Day four - journey to Nottingham

We prepared to leave our overnight mooring near to Willington at noon with a plan to reach Cramfleet on the river Trent by the end of cruising today. After having to give the starter motor a whack! with a wrench to get the engine started we are thinking this part will need replacing at some point. But we were on our way without too much fretting.

We pulled into the first marina on route as we knew that the diesel needed a top up. Leigh did a sterling job at swinging all 65foot of steel round and into the tiny entrance to the marina.


It was a huge marina, like a mega shopping centre, not my idea of fun. We filled up and set off towards Stenson.


The landscape was vast...


and the sun was shining sweetly. We went though Stenson lock , the first of the deep double locks so far on our journey. It was quite an experience!







Phew! We carried on towards the village of Swarkestone. After another lock it was three miles to Weston Upon Trent and another couple of big heavy locks.


We reached Shardlow and were looking forward to the rivers ahead.


I took the tiller at Shardlow and Leigh worked the lock helping a couple of hire-boaters who were as unsure as when we first started out.


Shardlow is a picturesque village to cruise, though it is a bit tight going round bends especially when boats are doubled up.


With some lovely helpers at Derwent mouth lock we were out on the river heading towards Trent Lock. It is amazing how the area opens up, it makes the boat feel really small.


The sun was shining beautifully and we got into the speed of cruising the river.


We passed under the M1 bridge...



and had reached Trent Lock in no time. We were heading for the River Trent (North) and had reached Cramfleet but it was still light with the sun high in the sky. We decided to plough on...


through Cramfleet lock on to the river.

Along this section the wildlife were becoming more interesting, with what I think are Cormorants and a Grebe.



As we were getting closer to Nottingham it was getting darker.


We hoped to get to the centre before dark, so every minuted mattered.


We finally made it and at 10pm we were moored up, chained up (this is the city after all) and wandering off to get some pizza for dinner. We were both frazzled, on our third winds and beaming with our achievement of 22miles in one day.