MY PARTNER and I chose to have a permanent winter mooring this year as we both fancied a rest from cruising for a few months, and chose Sawley Cut but it is terrible, writes Karen Mitchell.
I just don't know how those people who moor permanently in Sawley Marina go on, as there is East Midlands Airport about three miles away, the M1 motorway 372 yards away a main road onto the motorway 109 yards away (I strode it out) and a railway less than a mile away! Very soon we had moved away from the constant road noise towards the railway, as there were not so many trains.
Noisiest marina
It must rate the noisiest marina in the country. Perhaps earplugs are issued.
Alas, I have not finished yet, for as there are no power points there is even more noise, this time from boat engines and generators that are used for power, as even those with solar panels don't get much power this time of the year with the short days.
Mistaken impression
We have both decided it was money wasted, as we would have been better doing what Keith Gudgin suggests, and moving every 14 days, but were under the mistaken impression that there would be hardly any of the quieter visitor mooring available.
(And the wi-fi is crap!)
[Karen tells us she has used her maiden name as she does not know how Canal & River Trust will react to what she has written.]