Relief at Newark

8th July

Definitely a quickie this time, as I'm a bit weary.

There's no doubt about it, long tidal passages are stressful for this crew, and the Trent between Torksey and Newark is well up the list. It's the concern (only slightly exaggerated) about taking a bend too sharply and running aground, in addition to the usual worries about the consequences of engine failure, this time thrown into relief by yesterday's adventure with the drive belt.

We locked down at 0830, and made an uneventful trip to Cromwell Lock, enlivened though it was by Little Shuva shuving an empty gravel pan past us just as we got to Fledborough Viaduct, and a full barge coming the other way a bit higher up. In the event, neither gave us any bother, passing without difficulty.

It took a deal longer to come back up, despite having the flood tide behind us for the first couple of hours; five and a half hours as against four going down, but once above the effective range of the tide, Sanity was working hard to stem the flow against us.

Cathy and the boys came to see us on arrival - we had to moor on the wall at first, but later moved across to the pontoon.

We've done a first trip to Waitrose (Chinese banquet for two tonight), and we'll have a leisurely shop in town tomorrow.

Oh, one last wildlife note – there were a lot of Oyster Catchers about today.