Hi- We bought our first boat 3 years ago and moored at Shardlow- the marina which is accessed on the Trent. We loved the marina and the area but found that there were many times when we just couldn't get out of the marina because of high water levels. I think we bought at the end of a wet summer going into a wet autumn and winter, so it may have been an unusual year, but we just didn't get enough use out of the boat as we wanted. We did spend time on her, but hadn't expected a lot of it to be in the marina. I had hoped to boat most of the year round but it wasn't possible from our moorings
We can only use the boat at weekends and the odd week- same as yourselves
We've since moved to a marina on the Coventry canal and have used the boat a lot more since- plus I haven't missed the big double locks around there. They were good if you shared with another boat but some of those gates are heavy.
It might be worth thinking about the pros and cons of river versus canal moorings if you have limited oppportunities to go boating- Personally I love river moorings but they just aren't practical for us at the moment
Good luck