STENSON FOR PAINTING

Feb 21, 2008   //   by admin   //   BLOG  //  No Comments

Last weekend we (my trusty Dad & me) moved Aqua Vita from Kingfisher Narrowboat’s base at Trent Lock up to the MCC boatyard at Stenson for painting. I’d planned that the journey should take around 5 hours but I hadn’t taken into account the plummenting temperatures! We arrived to find over 1″ thick layer of ice cocooning the boat onto the mooring! We couldn’t even push the boat out and off the bank to turn her around. In the end I had to slowly creep forwards and backwards to crack and loosen the ice to create enough space to manoeuvre the boat into the winding hole immediately in front of dockyard. An hour later and we’d managed to carefully turn the boat without causing any ice damage to the other boats moored nearby. It’s actually quite satisfying to be the first to break through the ice and hear it crunch and crack, definitely worth a couple of coats of blacking!!

We finally managed to get onto the river to head up towards Sawley and the Trent & Mersey canal. Although cold it was a beautiful crisp and clear day with bright blue skys – a perfect winter cruising day.

We timed our arrival at Sawley to perfection with a narrowboat just coming out of the lock as we arrived.

Above: superb moorings at Crockers Marina just below Shardlow.


The Clock Warehouse at Shardlow where the boat was lowered into the water just before Christmas.

Above: Just below Weston on Trent the owner of the 40ft boat in front thought that he’d be able to turn his boat around without the help of a winding hole…….needless to say he managed to free the boat twenty minutes later with a couple of barge poles – but not in the direction he’d hoped. Shortly after freeing the boat he promptly went aground again, apologised and waved us through – why is it that when you muck up there’s always an audience happy to watch you make a complete prat of yourself but when you perform a superb feat of helsmanship there’s not a single sole around! Anyway he ended up sharing Weston lock with us and then followed behind for another mile or so until the next winding hole. I think the lesson was learnt….well until next time.

About six and half hours later we finally arrived at Stenson where my Mum picked us up to collect my car from Trent Lock. The boat will take about three weeks to paint but I’m hoping that i’ll be able to get access to her over that time to carry on with the ‘To Do’ list. But for the time being I’ve managed to have a few days off this week as it’s half term and I’ve been looking after the Kids – and Jane who’s been knocked for six by a dreadful flu type bug. But hopefully we’ll be back up to speed next week ready for the final push!

Justin.

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