Not too far today as we didn't want to go on the river stretch before watching the snooker, however the TV signal was not good enough to watch so we had to amuse ourselves all afternoon with iPlayer. I am so glad that I have free iPlayer data on my phone plan.
We both put on our life jackets whilst on the river section just to test for comfort. This is not a major river like the Trent where we will be travelling before long.
Had to watch the snooker on the ITV Hub using up my precious data allowance, about one gig per hours watching. iPlayer is free.
Pulled over at Willington opposite the facilities. No TV signal so watched on the internet again, I like this smart TV.
Renewed my Railcard as I wanted to make a long train journey today. Caught the train to Rugby to get my polling card. Maria Sanchez brought it down to the front doors of the council offices for me. It all helps to cement my residency in Rugby for social services in the future if needed.
Filled up with water before setting off as we want to use the washing machine.
Negotiated two wide locks, one sharing with another boat and the other on our own.
The roads and railways have been paralleling us for several days now but we managed to moor far enough away from them that we couldn't hear either. However the aeroplanes from Midlands airfield kept us awake all night!
So much easier to cover large distances and lots of locks with only one boat to manage as we can take turns on the tiller and take turns making beverages.
Lovely day, we have waited for a good day to go on the Trent for the first time.
Prepared for the river by making sure the anchor and chain are accessible and easy to use in an emergency. Put on our life jackets and travelled on the Trent for a while - wonderful.
Got to Beeston in time to catch the bus to Nottingham Forest football ground to buy Nottingham for the match on Monday 18th (only a few left).
Got a 12 volt HDMI DVD player. The 12 volt barrel connector is very small, much smaller than anything I already have so I must find one on the internet so we can use the 12 volt connector instead of the mains to 12 volt adaptor.
Now we can play all the DVDs that we have and all the CD's. Netta wants the letter from me. (In retrospect I have no idea what letter this is.)
I spent the day wandering around Nottingham.
Early morning walk into town. Arrived at the marina as they were opening. They do not deal with Pirates Cave so cannot order the harness I want.
Got a leg of British lamb from Morrisons. Got the coaxial connector for the aerial from Rexel, for free! They do not take cash and as the connector only cost a few pence it wasn't worth their while to charge me.
Went into the library to print off a couple of documents but their computer wouldn't read my USB stick.
Got tickets for the Nottingham County match on Friday.
Ordered my medications to be sent to Tesco Pharmacy in Beeston.
Dipped the diesel tank today, only 12 inches of fuel left so it might be prudent to fill up before we venture out on the Trent again as we will be going on the tidal section soon.
Rang the pharmacy just after nine as I have had problems in the past to see if my prescription was in yet, No. Rang my surgery and was told they couldn't find Tesco Pharmacy in Beeston on their system and arranged that they should send it to Boots in Middle Street Beeston, to which I agreed.
Down to the marina to fill up with diesel and pleasantly surprised to find that it had dropped to £1.29 today.
Stopped off at the facilities for water, loo and rubbish.
It's a good job it's not raining today as the 30 minute 'light shower' absolutely drenched us on the way back from getting diesel. Got to our mooring and had to strip off and change clothes.
Had a call from my doctors to say that they couldn't find Tesco Pharmacy on their system. I explained that I had already had this conversation earlier on in the day and that the prescription was going to Boots in Middle Street, so I was sorted.
82 Lts diesel £105.78
Rang Boots Pharmacy and they have my prescription but it won't be available for collection till after 3 this afternoon but we want to be at County Hall for the morning so decided to collect the prescription on Saturday.
There is a boat race on Friday from Trent Bridge to Newark so we made our way to County Hall today to avoid disrupting the rowers and be there for the football tomorrow.
We walked along from Castle Key to the Notts County football ground to watch Notts County F.C. (officially the oldest professional football club in the world) playing King's Lynn Town, winning 4 1, thoroughly enjoyable match.
