August 2019 – Narrowboat Adagio

Remedial Painting

One of the reasons for heading home in August was to do some remedial paintwork – the non-slip grey on the gunwales needed doing . . . but, it kept raining… so a week or two later . . . we get a dry day! So off to bridge 27, or just before. Masking tape & non-slip paint on the port side – chug along to bridge 28 and the winding hole – turn her around and then repeat for the starboard side!

the “before” picture – looks like double yellow lines! Can you spot the wee doggie?

And an “after” photo – not concerned about the edges, just the main non-slip. The main enamel will get done when we black the boat in September.

Another after photo, this time showing Viv preparing to repaint the barge pole

this gives you some idea of the nice spot where we are painting – time to walk Toby around the pocket woods . . .

I tried to get a piccie of the boat through the trees from the woods

Well, Toby enjoys the trip around his favourite woods – I think we even saw a Squirly!! Rain forecast tomorrow

Saga Run

We’ve been back a week now and so time for a trip out – it’s only an hour, door-to-door to Nottingham. Chance for Steve to pick up some pipe tobacco and then to go on to the river Trent to give Toby a swim.

A good visual clue as to where we are! Good parking on Castle road.

At the rear of the Council House is Gauntleys!

And then on to Gunthorpe – for boaters, it’s a left turn out of the Nottingham canal and out on to the mighty river Trent . . through locks (Holme and Stoke Bardolph – all manned) down to Gunthrope – nice floating pontoon here for moorers, behind a locked gate.

The approach to the lock – nice place to drive to as well – there’s a pub, a restaurant, an Indian restaurant, a cafe and lots of walks

The automatic gates – no need for any windlass here

There’s a shallow beach after the lock and chance for 5 Toby swims!

We saw one narrowboat lock down – helped by the lockie

It was still early so we pressed on the Grantham Canal – we used live up this way, so it was “old haunts”, hmm, not visited this pub for 30 years!! Under new management (just 4 weeks) – Good selection of beers and food too.

Here’s the large basin at Hickling – observant folk will notice the water point. Odd since the last boat here was around 1922. Maybe they’ll restore it all? This section looks ideal for a horse drawn boat for tourists?

Captain’s Log

Back in safe haven. Here’s a summary of the trip.

Yelvertoft to Yelvertoft, calling in at… Braunston, Rugby, Atherstone, Great Haywood, Penkridge, Nantwich, Llangollen, Nantwich, Middlewich, Great Haywood, Atherstone, Rugby, Braunston.

Days = 119, Engine hours = 216.5, Miles = 361 & Locks = 206