After some thought regarding the ‘Mount Everest’ type moorings in Newark, which we had seen the previous day and spurred on by the ever filling second cassette we decided to make our way back to Stoke Lock on Wednesday. Having got there by mid morning, filled up with water and emptied the cassettes we decided to stop there the night. There is a pub about a mile up the towpath and we thought our fat dog needed some exercise so we walked there (some of us under protest!). As dogs weren’t allowed in we had to sit outside and it was FREEZING! When we got back we had to put the heating on!
What to do and where to go next? There was the ever present spectre of my tooth to consider. Although it is ok at the moment, after the antibiotics, there is always the possibility of another infection if it isn’t fixed, so we decided to go back to Thurmaston and I would go to the dentist. I know I must be mad but I would rather have treatment on it while it is not already hurting (if you see what I mean?) than wait until something happens.
To this end we made our way back down the Trent, through Nottingham again, having a better experience, with forward planning at Meadow Lane Lock, but making a total ‘mare’ of Castle Lock, becoming stuck on the run off, with about 10 minutes of pushing and pulling to get moving! We moored last night (Thur) at Trent Lock and I have now named this the ‘Railway Moorings’ due to the amount of trains that thunder over the river there, morning, noon and night! Not that anything can keep us awake at night, must be all the fresh air and excercise (or possibly the beer!)
Today we had a pretty uneventful trip except for the ‘trousers round the prop’ incident! We had just come under Chain Bridge in Loughborough when the boat seemed to lose propulsion and the tiller started juddering violently. As we had heard a bit of a grating noise a little earlier we thought maybe we had damaged the prop running over a supermarket trolly or some other bit of detritus. The dreadful prop whine we have been experiencing since we picked the boat up had stopped however, which was nice, but the performance was erratic to say the least! We quickly moored up and investigations revealed a pair of ladies jeans had become wrapped round the prop, luckily there wasn’t a lady wearing them at the time! Having removed the offending item we were soon underway again. We will be telling Mark when we get back that the prop whine can be cured by Levis or Wranglers!
Currently we are moored rurally just outside Loughborough and the sun is actually out, hoorah! Back to Thurmaston tomorrow and Dr Raja, the dentist, on Tuesday……aaaaaargh!
Cheers B.
