Monday 24th
September 2018
Well we are finally on the River Soar. The dog was walked before 7am
this morning. A lovely morning. Cold, but the sun just rising and mist on the
river. We had a busy hour or so preparing, watered up, rubbish dumped and
toilet emptied.
Then it was in to Sawley Lock. On leaving the lock, the river level
marker had dropped considerably since yesterday morning, about 6”. It is about
50 yards after the lock that the river section rejoins. As soon as it did the
boat sped up significantly, she fairly surged forward and it took quite a while
to get the buffeting and steering under control. Even with the engine just
ticking over we were at Trent Lock and the confluence of the River Trent and
Soar in no time at all. Thrumpton Weir, up close is enormous and you can feel
its power.
It was quite difficult to find the mouth of the Soar. The confluence
is a massive body of water, the sun was low down and directly in our eyes and,
as it turned out, the Soar joins on a 90˚ bend and is very narrow. The source
of the Soar is near the village of Monks Kirby in Warwickshire, about 8 miles
north east of Coventry. It then runs for 59 miles until joining the Trent. It
was made navigable toward the end of the 18th century, initially
between Loughborough and the Trent, and then through to Leicester. It was not
until the 19th century that it was linked by the Grand Union Canal
to the wider network including London and the south.
Thrumpton Weir
So it was a surprise to find the river is narrow, meanders wildly and
is slow moving. Not what was expected at all. Permanently moored boats occupied
the first 1½
miles with many wide-beams and Dutch Barges. There were numerous houseboats and
many very expensive looking houses along the banks, all built on stilts because
of flooding. The huge power station at Ratcliffe-on-Soar dominates these lower reaches
of the river. Indeed, this is seen for many miles around. Aircraft were passing
very low over us en-route to nearby East Midlands Airport. It seemed funny to
watch them as they seemed to be coming down into fields and trees.
The first lock, Redhill Flood Lock, was open which was surprising. The
floodlock at Sawley was still shut when we left earlier. At the second lock,
Ratcliffe, we had to wait for a wide-beam boat ahead of us. By the time we were
leaving the lock, there were two boats behind us and one waiting to lock down.
Above this lock the river became much more scenic, pretty in places.
Kegworth Shallow Lock turned out to be a floodlock that is only closed
between October and March so was passed straight through. Kegworth Deep Lock, a
¼
mile further on lived up to its name. It was very deep and, with just one
ground paddle and lots of leakage, it was very slow to fill. There was a very large
body of floating weed beds behind one of the top gates which then couldn’t be
opened.
Sections of the river by-pass every lock, some are small and hardly
noticeable, but the one at Kegworth Deep was a real sight. It must have been a
mill race at some point, the weir was very wide and stepped, giving the
impression of waterfalls. Above Kegworth, as along the whole of the river thus
far covered, there are big flood dykes on both sides of the river. Obviously, although
the river was calm during our passage, it is not always so.
The picturesque River Soar at Kegworth
We had been very apprehensive about being on this river, we had even
prepared the anchor as is good practice for river navigation anyway but, apart from
the section at Thrumpton Weir, quite unnecessary on the Soar. So we had planned
to go to Loughborough all in one day even though we both felt the need for some
time in the countryside.
With the river being quite calm we had a change of plan and, above
Zouch Lock, we moored up, just 3 miles and 2 locks short of Loughborough, a
lovely spot.
Once we had moored up we did a wash and hung it out to dry. We have
changed our method of using 240V electric supply to safeguard the batteries
after the recent problems and their replacement. Our iron was a 2.2kW model
which is the capacity of the inverter, so this has been changed for a lower
powered model. The iron and washing machine were being used while we were
cruising. While this is fine when navigation is unimpeded, it is not so good if
the engine has to be slowed down below 1200rpm for any reason. In the future,
any large consumer will only be used when tied up and the engine ran out of gear
above 1200rpm, so the alternator produces the supply and not the batteries.
We walked to the local pub and, back at the boat had some lovely home-made
soup, our first of this season. It was a delight to watch a full moon rise and
to see the stars on a clear night, although it had turned cold after a lovely day.
Weather: cold early on, then a lovely, warm day although chilly out of
the sun. Turned cold in the evening.
Day Total: 3 locks; 7 miles; 0 Tunnels; 0 Boat Lift; engine running hours
4.6
Overall Total: 219 locks; 395 miles; 15 tunnels; 2 Boat Lifts; engine
running hours 239.3
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