Gunthorpe

Took us a bit of time at 7:00 this morning to work out Sawley Lock.  No lock-keeper at this time of course.   Anyway, going downstream the left hand of the pair is the one you want and accepts a BW key.   The mechanism is so quiet and there is no visual confirmation that it is working other than the paddles moving which they do very slowly to start with.  Out on the open river the wind was very strong to the point of being unpleasant.   Beeston lock was on levels, but with the gates closed.  Pat needed shopping so we stopped at Sainsbury's Nottingham - not at all obvious if you don't know its there.  THis is the mooring and the red brick building you can just see behind the bushes is it.   The wind and a strong flow over the lock weir proved mildly troublesome at the Town Lock.  Below that lock seemed to be where the drunks hang out as there was a lot of loud shouting, with can holding individuals, and the tone of the neighbourhood dropped somewhat.   Once on the river again the wind became an issue once more, although the lock approaches are well sheltered and we had no problems.  The lock-keepers like us to use the wall risers as they are quite deep.  Our licence was checked at Stoke Lock.  We had pencilled in Holme Lock moorings for our destination today, but took the opportunity of an early arrival to continue to the very pleasant secure pontoon moorings at Gunthorpe.  Finally, someone had a bad day.  This looked like quite a respectable boat before!!