Although we didn't suspect it at first, today was a critical day. There are other critical days that we know of like getting the 60 foot boat into a 57 foot lock, but this one we had overlooked. There had been a lot of heavy overnight rain it seems. Our first inkling of trouble was an opposite direction boater at Derwent Mouth Lock telling us that the River Soar was closed and the River Trent on yellow boards. Our belief was that most of the rain had been to the east, so the Trent catchment would have escaped. This was probably true, but we had overlooked the contribution of the Soar. Sawley Flood lock was closed, but we certainly got there quickly. Reaching Sawley we determined that the mooring arrangements for the pumpout were no good for us, so moored up for lunch opposite. We then carried on. The lock keeper at Sawley Lock advised that we could certainly get into the Cranfleet Cut but he had no firm details about the Trent below there. As it turned out, the river was on orange boards, so not actually closed. Boats coming up river were struggling a bit, but going down river proved to be no problem except for the noticable pull of the Beeston Weir when we got towards the lock. Once through, on the Beeston Cut we were sure now of reaching Nottingham. Our last but one duty was to get a pumpout. Our last chance was at Castle Marina for which we had to negotiate a tight narrow entrance and then hover for the pontoon to be vacated. At least we got a good clean job with adequate flush unlike the BW machines which cut out too soon. With the ship's bowels now emptied, we rejoined the canal and found a pretty mooring at Castle Meadow. The last duty? A visit to Sainsbury!
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