Jannock’s summer trip – day #8

Last night’s dinner out was very good! We all enjoyed our choices. Look up ‘the Basin’ on t’internet. The food is Chino-Japanese with a hint of Thai. The drinks were not overpriced. The only bad mark was for the noise levels which were probably outside acceptable limits for health and safety. No soft furnishings mean that the noise just rattles about. I expect it is fine when they are not busy but on a Friday night it was like trying to have a conversation and a quiet meal on the trading floor of the New York stock-exchange. We then crossed the road to the Swan in the Rushes and enjoyed a drink in a real pub. As we left there we looked at the Ossie Bar and Lloyds bar opposite and knew we were connie sewers.

We left Loughborough and enjoyed the gloriously sunny weather on our  trip north. Just outside the town the Fire Brigade were playing with a tanker, some water reservoirs and a petrol portable pump in an industrial estate. Luckily they averted their hose when Jannock passed as Brenda had hung the washing out on the front well deck.

We continued on through Normanton and Zouch where the people, bunting and tents in a field below the lock indicated that we had found a Dragon boat racing competition happening in the river adjacent to the boat club. Their safety boat was moored against the far bank to act as starting point. I expressed concern about them getting very dusty as a large combine harvester was working in the field nearby and so they moved their boat tether to the other bank to try and avoid the large dust cloud that was following the machine around.

On through Kegworth and past the large cooling towers of the power station until we reached the river Trent where we turned left towards Sawley. At the Scout outdoor centre Brenda observed the job of her choice in action. An instructor was placing three cub/scouts at a time into a Canadian canoe and then capsizing it and throwing them into the river. She quite fancied that as an occupation!

Sawley cut was bristling with activity. Boaters wanting services from the marina, new hirers starting their trips and marina users returning to their berths after a grand day out.

We moored up at Sawley bridge, not a very quiet mooring, being so close to the M1, but essential as Linda needs to get the the railway station to go home tomorrow morning. I tried dismantling and greasing our control lever and oiling the throttle cable as Brenda is finding it very stiff when needing to adjust the engine speed slightly. When re-assembled it was just the same so it must be worn and in need of replacing soon.

At 6:30 this evening a Spitfire made four low passes over Sawley cut, possibly part of the event that was happening at the Derby Motor Boat Club further back along the cut towards Sawley locks. It was the most exciting thing Brenda has seen for ages, and heard, and felt, because it was so low and immediately above Jannock. It then went off somewhere else and returned overhead 45 minutes later on it’s way back home and gave a farewell salute by rocking it’s wings as it passed over the boat club.

Store cupboard challenge day 7 went un-remarked. The tuna and mayo paste sandwiches, that we ate whilst moored for lunch, were tasty with some cress added for health purposes and scored 10/10. The fish paste should have been eaten by mid 2007.

Graham

www.jannock.org.uk