Finishing at Langley Bridge

Thursday 20th May 2021

Jolly boating weather – not!

We set off in general greyness but it didn’t much look like it was going to rain, even though it was forecast. At the locks we were busy, Graham was pulling branches and clumps of floating weed out so that they didn’t interfere with working the locks whilst Brenda started the annual ‘Balsam bash’ by pulling off plants growing on the lock gates as the boat entered the lock – some of them had a good build up of soil perched on top of the gate beams that they were growing from.

 

At 11 am the rain started and the temperature dropped, November has come early this year! A jogger on the tow path said that she felt sorry for us as we looked weather beaten by 12:00. A fisherman was intrigued watching us ascend a lock. Out came his phone and he followed Graham’s every move, videoing the whole emptying and filling routine. Another tow-path walker was also fascinated stating that she’d never seen a boat pass through these locks before. A lesser cruised canal for sure!

 

Just before we got so wet that we would have tied up, we reached Langley Mill lock, the last before our destination – the great North basin at Langley Mill. Graham had phoned ahead and arranged a fourteen day mooring at the Erewash Canal Preservation and Development Association basin using the AWCC temporary mooring arrangement. Norman, their Chairman and Moorings Officer, came out to welcome us and help us perform the sharp turn, through the swing bridge into their basin. With a narrowboat moored on the water point and a cruiser tied up alongside the swing bridge it was not an easy manoeuvre, followed by reversing into a tight gap between two ‘end-on’ moored boats.

Then the rain stopped but the wind increased. Graham did a car shuffle and then we jumped ship and headed home to do the washing and attend pre-arranged commitments.

G&B