Nottingham Castle

Rather eager to see what ‘the box’ on top of the castle rock was all about, I took a walk up there yesterday morning. There was a chill wind but the Sun was shining brilliantly, which made it a good day for walking.

When I arrived at the summit of the hill, straightaway I noticed that basically all that is left of the old medieval edifice is a few foundations. Like a lot of old English castles the original was last used during the Civil War and then destroyed by Cromwell’s men afterwards. After the Restoration the site was given to one of Charles II’s faithful followers and he completed building a fabulous Stuart Mansion atop the rock in 1668, which is ‘the box’ that still stands there now and is seen for miles around.

Unfortunately due to bad planning on my part the battery in my camera ran flat before I was able to take any close-up pictures and I hadn’t taken a spare, so I only have my distant shots of the house to show you, which I took at another time.

In the Nineteenth Century the house became derelict and was finally bought by the city council, who refurbished it and the mansion is now a museum and art gallery.

Nottingham ‘Castle’

The Gate house. The old and the added new

The view from the rock back towards the Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station,

which ‘Futurest’ and I passed earlier.

Apparently the rock is honeycombed with caverns and passages and one or two houses have been built right into it, including what is reputed around here to be the oldest inn in England. ‘Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem’ is dated 1189.

I visited the pub today for lunch and enjoyed a hearty sausages and mash together with a pint and the small saloon bar where I was sitting had been hewn out of bare rock. It’s a soft sandstone called Sherwood Stone which lends itself very nicely to being dug out. The pub reminded me rather of the rock houses that I visited during the summer before last at Kinver in Gloucestershire.

The oldest Inn in England

I had every intention of moving on today but luckily noticed that there are very few places along the Trent from now on to buy diesel. The level in the fuel tank is below halfway and though ‘JP2’ is most economical; I’ve not filled the tank since leaving Warwick two months ago, I would like to top it up before I join the river, so there will be no chance of me running out at a crucial moment.

The only place available is at Nottingham Castle Marina, the entrance of which is about a hundred yards astern of where we are moored. Today the marina has been closed but they are open tomorrow, so I’ve postponed leaving till then. I’m hoping the north easterly wind will have eased by the morning as well, otherwise my hundred yards going astern might be a bit ‘hairy’ past the craft moored astern of us.

It is always nice being moored in a sizable town or city for a few days and I look forward to it always, as the shops are indispensable when one needs special things occasionally. But afterwards, it is so lovely to get back into the quietness and solitude of the countryside again; to my friends the Mallards, the Swans, Moorhens and Herons and all the other wild life who never demand anything of me except to be their friend; to the masses of reds, whites, yellows and blues of the wild flowers, so prolific and fragrant at this time and the multishades of green in the sparkling sunlight that are the trees, hedgerows and grasses.

Surely that is Paradise.... A wonderful wild Paradise.

Royal Wedding Celebrations

I said I wouldn’t bother and would perform instead other much more useful things on board. But in the end I spent the whole of yesterday morning listening to the Royal Wedding on Radio 4 and I have to admit I found myself quite moved by the whole event; like a lot of other people I suspect. As with all good stories, I didn’t want the occasion to end and felt a bit let down when we were brought back to Earth with ‘The World at One’, to be informed that the populations of Syria and Libya had more pressing things to think about than fairy tales! However in spite of our Royal Family’s poor record in such matters, I hope these two young people make a go of it and live happily ever after.

Later in the evening we were treated to a great firework display above the castle high on its cliff and for a few minutes the clear night was filled with flashes of bright colourful light, loud bangs and lots of ‘Oohs and Aarhs’ amid the pungent smell of barbeques all around.

Fireworks above the Castle Mound

This afternoon, as it was such a beautiful day, albeit remaining chilly in the north easterly breeze, I went ashore and ventured into the city. It is my first visit here ever and I find it is rather like Leicester but with a canal running through it instead of a beautiful wide river. However the City of Nottingham has lots of the usual lovely shops in many pedestrianized areas which are most useful. I managed to find a barber’s shop and was invited to sit straight into the chair. I didn’t need to wait at all for my haircut, which I desperately needed.

