Back through a serviceable Gunthorpe lock

Friday 18th June 2021

We left Maskam Ferry at 09:00 as planned accompanied by the little cruiser. The other narrowboat had set off on their trip after being told that the new cratch cover they had ordered was not ready – however they’d received a call saying that it was now ready and the company would deliver it to where the boat was and fit it there so they had to await the arrival of the van.

At Newark Nether lock a CaRT engineer was fitting a new yellow paddle flow warning sign to one of the top gates. It was about half the size of the old sign so was probably saving money, but we couldn’t read it from our location within the lock. Brenda asked the lock keeper what it said but he couldn’t read it either. He had to walk right up to the gate before he could. Nice one CaRT – new signs that cannot be read by the target audience!

We passed through sharing with the little cruiser who then continued solo towards their appointment with their daughter in Nottingham whilst we stopped on Newark visitor pontoon, Brenda went to Waitrose for supplies whilst Graham stayed and refilled Jannock’s water tank. As we left Newark the Fire and Rescue service were practicing rescuing people from the water.

 

During our long and very wet run from Newark to Gunthorpe we were amazed at the number of fishermen and their fisher villages that had sprouted up since the start of the new season. There were none during our down stream run last week.

 

We were pleased that Gunthorpe lock is now repaired and back in service, however the duty lockie advised us that there was no lock keeper working at Stoke lock, this is the next one which has a gravel shoal by the lock landing which has caught out quite a few boats since the floods created it. It is ideal if you can enter the lock from the weir side to avoid grounding on the shelf.

We decided to stop above Gunthorpe but all the visitor pontoons were full of other boats waiting for tomorrow and so we ended up hanging on a tall lock approach wall.

 

Graham fancied trying the showers in the sani-station but just like Brentford, the facilities block door is locked with a digital key press lock. A notice on the lock keepers hut stated that we should ring the CaRT 24hr emergency number to obtain the code. Graham did this and the relevant codes arrived by text message after leaving details with the call handler. Using the code, he accessed the block to find the shower locked and ‘out of order’ due to vandalism – what’s the point?

G&B