Beeston Marina

Our lovely mooring at Beeston feels like a retreat, far from the City of Nottingham, moored up on the wooden pontoon the boat gently swaying with the flow of the current on the river Trent and outside of the cabin windows, the delightful beginning of Attenborough Nature Reserve.

I've got a the week off work and have been soaking up the environment around us from my new favourite seating spot outside...

The weather has been very mixed with heavy rain showers and glaring sunshine, a strange summer so far. It has been fascinating and frightening to watch the speed of the river flow increase as whole trees were swept over the frothing weir. The boat is well secured to the pontoon and is positioned with the bow pointing against the flow so the water breaks around the boat. As I watch the surface of the river around us, from what seems like nowhere, there suddenly appears whirls and ripples, as the constant movement of the water dances and chases it's tail.

The pontoon is one long strip which ends with a sudden stop. Stood on the edge looking into the pull of the hypnotizing river is quite unnerving. There are a mix of Narrow Boats and Cruisers on this stretch and we are by far the largest. Leigh was congratulated by another long-standing boater for his Captain skills at manouvering all 65 foot of steel into the marina pontoon.

We have been met with kindness and friendly faces here, from fellow boaters and the marina employees, which is making our idea of moving off the boat a little sad to come to terms with. However, we have good things lined up for our next chapter of the adventure, so more will follow about that soon.

Whilst overlooking the beautiful greenery of the Nature Reserve, I decided to go for a walk and explore the muddy paths in the woods and the lakes surrounding them. It was such a joy, I was met with colours, bird song, swaying trees, water dopplets falling from leaves, bridges, benches, shadows and mirroring, shimmering lakes stretching wide...

We have had good luck this week too, after preparing the boat for the Boat Safety Certificate on Tuesday, we have passed with flying colours and received a new Certificate to cover us for the next 4 years.

And so, Leigh and I look forward to a pending visit by a good friend from the North-East and our moves out to Derbyshire.

Changes

Big changes are afoot. Over the past few months our cruising of the waterways has been very limited, partly due to the immense rain and rivers in flood, partly due to work commitments as well as a lack of physical fitness and issues with the engine. As a result, we have been 'bobbing' around Nottingham trying not to get in the way of grumbling boaters and jobworths at BW. We have been scrimping to get by to pay the license each month and cover maintenance costs. I have made the final payment today for the license, horrah! and it isn't due again now until 1st January 2013. We have however replaced this payment with mooring fees, and we are now on a pontoon mooring at Beeston Marina.

The pontoon is based on the River Trent and we are moored on the inner side, much to my delight, as we face the wooded walk into Attenborough and are a safe distance from the rushing weir.

We moved here this evening as the water level for the river was just on the proceed with caution warning. We left the steady canal through Beeston Lock where there is no need to use a windlass to open the paddles as this lock has them welded in place. As we headed out on the river the boat felt slow and sluggish facing the flow of the river. We decided to give it a go to head along the pontoon via the facilites mooring point. Now, in a 40foot boat this would be a sinch. 65foot of steel however and a moored boat in the pathway to access the pontoon, plus the rough current and the odds were against us. Overall this didn't make it an easy situation and we were dragged away from our course bashing into the moored boat and then careering into the footbridge and were wedged between the bridge and boat for a short while. We removed the chimney and bike from the roof to enable us to get under the footbridge and with a bit of barge pole action we were back on course heading under the bridge as opposed to into it and gently passed the moored narrowboats and cruisers along the pontoon. Phew! Rivers sure are tricky. Now we plan to stay put until further notice.

Delia seems to be coping well for her first evening on the pontoon and has been checking out the other boats around us.

Our lovely home is warm from the glowing burner to keep away the damp rainy day and the indoor window-box garden is doing splendidly...

The bush tomatoes have an abundance of flowers and the basil is broadening out like a tree.

My parsley is looking happy too!

There is movement in the water and changes in the air as we stir up the cooking-pot of possible pathways and watch the settling of choices we make.

I pose the question into the ether: Will Delia Derbyshire be living in Derbyshire soon?

Tuition and The Drought

I am a member of the River Canal Rescue, akin to the AA, but for boats. The engine is due a service next month and I am considering arranging for the one-to-one tuition provided by RCR for a cost of £150 plus parts. An engineer comes to the boat, helps/instructs whilst undertaking a service on the engine. This will cover oil changes, filter changes, checks of the alternator belt and stern gland, battery testing, top-up and checks. The tuition will last for 4 hours and can cover further engine specific queries during this time.