As everybody will know probably, Nottingham has a castle but so far, I have only seen it atop its steep sided mound and plan to walk up there before I leave. But I’m a little disappointed to note that its square features give away that it is not the fabled castle of old that was inhabited by the Sherriff during his feud with Robin Hood. The architectural features indicate that it was probably built no earlier than the late Seventeenth Century and it looks even as late as ‘Georgian’. It certainly needs to be confirmed with a visit anyway.

The Castle from the Canal

Crowds of people in front of the City Hall Nottingham

The Old British Waterways Warehouse, now pubs and offices

A very modern Nottingham Tram

I am so pleased with my solar panel!

With all the lovely Sun today it has managed to fully recharge my batteries, without any help from the engine at all. In other words in a day filled with sunshine, like today, I am getting all my electricity free of charge. I haven’t needed to start the engine once. I realise that on a cloudy day the output will be less but I am still so pleased with the panel’s performance and it is currently laying flat on the roof. When I get it to be directional the output should be even better.

It’s wonderful and I’m amazed!



Nottingham

You know, I’m having terrible trouble with my computer recently. Occasionally it just won’t work for me. I cannot get it to do anything. It is almost as if someone else is using it at the same time; I suppose you could call it a ghost writer. That’s how it feels anyway. I tried using it late this afternoon and it just wouldn’t do anything for me at all...

I had to give up in the end, with a great deal of swearing and doing about on my part. Maybe I need to defragment the hard drive. I’ve never performed it on this computer and as it is recommended occasionally I shall have to do so. But if I didn’t know different I would swear that someone else is using the same computer.

Anyway that is beside the point. I am here now and the computer is working as normal so I’ll carry on about more interesting things.

At last ‘Futurest’ and I left East Midlands Boat Services at around ten o’clock yesterday morning, complete with brand new functioning solar panel. But because we have been travelling every day since with the engine running and alternator charging, it is difficult as yet to judge the amount of charge that the panel is putting into the batteries on its own. We arrived at Nottingham this morning and as I plan to stay here for a couple of days before moving on, over this period I shall be able to establish how much use it really is. ... You’ll have to watch this space.

Because of the mess up with the delivery and then the holiday right at the end, we were tied up at the little boat yard for a fortnight and though it was very relaxing there, it was so good to be on the move again yesterday. It was thrilling to feel the weight of the water against the rudder through the tiller, the slow firm beat of the ‘JP2’ which was most reassuring and the feel of the breeze in my face, albeit filled with acrid exhaust fumes sometimes. Life which is always good had all of a sudden got even better.

The Soar was busy with traffic and therefore we made good time through two locks as there were plenty of people to help. There were four locks in all but the other two were open flood locks. Therefore we were able to pass straight through without stopping before we arrived finally at Trent Junction.

All I had seen of this area was the map in Nicholson’s Guide and, as is so often the case I find, the actual location was far different to how I had imagined it. What looked like a small crossroads of waterways on the chart was in fact a much grander affair of wide water and flat green flood plain. But with a deeper draft than many, ‘Futurest’s performance is so much better in these wider and deeper waters. She is such a dream to navigate and so much easier to control than in the narrow shallow canal system.

Solar panel on roof

Controller in Engine Room

Last evening having spent a heady few hours on the Trent, we kept left at Beeston Lock while the wide river went down over a weir to the right and would bypass the city centre of Nottingham altogether. Instead we went through the busy lock and into the manmade Beeston and Nottingham Canal. Though we tried to make fast at the moorings here our draft was too deep to get alongside so we moved along about another half mile before tying up snugly to spend a quiet night by the Boots Industrial Estate at Thane Road Bridge. Then this morning brought us another couple of miles into the City of Nottingham, where we are now moored outside a large branch of Sainsbury to very substantial steel rings set in concrete. Not being far from the city centre I shall go off exploring tomorrow.

Goodbye East Midland Boat Services

And hello wide water, trees and flat water meadows

The old filled in Ratcliffe Lock alongside the new

Show the flag!



The River Trent... At Last!