Rang Boots Pharmacy, answerphone tells me they won't be open till Tuesday, and I had wanted to be long gone first thing Tuesday morning, guess we will have to wait in Nottingham another day. Spent another day looking around Nottingham. I have noticed on previous visits that there are a couple of 'Deliveroo' cyclists who don't seem to be getting much business. They appear to just sit on their bikes playing with their phones for hour after hour while other 'Deliveroo' and 'Just Eat' cyclists are passing them by. Both of them have their hoods up covering their faces.
Wanted a couple of items from the supermarket so checked on opening times for Morrisons who are doing semi-skimmed milk cheaper than Asda. 10:00 till 4:00 today. Caught the bus there only to find that they are in fact closed.
Another bus trip and I arrived at Asda only to find that they are closed also, guess it must be something to do with it being Easter weekend.
Caught the bus to Asda - they're open. Apparently Asda loves food and hates waste so they were giving away carrots, parsnips and broccoli. I have enough carrots and we are not particularly fond of parsnips but I did get two heads of broccoli.
Sunday service on the busses today so I walked back to the boat. On the way I noticed a Magnolia tree and collected a handful of leaves. They are quite tasty and not unlike popcorn or prawn crackers in as much as they melt in the mouth.
Watched Nottingham Forest beat West Bromwich Albion 4-0. WBA had a player sent off early in the first half.
Caught the bust to Beeston where I collected my prescription, twice. Somehow each conversation with the surgery triggered a prescription, now I have a months supply as a buffer.
Collected the harnesses from Rymans where DHL had delivered them.
Sometime over the past week we have transitioned from lighting the fire every night to not lighting it at all.
Rang Dave at Pirates Cave, he agreed refund and reimbursement of carriage. Next day delivery turned into next week delivery.
Wonderful travellig, loads of birds including but not limited to lapwing, cormorant, grebe,sand martins, canada geese, brent geese, allards, egyptian geese, heron, egret, oyster catcher, as wel las the usual rooks, crows blackbirds, tern, seagulls and so on.
The river varies in width sometimes onlly just wide enough to turn around in and sometimes a couple of hundred yards wide.
Another really nice days travelling. Tomorrow we headout on the tidal Trent so we have to take notice of wht the lockkeepers are telling us. We need to set out at nneish to make the most of the tide.
Used the facilities at the lock and collected some nice chunks of ash for the fire.
I think I might have cracked or bruised a rib trying to retrieve the middle rope from the mooring staunchion.
Left Cromwell Lock shortly after nine and got to Torksey shortly after twelve after running aground at Lollipop Alley well withing the time limit before which the lock keepers start to worry and call out the emergency services to see where we are.
Fortunately we were going quite slowly when we grounded so it was a simple mater to reverse of and continue our journey to Torksey without further mishap.
Stopped off at Torksey Lock for lunch (my breakfast) and then carried on to Saxilby in high winds where we moored for the night.
I am on a 'B' diet.I started it last June and I lost six kilos in the first six months but I haven't been able to weigh myself since then so I'm not sure if it is still working, although I do feel better and I am less breathless.
The 'B' diet I am on means that I have given up Bread, Butter, Bacon, Broccoli, Bananas and most important Breakfast, hence my first meal of the day at lunchtime.
We saw, a flock of herons, two egrets, a flock of cormorants, oyster catchers Great crested grebe, little grebe, kingfisher and lapwing.
Dropped off in the centre of Lincoln to get some fresh veg from the market but it wasn't open so we didn't get anything as there are no food shops in the centre.
Continued on to Ferry Lane moorings at Washingborough where there is a pontoon mooring that goes up and down with the river.
Bus service every 30 minutes into Lincoln so I was able to get to a supermarket for some much needed food including a free range chicken and fresh vegetables so we are having 'chicken tonight'.
Stayed put for the day so I went into Lincoln for a look round while my No. 2 explored the local environs.
We could not make out why the rather nice house next to the mooring was half black and half clean brick as we couldn't work out where all the soot would have come from. Then we realised that it was an old station house and that we were moored up right by the old disused railway.
