Is it a conspiracy or are we doomed?

After years of being told that we really should cruise the Erewash Canal which ambles between Nottingham and Derby, this week we’ve made it onto Erewash waters but it now looks as if we won’t be able to complete the navigation.


The River Soar took us to its junction with the mighty River Trent in the shadow of Ratcliffe Power Station. Suitably clad with lifejackets for all of us, we crossed the Trent, grateful that the blustery wind had dropped a little as we made it past the opening to the Cranfleet Cut beside the yacht club and Devil’s Elbow rowing club, to cut straight across to the Erewash Canal.

So far so good. We moored up on the Trent Lock landings, headed through without issue and left the rivers behind us for the calm of the canal. Surrounded by chalets in the fields, pubs, a tea room and chalets on the water, this is a hugely popular place to spend time. Walks across the fields , along the Erewash and Cranfleet Cut lead to the stunning Attenborough Nature Reserve. It’s no wonder people flock here, not just from Nottingham and Derby but from across the country. 


For us this visit up the Erewash gives us a long-awaited chance to catch up with old friends and former colleagues we haven’t seen since pre-pandemic days. We sorted a packed calendar of visits to the boat, stocked up the fridge and got ourselves to Long Eaton as our first point of call (mooring just past the West Park Footbridge handy for The Bridge pub). Duty called with work first and then disaster no. 1 struck.

Finishing work on the first day moored there (glad it’s all online) I was aware of feeling as if my head was going to explode, as if it was too heavy for my neck, as if an elephant was sitting on my chest, and generally that I was exhausted. Yes, I’d done some work but not enough to shatter me completely! I took myself to bed and woke up completely disorientated the next morning. Just for precaution’s sake I took a Covid test and almost fell off the sofa in shock when two lines appeared. Meeting up with more and more people as we have has obviously brought us into contact with more than we bargained for. 

Quick cancellations to everyone we had hoped to see, and disappointment added to the misery of feeling ill. Still, sleep seemed to be the main thing my body sought, and we had a pleasant mooring spot so we stayed put and I snoozed. 


The next day’s I joined MS Teams meetings sounding very husky, and by the end of the morning it was all o could do to stagger back down the boat to bed. It’s a good thing that downshifting has led to shorter working days!


Steve’s hayfever has been appalling this year, and he seemed to be getting a lot worse. Then on Friday morning he too sounded like me – so another test was brought into play to discover that we both have tested postive.

The dog is now in charge of us both! 

Then we faced a very urgent practical issue about living aboard – we filled up with water at Barrow on the Soar, and emptied all our rubbish and toilet waste there, with the idea that we would be at the top of the Erewash before we needed to empty the toilet waste again. One cassette lasts two of us 2 days. We currently have one that’s now full and one that’s filling… and despite having thought this year about buying a third one, we still have only have 2 aboard which gives us 4 days cruising between emptying…and now we are down to less than 2 days… These are things you don’t need to think about in a house.

Staying at Long Eaton longer than intended, and feeling the way we do, travelling 7 hours, 10 miles and 13 locks to the end of the canal at Langley Mill and the next waste disposal ahead of us is not something we genuinely feel we can manage. Behind us there’s one at Trent Lock much closer but we’re facing away from it. To get there we need to travel ahead 2 miles and 3 locks to a point we can turn and then head back through those same locks and on a bit further, a total journey of 5 miles and 6 locks which will take 3 hours to reach the waste point. So that’s the plan. 


We have to see if we have the energy to manage the locks, feeling as weak as kittens? It could take us ages at best and be a danger at worst, but we need to do something…and so we shall try. We cannot risk an overflowing loo (a horror of living afloat!). Some boats have a larger waste tank which has to be pumped out every few weeks or months but that costs each time and we took ours out of this boat in favour of economical cassettes which can be more easily transported for emptying in times of delay or ice stopping us moving to a pump out point.

So on wobbly legs, we have moved up to Sandiacre Lock, turned in the old Derby Canal junction and made our slow way back to Trent Lock. When we have the energy the loo can be emptied.

We feel absolutely exhausted! 6 locks and 5 short miles has finished us. They weren’t straightforward either as we hoped – whenever are they when you just want life to be easy. Handcuff keys were needed on all which delayed unlocking and relocking, and we came across a pair of warring cob swans fighting to the death over territory inside Dockholme Lock. Fortunately swan food moved cygnets and the pen out of the way to safety. We filled the lock to get the birds within our reach reach a boat hook helped separate the warring pair until we could squeeze the younger male back through the gates onto his side of the lock. The dominant male then left in a huff heading for the opposite direction.

We are well stocked up expecting to see many friends so have lots of alcohol and cake ingredients! Marie Antoinette moments will probably abound as my bread making is rubbish and the bread is running low. We’ve been inundated with generous offers of help from boaters and shore based friends but we’ve arranged a distanced family food drop when we can get back on the Soar OK.

There are many pluses to being ill afloat – it’s just just step or two from a sickness to lean out of the swan hatch, to breath clear air whilst watching swifts and dragonflies dart just above the water lilies.

Our trip on the clear waters of the Erewash has been brief, eventful and downright doomed. We are being forced back by Covid. We need to return the boat to a set location on the Soar to work in Bedfordshire at the end of next week so we are forced to head away just as we were beginning to explore amid willows, dragonflies, swans and waterlilies.

The eye-catching Erewash is now top of a ‘must do’ list, joining so many other waterways we have still to explore.