the Trent, above a weir. A cruise from Nottingham  some deep locks.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Descending Marple locks

Image
6/7/2017 Whimsical weather dampened my straw hat, but not our enjoyment of the descent of the Marple flight of 16 locks. At the bottom, a landscape of an aqueduct carrying the canal, adjacent to a high, arched railway viaduct,  with the distant Pennines framed in each arch. Working a lock involves one person on the boat, the other on the bank. The boat person has to thread the boat, 6' 8" wide, into the  7' 2" wide lock. Get it wrong, and 20 tonnes of steel boat hits solid stone. An embarrassing moment, and another scratch on the boat. When the boat is in the lock, and water is rushing in to raise or lower the boat, the boat hamdler must avoid being swamped by leaky locks or lockgates more resembling a waterfall. Leaving one lock to enter the next might involve holding it steady in a wind or against the pull of an overflow channel, while the lock is being readied. The boat person also needs to make cups of tea, pass up raincoats,  find hats. The shore person does ...
Read more

Canal highway

7/6/2018 From the gentle rural landscape of the Staffordshire Worcester canal, through Old Devonian (is that correct Jane) red sandstone landscape,  to Stourport, with its complex system of basins and Georgian houses, we slipped through the 4 locks to the mighty River Severn, wide, brown, flowing quietly between tree lined banks. Our speed has doubled, with the increased depth, and assisted by its determined progress south to the Bristol Channel. Around 6 miles an hour! Wearing life jackets, the trusty anchor ready at the bow, yes, rivers require respect. The Cap'n took an unplanned sweep through overhanging willows,  concentration momentarily on the map. The only damage a scratched head, and a temperature gauge lost, the aerials fortunately intact. And not even any bad language! As we moored adjacent to the city centre, dodging skiffs, kayaks, swans, 2 dragon boats announced their presence, deep throated drums keeping rhythm. After dinner, a stroll into town, re orienting...
Read more

Things that go bang

Image
16/6/2018 Behold the Cap'n,  showing us the very large bag that had wrapped round our propeller. He was on the lock wall above Evesham, watching his 1st mate steer the boat into the lock, hopefully without incident, when the boat shuddered, the engine with a bang cut out, the boat adrift. 1st mate in a daze turns the ignition key off (right move). The boat continues to drift into the lock,  thank you boat, where it lies alongside so Cap'n can board. Yes, after much heaving and pulling, out comes this enormous bag, used to transport soil, rocks etc. Our first lock of the day, travelling upstream- so drifting onto the weir not an issue. I have a particular dislike of drifting boats and weirs. It occurred to me months later that the boat and I could have drifted downstream towards some nasty weirs, if the incident had happened a little further from the lock. With the prop cleared, weed hatch secured,  the engjne was re started. It appears no damage. Rivers. Large weirs,...
Read more