My stay on this island - a little island between two Weir's with the lock
going down the middle - it's just been amazing
I could easily stay here a lot longer than two days (48hr mooring) but unfortunately I've
"gotta keep cranking guys" yeah next stop is Gunthorpe lock and then
Stoke lock and other locks on my voyage to Nottingham so let's hope we
can make that before the river floods because that is our main worry!
We should be alright. I'll be fine!
so that's Hazelford lock behind us — that was a nightmare to be honest, I couldn't
film any of what just happened — got thrown about by the turbulence
and tieing my rope to the side didn't help because the wind got in the way as well and the lock keeper
didnt understand that my narrowboat wasn't that powerful
because there's only 13.5 horsepower in this beast
certainly not as fast as this one coming up
If you've got seen my videos before I'll tell you I've been on my boat for four
years now it's my home I love it but I wouldn't mind a little bit more power
especially on these huge rivers that I'm taking on
We've only got 14 miles to go
until we get to Nottingham but it's all upstream against the flow of the
water and also against the wind!
coming up to Gunthorpe lock now and its one I'm going to have to do myself
by the way that is a sod to moor up against with the flow of
the weir coming the other way
alright here we are now to open this
lock what I do is first make sure the water has equalized so both sides are
the same, I open the sluices on either side so that's far side and near side is this one here
and then once that's equalized and the water's the same level I can open
the gates — just push and hold until they're completely open
right now we can see what it's like leaving this mooring and going into the
lock however the flow on this coming off the weir makes it a lot easier to cast
off just go with the flow man!
so much easier and then of course in the lock
itself there's no flow at all
but this is no lock keeper here I'm going to have to use my
immensely long rope (ooer) to tie up at the top
and as cool as this view right now looks
of the top of my boat — it's not one that I enjoy as it just means it's just so
far below where I am and the only thing that controlling it is that long rope!
now there's going to be an incredible amount of water rushing in but you can steady the flow
so that it's not gonna be too disruptive and you do that by just just sort of
pressing and holding for a little bit and then releasing so you've got control
over both sluices which is quite handy
thankfully that was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be and managed
to control the flow of water and now we're gonna exit the lock like it ain't
no thing!
and now we're coming up to Gunthorpe visitor moorings and I'm gonna stop here and have my lunch
which is right here!
Today's lunch is last night's kinwa oh yeah Quinoa mixed with tuna mayonnaise
little bit of black pepper and salt and some jalapeños oh and some lettuce
healthy - iceberg - lettuce.
It tastes delicious but it looks absolutely disgusting!
Quinoa is supposed to give you loads and loads of energy so you can
get out there and carry on cranking! Unfortunately that day it just put me
into instant 'food coma' and I ended up at Gunthorpe overnight
the wind has really picked up — I'm struggling a little bit but we'll get there.
It's just gonna take a lot longer than normal but I can see the waves are starting
to appear and yeah the current of the river is bad enough as it is without
all this wind but we'll see how we get on...
We've just past the sign that says 14 kilometers to
Nottingham which means about 9 miles something like that
so we're not far
just gotta CRANK IT!!!
and just like that the wind has died down and it's really calm again and thats normally because of trees
trees provide a really good barrier from the wind which is why most of the time the river is so windy
I mean here's a perfect example, there are forests on either side of the river and there's no
wind at all here
however we still have to compensate for the water from the
weir pushing us over
can you can use it in your favor but most the time it
doesn't go that way for you so you've just got to watch out
but if you come in slowly and go with the flow and make sure you point the boat in the
right direction you're normally good
now this lock is quite peculiar because it has
two sluices on each gate I don't know why that is but perhaps it's just
to control the flow of water a bit better
now on the last lock it seemed like the best idea would be to put it towards the
back end of the lock that's not always the case I mean sometimes is much better
to put the nose right against gates so the flow of
the water that comes through the paddles can just go underneath the boat and out
the other side now I know you might be thinking "13 kilometers per hour?" (look at
that sign there) "why do they have it in kilometres and
not miles I thought the UK was supposed to be measuring everything
imperially when it comes to speeds and distances" well because it is Britain, and
we're such a messed up country we decide that we like using both for whenever it
suits for absolutely no reason whatsoever and I've asked lock keepers
this i've asked fellow boaters i've asked everyone and no one to give me a
straight answer! So if you've got an idea drop it in the comments below I'd be
interested to hear why do we use kilometers AND miles per hour?
I've just been talking to Roger and Naomi who are boaters that live just across that way
over on that Island sort of living off-grid trying to get by
and it's a really secluded mooring there and those are very rare
but yeah they were really lovely people it's just nice to stop and chat to them
for a bit and they even I've invited me in for a cup of tea but I just said I've
got to get cranking on to Nottingham to try and catch a train to London
pretty soon so I need to get on in there so I can get that
here are the visitor moorings — so just up from the lock a nice place to stay for a
couple nights there's not much down there and I'm running low on supplies so
I definitely need to go on to Nottingham — sorry I'm just eating
a peanut butter and banana sandwich
absolutely disgusting ;)
this is Radcliffe viaduct; the Nottingham to Grantham line
It's quite a sight — I like it!
so there is a railway station here at Radcliffe-on-Trent but there's no mooring
so I'd never be able to catch the train from here to wherever I'd want to go
just past the 5k sign so that means 3.3 [3.1] miles left to go!
I keep forgetting to
mention that most of these locks have facilities on them so just bear with me one second...
I prefer to go alone... if you just don't mind, thank you!!
now this is interesting this is all the hydroelectric power station work that's
being done so pretty soon all of these locks will have hydropower
which is cool but it does disturb people like Roger and Naomi who have to actually leave their moorings
anyway here we are at a place called Holme Pierrepont
This is where the UK's national canoeing and kayaking center is
and it's just a generally lovely place to be
it's a nice mooring this if I had a bigger boat it would be perfect because the sides that
you butt up against are not ideal for narrowboats I'd rather be in
Nottingham I think rolled up alongside some other continuous cruisers the funny
thing is as I was about to fall asleep this party boat full of drunk students
turns up making me think I'm already in central Nottingham
this is the morning of day three of the journey it's so quiet
apart from these geese behind me it's really quiet here so it's a shame to
have to turn this engine on gotta get cranking man! It's about seven o'clock gotta
go to work today so that's why I'm starting now...
so here we are we've made it! We've made it to Nottingham finally 'against all odds'!
we're moored now opposite the city ground (Nottingham Forest's ground) and it's a
lovely little mooring here where it's got the flowing water and everything
the Grantham Canal will be our next episode and that actually starts just over there
or it would start if it wasn't mostly disused but we'll find out more about
that in the next one and then we'll explore Nottingham thanks for watching
see ya bye!
YES because you waited right to the end of the video I'm gonna treat you with
this pub of the week and it's a cricket themed one so if you actually like
cricket or love cricket this is the one for you — also it's very close to all the
football grounds as well so I think a lot of sports fans just generally drink here
I popped in just to have breakfast because it was about 8 a.m. in
the morning so yeah cheap breakfast refillable coffee and everything so yeah
it's all good anyway hope you enjoyed the video thanks for sticking
with it Cheers bye!