A kindly Coot provided our alarm call at 7.10am, so Myra put the kettle on then returned to switch on Radio 4. Mornings would not seem to have begun until at least one of us, often both have shouted at some politician or other, or at Ed Sturton for failing to ask the OBVIOUS question. Reversing yesterday’s mooring procedure, off we went, heading for Retford and the supermarket. The Chesterfield canal is really shallow, the only places with good depth for Martlet seem to be next to the gates at locks. A Kingfisher was alternately zooming ahead then landing for the last half mile before Drakeholes tunnel. Through and on past the very nicely constructed (and dredged!) moorings at the south end; the centre of the canal continued shallow and the edges even worse. We had averaged less than 3 lock miles per hour, and my arm was getting stiff as the rudder was on the bottom, steering becomes very heavy. As we approached Clayworth, 3 hours after setting off, calculations revealed that it would take over two hours more to reach Retford. I had decided that enough was enough and that we could get food at the Co-op at Misterton on our return. Mooring temporarily close to the winding hole we saw a bus crossing the bridge. Speaking to a member of the Worksop and Retford boat club on the adjacent club moorings, he said if we asked at the clubhouse, we could keep the boat at the club whilst we went shopping by bus.
We were allowed to stay overnight, so onto the next bus and ASDA here we come.
It was 42 years since we had been to Retford – the years had not dealt kindly with it in our absence. We remembered lovely buildings, most had gone, a few remained above poorly designed shop fronts. We looked around for a while after filling the rucksack and two carrier bags at Asda: I was glad that we did not struggle all the way by boat, I would have been really disappointed. The bus returned us to Martlet in 15 minutes from Retford, the driver even let us off just before the canal bridge.
The 2008 journey thus far: 67 Locks and 139.5 Miles
