I am Linda and along with my husband Richard and our dog Oreo we enjoy our summers on the UK's canal system

Friday 6 July 2012

Thursday 5th July

We woke up to heavy rain (hey so what’s new!) but it cleared up during the morning and the afternoon was lovely – Richard put this shorts on! However it was a bit humid. We set off through Retford Town Lock, the last of the narrow locks on the canal. We were soon at 'Whitsunday Pie Lock'. The strange name reputedly originated when a woman baked a huge pie one Whitsunday for navvies digging the canal, however recently discovered maps show a local field called Whitsunday Pie Field that pre-dates the canal. The Worksop and Retford Boat Club still celebrate on Whitsunday by serving a pie at the lockside.

Between bridges 61 and 62 we came across a huge patch of floating reeds and weeds. Richard had to really push the boat through then stop to clear the prop and rudder. We had spoken to a man last night who had told us about the patch and I had spoken to a C&RT man this morning who also told me about it! I rattled off a quick email to C&RT – I wonder if they will do anything about it! (I did get a reply and they said that I wasn’t the first person to complain and they would look into it).

The lovely afternoon continued but the humidity got worse. Just as we got to Misterton Top Lock it started to rain and we had a massive thunderstorm – I didn’t see any lightening but the thunder was very loud and very close. We finally got to West Stockwith about 7pm and moored up - a long day but we want to go down the River Trent tomorrow as they are threatening severe rain and don’t want to get stuck with the Trent in flood.

After dinner we walked to the river and were really surprised at how fast the tide was coming in – a narrow boat wouldn’t have stood an earthly chance to turning into the lock in that!

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