This might initially be quite an expense but it could be of help later on, as I could then complete an oil change and keep a knowledgeable eye on the engine so as to flag up any issues.

The weather in the East Midlands is quite frankly appalling. It was hailing again today. However, with the drought on everyone's lips as there is a lack of ground water from the south right up to Leicester, the rain is well needed. There have already been restrictions on the canal network, and the holiday season has not yet begun! This doesn't bode well for a summer of cruising. Oddly, we were warned off from cruising out on the River Trent on Saturday due to it being in flood.

So, here we are still on the Nottingham Canal, awaiting our engine service to then consider any further cruising in either direction on the Trent.

Walking in Beeston

Today I decided to take a walk. There is an easy 2 mile route circling the canal and river section in Beeston, just opposite our mooring. I decided to get some fresh air and take the camera along.

I crossed the Turnover Bridge...

And took note of the old post where the ropes from the horses pulling boats have worn stripes around it.

I strolled along towards the lock and turned right behind the lock keepers's house, to the weir. There was a strong breeze throwing spray at me and it was beginning to rain.

The river looked fierce with it's flowing currents.

Further round the path the river appeared calmer, almost serene.

I passed an old tree...

and a tree-swing.

I reached a junction in the path and took the shorter route back towards the canal.

The other route follows the river towards West Bridgeford. It was a long, straight stretch back to the canal.

Another left turn and I ended up back at the Turnover Bridge.

A bit of glorious sun

Yesterday the skies cleared, the sun was out and so were we! We needed to fill up with water and with it being such fine weather Leigh suggested we go for a jolly.

The sun was gloriously hot on our backs and it felt so good to be moving.

We took the canal towards Nottingham and at the enormous winding point near to the rubbish tip off Nottingham's ringroad, I did a full 360degrees as a beautiful three point turn! The wind picked up on the return journey and we had to give her a bit more throttle.

Leigh took over at Beeston Lock to wind the boat in a very tight area and we stopped at the facilities for water. Somehow, we have lost the adaptor to the water pipe and a fellow boater lent us his connector. With a full tank of water we moved on to the mooring point for the night.

Whitening Winter

This weekend we started to feel the chill starting with Friday when we woke up to a frosty, cold morning...

We moved to our current mooring spot last weekend after receiving a patrol notice to 'move on'. We have been buttoning down for the freeze, hibernating like hedgehogs. I have merely been concerned with spending my days in an office and coming home at night to a beautiful, warm, loving home. Weekends have been our only opportunity to use facilities and spend over the odds at the Marina. Which might I add, Leigh has done brilliantly getting our rather long boat into a very, very, very tight spot when using Castle Marina services in Nottingham.

On Saturday this weekend we took a lovely jolly in a Skoda South, to the family. We had a warm welcome from Papa Bear and Ma Margaret and were sent off on Sunday with a car full of wood! Thank you to all those that donated each piece, we are managing to stay toasty warm and fend off the freezing cold. Mother bird provided a hearty meal at Sunday lunch-time and has plans for making a commissioned piece of stained glass for the bow. Stay linked to find out more about this...

And when we returned on Sunday, we were 4 inches in snow, Delia was fluffed up like a puffer fish to keep warm and we were breathing smoke like dragons on the boat until the wood caught alight.

Monday morning we carted the wonderful wood from car to boat...

and were hassled by some stylish swans who needed a good feed...

We filled the bow full of bags of wood and made a neat pile beside the multi-fuel stove.

Delia was running up and down in the snow like the trouble she really is...

And I was delighted at such a lovely weekend.

Autumn cruising to Birmingham

I've noticed the autumn colours are showing themselves and lots of leaves are blowing through the breezy air these days.

We have joined the River Canal Rescue as a silver member - to cover both of us if one person is away. This covers us if we breakdown, we can call and they send out an engineer who will either fix it and get us on our way or tow us to the nearest boatyard. They will also convey us to our home mooring. This is a very good idea as we are doing lots of cruising these days and putting the boat and engine under pressure.

For the time being we are running well and getting along fine. But at some point we do need to see a Lister engineer because there is something worn in the gearbox. As we are still on a schedule this will wait until we arrive in Birmingham hopefully in the next week.

