What did Karen drop in the canal?

I know it’s getting repetitive but we really did wake up to yet another gorgeous morning.

Our immediate plan is to get to Beeston on the outskirts of Nottingham by Friday evening.  The weather forecasts have been a bit dire recently with regard to windy conditions so it was looking unlikely.  We don’t mind cruising in rain or snow if we have somewhere to get to but if it’s too windy then it’s too dangerous.  The weather has been better than expected so we may well make it to Beeston on time after all.  Because we are on this mini mission we will visit the places that we are missing, like Alrewas, when we next pass through.

The Trent and Mersey canal is either canalised (navigable) river or cut canal.  Where it is on navigable river we have to take heed of the traffic light system warning boards and only travel when the river flow is not too strong; when the boards show green.  Here is a point where the River Trent leaves the canal and the canal turns off to the left.

The mileposts are a different design on this canal; they show the distance in miles to both termini.

Also, the bridge plaques are back to the standard ones that show the number as opposed to the name as we saw on the Birmingham & Fazeley.

At one point we went over the River Dove on an aqueduct with a good old disused stone bridge in view.

I managed to get a picture of a kingfisher as I steered past.

And also caught it in flight.

Karen and Buddy were fascinated by these llamas.

I had to make another visit into the weed hatch as the propeller had caught up with rubbish again.  The water was absolutely freezing.

Even though we are heading for Nottingham the canal goes through some remote areas.

True to the latest forecast it started raining at one so we stopped for lunch.  It stopped after 30 minutes and we set off again.  The clouds cleared and the sun came out but it was cold.

We went through Burton on Trent, the home of brewers such as Bass and Marstons.  We couldn’t smell any of the breweries until we got to the east so that confirmed which way the wind was blowing.

We went through the final lock of the day in twilight and things are beginning to feel different as it was the first of the broad locks which are now present all the way to Nottingham.  As we moored Karen dropped her windlass in the water.  Amazingly we retrieved it on the second cast of the sea magnet. Here are the locks we went through today.