Chesterfield Canal

See baby on mum's back

 Setting out along the canal we met this lovely family. There were six cygnets in total. Breaking my own rule of not feeding swans from the front of the boat, they practically climb in, we fed them so we got lots of pictures. Moving along the canal we reached Retford on Saturday.
On Sunday we had lots of visitors. Paul's RAF mate who lives in Worksop, about 5 miles away, arrived with wife Pauline. Bringing our friends Sheree and Alec with him.

Enjoying the sunshine with Sheree and Alec

Sheree and Alec have come to stay for a few days. After lunch, with just 4 on board, we set off towards Worksop. 2 locks and through the third lock and all was well. With all of us back on board Paul soon came to a stop. There was so much weed around the prop it wouldn't turn.

More weed, one of ten!

Managed to get the bow in fairly close and with the plank at a very sharp angle I scrambled ashore climbing the bank admidst the nettles and prickles! After discussing our options Alec too made a break for the bank! We went back in time to when horses pulled the barges. This time there was no horse so Alec filled the gap and literally pulled us along. Not an easy task as Falcon weighs more than 20 ton. I had the bow rope but didn't pull other than to steer as this would have just stuck us on the bottom. We did finally make it to the next lock. We worked up through then moored on the pins at the top and called it a night. Not good practice to moor on lock pins but by then we had had enough! It was about 6 and we hadn't seen any other boats.

Weed cutter, but too late for us.

 Setting off the next day Paul got most of the way to the lock before he had to throw Alec a rope! The locks are close together so this time we were prepared with 3 of us walking. So up the lock and again Paul had to crawl in under the stern, from the inside and reach back to cut the weed and pull it back out. In total he had to do this 10 times in just under 2 miles of canal.
We struggled on for a short distance and managed to get into the bank and moor for lunch. After discussing our options we reluctantly decided the only thing to do was turn around. This meant we had to manage to move on a short distance to the winding hole so we could turn. Paul had to pole around as once again the prop was full of weed. Eventually we made it back to where we had lunch and moored for the night. The trip back was no easier, then as we reached Forest Bottom Lock we met the weed cutter. A bit too late for us! The Chesterfield Canal only connects at one end so if we carry on we still have to turn and come back so by boat we have given up. However tomorrow we plan to get the train to the limit of the navigation (not Chesterfield, the canal no longer goes that far) and walk part of it.