Early morning walk so my No. 2 could show me some seating that she rather liked. On the way there we heard a cuckoo, the first I have heard for many a year.
Moored up after a fairly arduous day fighting the wind in the flight path of Coningsby Airfield where the RAF train their fighter pilots. A constant stream of Typhoons circling and doing pretend landings and take offs, apparently known as 'circuits and bumps'.
Morning cruise into Boston, planning to take a trip to Skegness tomorrow and partake in an early spring dip, well my No. 2 is planning on a dip, I'm far too delicate to do that sort of thing.
Boston is an interesting town straddling the river Witham with a distinctly different feel either side. It also has the largest Eastern European supermarket I have ever seen, which would explain the plethora of Eastern Europeans around, almost outnumbering the English speaking population.
On the way here the grebes were almost as plentiful as moorhens are on the canals and there were several Egyptian ducks, a flock of 50 or so swans and a number of buzzards competing with the Typhoons for airspace.
Decided that it's too windy today to do Skegness so we have put that off till tomorrow.
Wandered around Boston viewing The Stump, the biggest church in Britain. There are several stories about why it is called The Stump but I believe that the builders just ran out of money before the spire went on and it had been left like that ever since.
Birthplace of the Separatist movement which spawned The Pilgrim Fathers and many of the Pilgrim Fathers that sailed from Plymouth originated in Boston, which is why Boston Massachusetts is so called.
I could not help but notice that there seemed to be a divide in the population with the demarkation point being the river. On one side, just like any other English town, on the other predominantly Eastern European. I felt out of place on the Eastern European side.
Today we went to Skegness. Train journey good with hardly anyone on board so we felt quite safe. The surrounding area is really flat and reminded me of the Manitoba plains, which reminded me of the last steam train journey from Winnipeg to Brandon and back.
Skegness is a typical seaside town and even this far out of season was open for business. The beach at Skegness was not much more than a sewage disposal point and the town looked pretty much run down as well. Maybe we picked the wrong time of year.
I have never seen so many chippies in one road. We found our way to the beach and my No. 2 went for a paddle. She decided that a swim was a step too far as it was much too cold and windy to put on a cozzie.
I must be a windy place at the best of times as they have three wind farms just off the beach, one three miles out, one four miles out and the third seven miles out.
Skegness does have one attraction that I have never seen before and that is a climbing frame for kiddies. Big kiddies as the frame is some 66 ft high and has some 44 awkward obstacles to negotiate, called Altitude 44.
We had fish and chips at the Trawlers Catch, recommended by a lady we met in Boston yesterday and it lives up to it's reputation.
A day of firsts, first train trip, first paddle in the sea this year, first trip to the seaside and first Fish and Chips for three years.
My rib still painful.
Went into ASDA to this morning to get some fresh vegetables as we won't be able to go shopping for a few days and on the way I saw a male blackbird offering a leaf or petal to a female. She took and put it on the ground. He picked it up and offered it to her again. She took it and put it on the ground. They did this several times until my presence disturbed them and they flew away, the male remembering to take the petal with him. What Was Happening?
I could imagine the conversation:-
Him "Try this"
Her "Doesn't look very nice"
Him "Go on you'll like it"
Her "Are you sure"
Him "Of course, it'll do you good"
Her "Are you trying to get me drunk or something"
Him "Nooo"
Nice easy run up the river with the weather improving all the way, bright sunshine by the time we arrived.
Set off before eight to catch the best of the sunshine today, wonderful travelling. Past the sugar factory at Bardney and the old railway station and signal box at Stixwould. Saw a new bird today, a sandpiper.
Moored up at a spot the my No. 2 made a note of on the away down miles from anywhere with no road access but lots of walking trails.
I eventually got pictures of a Post House that we passed on the way down to Boston. It intrigued me as I could see no sign of habitation and without inhabitants why would they be situated as they are? For the answer see here.
