Through Lincoln to Saxilby

Wednesday 16th June 2021

It seems that the RAF Typhoon pilots only stop for a cup of tea and a slice of cake because they were back at it again in the dark, luckily they didn’t disturb us too much during the night.

 

We awoke to find the sides and windows of Jannock covered in empty insect cases, little opaque lifeless bodies. We wondered what they became?

 

Graham set off and quickly rigged up the automatic pilot to make the long straight sections of the river Witham less arduous. Luckily Jannock’s tiller/ rudder is always pulling in one direction so a simple rope and slip knot allowed him to do other things whilst the boat continued in a straight line. It still needs the steerer to pay attention to direction but does not need to constantly hold the tiller. It was noticeable that today is the first day of the new fishing season.

 

We were overtaken by a cruiser at speed about 5 km from Bardney lock. On our arrival there he was moored up, the lock was empty and the gates just apart. Hmmm! Then an elderly guy walked across to the cruiser and untied it whilst instructing a young lad on what to do. Graham helped out as well. He passed through the lock and then just went off. It appeared that the young lad was not with the boat at all, he was just passing and the old guy had coopted him to help.

We then passed through the lock ourselves but the total time was about 45 minutes including working the cruiser through as well. Then onto Lincoln and Stamp End lock that we shared with a narrowboat that had pulled out of Bardney moorings while we were coming up the lock. Then we moored up outside the shopping centre in the shade of a nice shady tree. After a rest time in the shade we went for a walk around Lincoln buying some clothes for Graham and some cheese to replace the dodgy stuff we rejected after purchasing it Monday in Boston. Lincoln is a pretty city indeed.

 

When it had cooled a bit, we set off and moved to moor for the night a Saxilby via the CaRT rubbish bins at the sani-station in Brayford pool (located at marker post 17km) On arrival, all the spaces were taken with the exception of one too short for Jannock so we pulled across to the other side and pegged into the verge. Shortly after we were secure, a small plastic cruiser that was moored in the centre of a large space, pulled out and left but we were settled now so no point moving.

Tidal Trent tomorrow afternoon so I suspect the Autopilot will be used again.

G&B