Thur Jun 5th - 45 miles, 6 furlongs, 7 locks - Newark to Clayworth Total cruising time 11 hours 35 minutes.
Cloudless blue sky as we set off from our mooring in the centre of Newark at 6.40am. Worked ourselves through Newark Nether lock and then a brisk run down to Cromwell lock, notifying the lock keeper on the VHF as we passed Muskham Ferry. The lock was all set for us when we got there, and a cruiser came in as well. When the lock had emptied I waved the cruiser out first since it would save him the effort of overtaking me after leaving the lock. Left the lock at 8.05pm and settled down to the task of driving down river. Within a mile of the lock we passed a barge being loaded with sand, with the tug "Little Shuva" behind it. The 12 miles down to Dunham bridge were done at an average speed of just under 7 MPH, but then we hit the Flood tide and our speed dropped to 4MPH between here and Torksey Junction. The sand barge caught us up about half a mile before the S-bend at Torksey, so I pulled to the left and slowed down so that he didn't have to try and overtake me in the turns. Opened the engine up again after he had passed and we passed Torksey Junction at 10.45am. Very little traffic out on the river, we saw two other narrowboats and two other commercial vessels. Gainsborough came at 12.25pm, and I called up West Stockwith as we cleared Morton Corner to advise him we were nearly there. As instructed, I called him again when I could see the lock, and as we got to the first sign started to turn upstream. It's only when you do this you realize how fast the river is running - fast, since it was high springs AND there was plenty of extra fresh water coming down. Arun was able to hold her own against this flow though, and my plan was to use the current to move her sideways until I was resting against the downstream bull-nose, and then to power her round the corner against the flow. The lock keeper had other plans, and was signalling me to come towards him on the upstream bull-nose. I crept forwards towards him and at a certain point he indicated me to put the tiller hard over. I did this, and increased power but still got swept onto the downstream bull-nose. A helluva bang, but no discernible damage to Arun - strong boats them Norton Canes. Investigation down below revealed several things had changed location from shelf to floor and one broken wineglass. After coming up in the lock I bought a bottle of gas from the lock keeper and we set off on our way down the Chesterfield Canal at 1.40pm. I have never been on this canal before, and first impressions were very favourable. We caught up with another narrowboat at Misterton Low lock, so we shared with them for the first four locks. They pulled over just after Drakeholes tunnel, but we pressed on to Clayworth Bridge before stopping. Supper on board before wandering in to the Brewers Arms for a beer. A very good pub, spoilt slightly by the limited choice of beer - Flowers IPA or Flowers Original. We settled for the Original, and it was perfectly drinkable, just not very inspiring. Terry Streeter NB Arun - Clayworth
