Clarborough

Canal boating is not for the faint-hearted - but we will come to that in a moment.

Yesterday we had a busy day: it was the 25th anniversary of the ordination of the parish priest in Wadebridge and the parish had opted to make it a celebration, including a lunch. As part of the special service in the morning, Mike 'interviewed' Bill about his career to date.

Also, the parish had collected to present him with a specially made stole, embroidered in a design that incorporated elements that represent particular features of his life, personality and career. It had been commissioned from one of the leading designers of church robes.

As a result, with a journey to the boat of over six hours, we planned to leave as soon as possible this morning. We managed to set off just before eight o'clock. The greater part of the journey was on motorways and for at least the first half we were surprised at the lack of traffic, especially lorries.

We did have to make a couple of stops and at the second one, shortly before leaving the M5, we paused long enough also to have a cup of coffee. We had been warned of delays on the M42 - road works have seriously restricted the lanes at the junction of motorways just before the M6 Toll and we were slow moving for almost half an hour.

Nevertheless we made good time and arrived at Clayworth perhaps 10 minutes ahead of the time predicted when we set off, allowing for stoppages.

Back at the boat we started to open up and turn on all systems, only quickly to find that twe had no electricity - the battery management panel was completely dead and nothing worked, except that the starter battery was OK and we could set the engine going but no sign of charging.

We are not yet sure of the reason for this although 'user error' is the most likely explanation (in't it always?) and we knew the theory of what we needed to do to get going, but not confident enough to try it!

Retford and Worksop Boat Club, Clayworth

We moved the boat the short distance down to the water point, cloose to the car park, where we could more easily unload from car to boat whilst filling our water tanks.

Christine rang Canal and River Rescue who arranged for an engineer to contact. His advice, giving the practical side to our theory (!) was quite simple which involved establishing a contact between the starter battery and the domestic batteries long enough to kick start the alternator. We tried this and, almost to our surprise, it worked. All we have to do now is to charge the batteries and see whether we have done too much damage to them (they were only fitted about three weeks ago . . .)

Only a quarter of an hour later than we had expected we were able to set off up the canal towards Retford. We knew from the last trip that we could only expect to make 2 mph at best and so aimed to moore close to Clarborough.

The official mooring at Hayton was already occupied so we were expecting to have to repeat our first experience of mooring on this canal - a long way from the bank just close enough to use the gang plank!

Clarborough Visitor Moorings

However, as we came through the bridge at Clarborough we saw that the moorings were 24 hour visitor moorings (we had been told that they were pub moorings) so quickly pulled in alongside and took advantage of the easy mooring.

The Gate, Clarborough

Christine took a look at The Gate pub menu - which had also been recommended - and we decided on the lazy option that did not involve any food preparation! It was still a bit early to eat so time to write and upload this blog first. We will have to report on the food later.

2.9 miles - 0 locks