Tuttifruity

Hurray! Have spoken to Dave and he’s hoping to get us down the locks on Wednesday morning depending on the river levels so fingers crossed again!

I didn’t go online in the morning as I was sorting out picking up a van in Sheffield, I meant the number of footballs on our total journey from the Peak Forest canal, especially from the River Trent onwards. Have left another message with the lock keeper. Here’s hopingrhoping

Hi all, I’ve been out all day so thanks for this. I’ll give the lock keeper a bell in the morning, but I can’t see us getting past Rotherham lock yet with all the rain we’ve had. He probably wants to give us an update on Tinsley repairs. Who’d have thought we’d be stuck here for over a week?? ps I’ve never seen so many footballs adrift in the canals over our journey. I could open a sportshop if I fish them out

Hi all, we’re back from a couple of days away, we had a look at the river after Rotherham lock and thought no chance, so we went back to Eastwood lock and are staying there. Nice bunch they are too. I’ll keep giving Tinsley lock keeper a bell to see how they’re getting on this week. we had to laugh, when someone said ‘the Exol Pride’. We thought I wonder what that is, a big boat, maybe? It’s now parked opposite us at Eastwood, it’s a massive, huge thing, it should be at sea!!!!

Cheers all, I tried contacting Tinsley Locks for a booking or update this morning, but no reply, so I went on the train at last to sawley to pick up the car. Partner had to find a vet for one of pouches as her face had blown up like a balloon (did look funny though) so time’s run out again and we’re still at Rotherham. Getting up early and will defo move to ickles, we had a prowler round about 3.30am so Paul mooned at him through the window which sent him fleeing over the road workers’ high fencing! I wonder what he’ll waggle at him if he returns tonight??

We’re still at Rotherham station as we’ve needed to get prescriptions from Paul’s doctors in Sheffield. He’d had enough to last the journey but Tinsley breaking down was a stretch too far. One thing we’ve found on our travels in the winter is the lock keepers aren’t usually on duty, the yellow light is lit, so I wonder if Dave will be at ickles?

You did see us looking knackered no doubt! We were running very low on water and set sail from Doncaster, realising we were 50 feet from the water which was hidden by a small boat right in front of it, but thought never mind we’ll find water along the route no doubt. Got to Eastwood lock and didn’t realise the tap is in the lock! Never mind we’re nearly at Sheffield and Tinsley Locks have some, then horror, you can’t go anywhere for a few days at least. Eek! Nothing else to do but turn around and head back to Eastwood. Some nice boats along there. As for Sheffield, we’ll be on one of the pontoons with a locked gate across the access so fingers crossed.

Big thanks for this, I’ve just received the alert from CRT saying Tinsley Locks are out of action, we’ve been so unlucky. We did try to get from Doncaster all the way through Rotherham in one go because we had heard the local youths are a*******s, but it was getting dark when we got to Rotherham lock and there’s lots of bright lights with the blokes working outside the station right by us. We weren’t going to stay on Eastwood lock as one of the poor boats had graffiti all over it even over the windows. oh well back to sitting it out again! ☹️

Helloo! We had tried phoning Tinsley Locks as we took off from Doncaster and left a message asking to use the locks tomorrow. Unfortunately they are having trouble with a pump and the lock keeper asked us to moor at eastwood lock.it was getting dark so we got to just before Rotherham lock where there are loads of workmen working on the station so hopefully safe! Will set off in the morning and get to icles lock and stop there. He advised us to stay away until Tuesday pm when he might have more info. We might poss head down on Wednesday or Thursday depending on how they get on. sadly I’m so full of cold and have twisted something important since Wednesday so will be glad to get home and have a very deep hot bath! At least I’m not that far from the station in Rotherham and can get to sawley to pick my car up as it’s going to reside near Victoria Quays where we’ve asked for a permanent mooring. Someone at Eastwood Marina said we have to pay at icles but we’re not bothered as long as the boats safe.

Hello! The CRT guys were there at 8.30am this morning to fix the lift bridge properly, although they did manage to free the bloke in the van last night! We set off to the pedestrian bridge and fumbled for ages with the help of a nice local bloke (this sods always breaking, he said, and I said it’s a pity it’s isnt manual ) waved to Halcyon and got to Doncaster. Very nice. Will phone Tinsley in the morning.

Ps. Never driven the boat so fast, we thought it was about 7 mph so got that wrong! Anyway, one day we might reach Sheffield. I wonder if Tinsley locks are broken until May! Will wave to Halcyon when going past

We ended up there once the blokes had had a look at the lift bridge. It’s a pub with an Indian attached! Food was awful, uncooked and took 50 mins to prepare!

It’s me . Lockkeepers were brill on the tidal Trent. Got to Keadby too early! Only took 3 hours from Torksey so trod water for a bit between M180 and Keadby bridges. Thought we could get to stanilands Marina in Thorne but unfortunately every single swing bridge was a b*****d to work, but we thought we’ll make it! We’re nearly there! But no, the final lift bridge decided to play silly b*****s, and caught a white van in between the gates, and refused to budge. Sadly we weren’t through, and CRT Emergency couldn’t fix it tonight. Managed to let the poor sod in the white van out, and we are moored up on the white bollards until the morning at least. Off to find a pub and take away!

Hello everyone! We spent last night in Newark and spoke to the lovely chap at Cromwell Lock. Went through there this morning and have arrived at Torksey for the night, the river was pretty calm and very pretty all the way. He advised us to set off at 8.15am to get to Keadby so fingers crossed! ⚓️

Thanks everyone, hopefully will be able to get through Cromwell tomorrow!

Thanks! Have got to Newark at 3.30 but no answer for Cromwell lock to book a passage. Will try again in the morning. I’ve got 2 numbers, are these right? 01636 821213 07887 765485

Ha ha! No you haven’t.

Hurray cranfleet lock is open! Have now got to end of Nottingham Canal and will set off early before they close Meadow lock!

Hi Tony, yes the reading was 12.7 in the morning when no charger had been on all night. When the engine initially starts the charge reads 13.3 or thereabouts and then gets quickly up to 14.3 for the duration so looking good. We now leave the engine on for 4 hours a day and follow your previous advice so thanks again.

Thanks for this Tony, we’ve followed ur advice and batteries were 12.7 charge this morning. You can tell we’ve not been boating long!

It’s such a noisy sodden engine! Fair enough, we’ve put it back on now and will leave it chugging away a lot longer in future. Thanks for ur help

Thanks for all the comments, we’ll have a fiddle with the belt but hadn’t thought of the batteries putting too much load initially. As you know we’ve been stuck at sawley and cranfleet locks for 3 weeks and have been putting the engine on to charge the batteries for 2 hours a day, but as we’re bored stiff have had the telly on a lot, so the batteries are down to 11.7 every morning when we get up!

Hello all, there’s a squeal from the engine when I start up and rev it. Battery lights come on dashboard until squeal goes. Ok once running for a bit. Is it the belt too loose to the alternator or is my water pump about to go on the blink? Not very good with engines yet, I need to go on a course

Thanks Tim, at least we’re by a water point

Merry Christmas everyone! We’ve come back to the boat but unfortunately cranfleet/Trent lock is padlocked again and sawley lock has a red light on so we’ll have to wait around again. There’s nothing come through on email or on the CRT website so presume they haven’t had chance due to the Christmas hols