Monday, May 11, 2009

"It's a Blustery Day" said Pooh

Well the morning started with a haircut, before we set off with sun in our faces and the winds picking up slowly. We continued along onto the River Soar and then passing a weir and going back onto the Leicester line of the Grand Union. We passed some lovely back gardens.The whole canal seemed very river like and with the wind now very blustery it was a bit tricky in places. At one point we moored up for a lock and were pushed against the high alcoving (more paintwork) by a big weir and the wind behind it. We had to wait for another boat to be able to slide us round into the lock as we couldn't push off.

We are loving these river sections as the wildlife is fantastic. There is no towpath on some of these sections, but there is always a footpath not far away.

The wind had now got up to gale force and we were looking for a place to moor. We got to the Hope & Anchor and this was taken up by liveaboards who had obviously been on these mooring for a long time, some with the old trick of the "engine broken" notice stuck on the windows. We then tried to moor at the Waterpark moorings, but it was too shallow and we had to move on. We then got to Thurmaston lock and work was being carried out to the towpath and lock area with notices saying "Moorings temporarily closed during works".
My God we're going to be into Leicester at this rate!
The winds were now so bad we just had to moor up and there was just one space we thought we could get into, but with the wind we were a bit worried if Derwent6 was going to fit. It was between another boat and a bridge. Well, we reversed back from the lock and angled the bow in, as we just slid sideways into the concrete wall, but we got in........ The fenders are only just doing their job on here, and we are being tossed around like a tin can in a bath. We can't even close the side doors because the concrete is so high.

We then went for a walk around Watermede country park taking in some more wildlife.

With all this wind around lets hope we get some sleep tonight !!!!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tumble dryer sheets again then

Keith Lodge said...

Love the pics. The wind is playing havoc with us as well. We are just hoping it is not going to be another windy summer like last summer grrrrr. Stay safe. Jo