The Boat Blog
Getting nowhere fast
Diary reads:
Arrived at Retford Marina at 09:20, spent the morning and up to about
2:15pm washing, drying and touching up the paintwork of Chesterfield Canal Trip
Boat 'Seth Ellis' in readiness for a documentary/promotion film shoot next
Saturday. At 2:15 only a small area of touching up was left to do (approx 5
feet long but unreachable from mooring. We decided to move the boat to the
opposite bank of the canal from its finger mooring to bankside. We
completed the move of approx. 25 metres and the painting by 2:35pm.
At 2:36pm we started return journey (25 metres) back to mooring. After 5
metres the engine stalled, we restarted same, engaged reverse gear and engine
immediately stopped again. We paid a visit to the weed hatch to find about
25 metres of semi-rigid transparent plastic sheeting about 50 cm wide
inextricably moulded around the prop. I soon liberated around 20 metres of
plastic, but after a further 2 hours and minimal progress down the weed hatch
with a junior hacksaw, a boat hook, two Stanley knives and cuts to several
fingers, we gave up and called RCR. An hour later an engineer arrived tooled
up for the removal of the obstructing material. He descended into the weed
hatch and after about 3/4 hour emerged with the first of many small pieces
of plastic, finally some time later in the gathering gloom of the evening
after a fabulously beautiful sunset over Retford Town Lock, he produced a
length of screwed up plastic about 3 metres long and announced that the prop
would actually turn (it was previously locked solid). Over the next half
hour numerous other bits of plastic were liberated from the depths and
finally in darkness we were able to return 'Seth' to her mooring and set off
homeward. Unfortunately there had been a big fire at Clarborough (on my route
home), and police had closed both the roads that I could use to get home.
Consequently a detour of an additional nine miles was required just to
finish the day with a flourish.
It's beginning to feel a bit like...
Choose one of the following words or phrases to complete the title:
- Christmas
- Winter
- I've lost the use of my fingers
Yesterday, any one of the above would have worked quite well! Three trips out taking Santa and some of his friends from the Bay Tree to Leverton Road and back took its toll on my will to live. Rain, wind and cold all conspired to make it a less then pleasant experience on the counter of Seth Ellis, but it was all in a good cause. The only problem with the cold is that the toilet's been removed from the boat to make room for Santa's stash, and I don't know about you, but the combination of tea and cold does makes me wanna go. Badly. In the end, I popped in to the Bay Tree to buy an espresso and a pee (not both in the same cup) after which I felt rejuvenated.
The highlight of the day for me was seeing a kingfisher for the first time. On the way back, between the bungalows and the snooker club on the non-towpath side, there's a bramble, currently devoid of leaves. This flash of turquoise shot in front of us and as I followed it round, the kingfisher came to rest on a branch in the bramble. Truly a beautiful sight and completely unexpected.
Tinsel Tinsel everywhere
Saturday 8th November saw Seth Ellis transformed into a floating tinsel boat by three people who clearly knew what they were about. Janet, Jean, and Georgina made the boat cabin look really christmassy with shimmering displays of tinsel and other christmas decorations, did I mention the tinsel.
Next Saturday 15th November we have several local dignataries and their children coming for our annual christmas pulicity day, of course Santa will be there with his helpers and this year we have out own brass band (duo actually) to help the day go with a swing.So if you want to come and see Santa arrive at Retford Town Lock then be there at 11.00am
Pete
Autumn Leaves
The falling leaves,
Drift by my window...
...yesterday, helped in no small part by the strong winds. Narrowboats and strong winds aren't the best bed fellows and despite it only being a run to Charlies (Forest Mid Top) and back yesterday, it was hard going.
It looked like it was going to be a non-starter though. An obstruction behind the gate on Town Lock meant it took Mike and myself 15 minutes with the grapple before we were able to fully open the gate toget in to the lock.
The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful, except for the wind. A crosswind then head wind most of the way out meant the boat was working hard against the weather and the shallow water. Nearly two hours to make the outward trip on what was supposed to be a three hour trip. Pete had fun and games winding below Charlies... as soon as he got the boat halfway round, we were off sideways down the cut! Judicious use of the pole by Mike and myself plus deft work on the engine and tiller by Pete avoided getting Seth Ellis wedged and eventually we got her around.
I steered back to Retford, something akin to Hawaii 5-0, riding the surf with that strong tailwind for most of the return leg with Mike going on ahead to prep the locks. The timing had to be spot on though because it wasn't possible to hold the boat stationary for any length of time. As soon as you took it out of gear, it was blown sideways across the cut again. The only respite was whilst waiting for West Retford lock. I stayed under the Hospital Road bridge where it was sheltered.
No problems on the return through Town Lock. Whatever the obstruction was, it hadn't moved, although no doubt someone else will cop for it.
We did also remove some prop fodder from the lock. If anyone's lost a beige cardigan, it's on the bank outside the fire station...
Trees are not always growing on the bank
Monday 15th September was the day to take Seth Ellis home, but not without problems first, just after the narrows before Thorpe Bridge a large tree was right across the canal luckily Narrowboat Pheonix was travelling with us and with her superior weight and power managed to pull us over the obstruction.I contacted BW so other boaters would not have the same problem only to be asked if the Chesterfield waterway we were on was the Chesterfield Canal or Chesterfield River and why were we calling the Newark office when according to them the canal we were on was in the London area. so it was a good job we sorted it, otherwise we woul still be waiting for BW Watford to find us.
Tues 16th after coming through Bracebridge Lock in Worksop with a full lock of water to help we ran aground in the middle of the channel stuck solid on something after much heaving on the boat pole we managed to get free. These were just two instances. O
Petever the two days we dealt with two fallen trees, a shopping trolley round the prop, an obstruction in the middle of the canal and a fifteen foot square floating island of rushes just outside Ranby. Apart from those incidents we made good time back seven and a half hours on Tues. All worthwhile as it made the trust £338 in total.
Pete Ramsell