It was wonderful yesterday when we arrived at the River Trent junction and finally left the River Soar that had been our travelling companion for so long. Of course we were unable to go down it straightaway as there was a dirty great waterfall in the way called Thrumpton Weir. I could tell that the Skipper was impressed by it though and had there been incidental music playing in his ears at the time, at this point it would have risen in a great swelling crescendo as we entered the vast width of water that was the junction and it would have burst upon his ears in a great harmonic climax of symphonic beauty.     Er... Sorry about that!

But really, I could see that he was amazed by the vast width of water and the surrounding flat green water meadows that spread out towards the steep ridge to the south.

And I liked the breeze as came across the flatlands and it hit me full in the face. It was gusting at times quite severely and the waves were furiously breaking against my stem, wetting my nose each time with their spray. I loved the exhilaration of it all!

Because we couldn’t go over the waterfall without badly injuring ourselves, we had to travel a bit further and enter the short man made canal called the Cranfleet Cut, which the Skipper I think, found to be an anticlimax, as I always do. But we didn’t have long to wait till we could join the mighty river below Cranfleet Lock and then it was wonderful again.

He had heard so many stories about it that the Skipper I think was a bit anxious about what to expect from the River Trent. But I’ve been here before of course, in my previous life as ‘JP2’ under Ian and Linda so I was well used to it and I would like to have reassured the Skipper that everything would be okay. He is a careful person so I shall have to transmit by telepathy that all will be well. And of course he has me to look after him so he will be fine.

A blending of Nature and Man on the River Soar

Leaving the River Soar

Arriving at the River Trent

And on the River Trent

Welcome Visitors

What a wonderful Easter weekend it has been for me...   and it isn’t yet over. The weather is still set fair though it has been overcast for most of today. And yesterday evening we experienced a violent thunderstorm for about an hour; but more of that later.

Today is also my birthday and looking at the number of years I’m celebrating, I just cannot believe I have managed to stay around for that long. Though the coincidence is quite likely to happen with my birthday being fixed so close to Easter as a moveable date, I cannot ever remember us being on the same day before.

I didn’t get up that early this morning but when I did, and it was timed beautifully just after my shower, so I had to receive it very appropriately in my birthday suit, I had the first greetings phone call of a morning that was filled with happy birthday tidings. It is satisfying that my phone has such an excellent signal here and I was able to pick up every one of them.

My love and thanks to my dear family for their kind thoughts.

A peaceful scene on the river at Normanton-on-Soar

You know.... I’m getting used to this life of soft living around marinas and no doubt you will be surprised to hear that I am still at East Midland Boat Services near Kegworth, when you know me as a man who generally likes to cruise. I haven’t moved very far now in almost a fortnight, except in playing a nautical version of musical chairs, by dodging from one berth to another as their more permanent occupants come and go. And the whole ambient atmosphere here seems to encourage relaxation, notwithstanding even being directly under the flight path of the East Midlands Airport. It is as if time stands still and it’s most infectious.

A foggy morning at Kegworth

As I have already mentioned I am awaiting the fitting of a solar panel and control box and though I received delivery of the former very quickly over a week ago, the controller only arrived yesterday after being sent to my billing address in Wiltshire by mistake. The yard is fitting it all up for me on Tuesday, so we should be cruising again on Wednesday. And though I am relaxed here I also feel we do need to move on with our odyssey....

Sometime anyway!

However ‘Futurest’ and I have not been that quiet over the holiday weekend.

On Thursday afternoon I received a phone call from Rob, my good friend from Essex to enquire whether it would be convenient for him and his wife Penny to visit me on Good Friday. I was thrilled to hear from him and invited them to stay the night aboard.

Originally they were a couple of gongoozlers (inquisitive sightseers) that I met last year while I was tied up at Victoria Park on the Regents Canal and they made such flattering remarks about ‘Futurest’ that immediately I was drawn towards them..... couldn’t help it! 

They had arrived there on a Harley Davidson motorcycle and returned to visit me a few weeks later on the same machine whilst I was moored at Hertford. They are a lovely couple and are planning eventually to sell their house and live on a boat. 