Since Boxmoor we have been cruising each day for up to 8hours non-stop and it has been tiring work. We cruised through Berkhamsted and up to Tring Summit where we struggled to find a suitable mooring as the water level had really gone down. There is a constant issue with the water supply here as every time a boat crosses the summit it uses nearly 200,000 gallons of water! We ended up stuck at the stern and with some help from passing walkers, we managed to dis-lodge from the shallows and cruise along to a concreted mooring point.

We moored at the summit overnight which it is my favorite spot to be. All kinds of trees line either side of the valley giving a vast canopy and interest for exploring. Delia and I went in search of fire wood and found plenty. Delia was so excited arriving in a wood that she ran up a tree! Funny girl.

Here is Delia the pickle, caught walking along the gunwhale, just the right size for a purdycat.

The following day we passed through Marsworth locks and all the way to Linslade. We spent the night at Linslade and the next day used the local launderette and grocers, having a day off from cruising.

We set off from our mooring and just made it through Leighton Lock at Leighton Buzzard before British Waterways were doing an emergency stop on a lock to try and repair a broken paddle. We cruised on through Soulbury three locks, Stoke Hammond Lock passing Fenny Stratford and through Milton Keynes. We had cruised 16 miles straight.

Leaving Milton Keynes the next day we reached Stoke Bruerne Locks and unfortunately we arrived after 4pm and the locks were locked shut for the night due to water level shortages.

So, we moored up for the night.

I pulled out my bike and cycled up to the village to collect a lovely take-away curry from Spice of Bruerne, the local Indian restaurant.

The next morning the atmosphere was dramatic as there was a strong haze of fog and steam rising from the early morning dew.

We worked through Stoke Bruerne locks and Blisworth Tunnel which on this occasion seemed to pass much quicker than the first time. And I steered through and passed other boats inside the tunnel without any problems. We moored up at Blisworth as they have a Post Office that I needed to access and so we called it a day.

Yesterday we cruised passed the villages of Gayton, Bugbroke, Nether Heyford and Weedon. It was a blustery day and there were lots of boats moving about making maneuvering all the more tricky along the windy canal. We worked Buckby Locks a flight of seven and took the GUC mainline towards Braunston at Norton Junction. After a mile the cloak of night had come down and it was time to moor up before Braunston Tunnel.

And this is were I write this blog post from. It is Sunday and after being woken at 7am by 30 or so fishermen wittering on about camouflage as they dragged their poles and boxes of maggots along the towpath I didn't want to exert myself. So it's a day of rest and absorbing our achievements and delightful views of gently swaying trees.

Back in Paddington

October is here already and what a scorcher until today! It was a lovely weekend, beginning with the 1st October celebrating Margaret's birthday with Papa Bear...

which was full of soaking up all the sunshine, a evening pic-nic in Victoria Park, taking the Thames Clipper from Westminster to Greenwich and plenty of tea. And on Tuesday, we got things together and set off from our 14 day mooring spot in South Hackney. It took several hours through the locks, passing Kings Cross St Pancras, Camden and Little Venice. The wind was against us and once again Paddington Basin was a challenge. After a bash and scratch we squeezed into the pontoon space and moored up.

The surrounding buildings at night are illuminating! It often feels quite odd that we are allowed to moor in such a crisp environment. We've got 7 days here and then will be off on the move again. It isn't ideal for Delia as there are few hiding places but she waits until night and heads out when it is quiet and the place is hers!

Practically, there are no resources here so we planned beforehand and filled up with water in Hackney. Hopefully 'Pumpout Pete' (a name our friend mentioned) should be along soon to do the business using his pump out machine from his old boat. We have noticed a frequent stream of businesses operating from narrowboats here selling fuel and providing services to boaters - it makes life pretty easy. Plus the fact that there are few marinas with provisions or facilities in London itself.

Leigh and I have spent lots of time getting to know areas, finding shops, laundrettes, garages, banks. I have still been looking for work with very little coming back which is a bit of a pain. We have both been working hard on our creative projects and finding contacts in the area. All this is noticeably part of the lifestyle of a roamer, which makes life rich and interesting but equally challenging for the most simplest of things.

The wood burner is going this evening with many thanks to Papa Bear keeping us warm with wood and now it really does feel autumnal - you see I was right to put away summer clothes and shoes and get out the winter jackets and boots!