  

   

Early morning on the River Soar

Bluebell Time

Misty Reflections

It was lovely to see them on Friday afternoon and they are so easy to get along with that their stay with me was not a bit stressful, as it is often with some visitors. That evening we went to eat first at ‘The Otter’, a riverside pub next door, where we enjoyed a very good meal and then after returning to the ship, we consumed a couple of bottles of wine without even realising it, whilst gaily chatting on about old times, new times and every other time.  Conversation is always easy with Rob and Pen.

Cattle watering (and toilet!) hole

Yesterday we left the mooring at 0930 and cruised southwards, through three locks to Loughborough and back, which both Pen and Rob enjoyed very much I think. After we had returned they had to leave in order to visit another friend before the weekend finished. So I went with them to the car park and after our goodbyes they shot off in Pen’s Smart Car.

Skippers Mate. Unfortunately only temporarily.

Thanks Rob for the loan for a little while.

The weather that had been wonderful all day, as it has been for so long, suddenly changed after they left. Thick heavy cumulonimbus, as angry looking as darkness, encroached the sky from the east and very soon we suffered a severe thunderstorm which lasted about an hour altogether. The storm moved overhead as the clatter of deafening thunder and harsh flashes of lightning clouted us simultaneously. However afterwards the icy rain had not cooled the air at all and it remained muggy and humid after it had passed.

Sunrise on the Soar

A beautiful Summer morning

Sunrise through the porthole

Abreast 'Barn Owl'

The solar panel arrived here yesterday morning but we are still awaiting the delivery of the control box. I’ve asked Frank one of the two the proprietors here if he can put it all together for me when that time comes and he’s said he will gladly oblige. I would be able probably to do this myself, especially if I care to read the instructions but with my glasses tending to slip off my nose all the time it will be much easier and just as satisfying if I get the professionals to do it for me.

So ‘Futurest’ and I will be spending the weekend here at least; the panel company promised delivery by Monday or Tuesday of next week.

And it is very pleasant here.

Apart from the distant drone of the A6 away over the fence, it is also a quiet and most peaceful spot. ... What more can a man and his boat ask for?

The Weir at Sileby Lock

The owner of the jetty where we were moored returned yesterday from his cruise so ‘Futurest’ and I were obliged to move alongside ‘Barn Owl’ as soon as possible. It meant going ahead out into the river and then going astern for about thirty yards, hoping to steer a straight course. Very luckily there was no wind so the whole movement was accomplished with great ease and precision.

In fact we have been so lucky with the weather altogether this month and though it has been overcast for the last few days the Sun has returned today with great vigour and it remains forecast for next week as well.

I received some marvellous news last night. My friend Ann who owns a narrowboat called ‘Miss B Having’, texted me greetings from Hampton Court Moorings on the River Thames. This is unusual, as she has never ventured further than the River Wey before, which is where she moors. For a long time she has been building up her courage to brave the Thames and I was so pleased when I heard her news last evening.

Now to a lot of folk this feat is nothing and I am sure Ann will heartily agree with this, having now accomplished it herself. But I do know what she was going through as she was building up her confidence. It always needs a lot of pluck to stretch one’s ‘zone of comfort’, when it would be much easier not to bother. Well done Ann!

At the moment I am having similar feelings as Ann must have had, prior to her going out from the reassurance of the River Wey. However my challenge is the forthcoming passage down the River Trent.

From different stories I’ve heard, the Trent experience is like nothing else on the British waterway system. The river is very wide and very large, has lots of massive commercial traffic making huge wash and it has swift tides for about three quarters of its length, making it difficult to get into locks.

However I boost my confidence in the fact that every teller of these horror stories is here to tell the tale of what might have happened rather than what actually did happen and though there have obviously been sad true tales, I get the feeling that, with my seagoing (tidal) knowledge and also my ongoing experience with ‘Futurest’, so long as I take care I should be alright.

I know ‘Futurest’ can do it as Ian and Linda the previous owners did the passage through Keadby Lock every year to winter in Doncaster, so I am confident we can do it together.

The River Soar from the stern