Keadby

A day that turned out very differently from what we expected when we arose! It was raining yet again and we hardly dared put even a head outside. Around 10 o'clock Mike took a look at the river and it seemed barely different from yesterday so we settled down to be here for the duration - further rain is forecast so the amount of water coming down the river seemed unlikely to abate any day soon.

At 11 we went to talk with the lock keeper and were totally surprised by his advice that transit to Keadby to day would be just fine - would leave now if we wanted!

We still needed to take on water - Christine suggested that we had an early lunch and then set off so we arranged to bring the boat to the lock by 12:45 with a planned departure at 1 o'clock. This also gave Mike enough time to pop to the shop in Misterton (by car) to pick up today's paper.

West Stockwith Lock

We completed the preparations, had lunch and presented ourselves at the lock. At this stage the water flow was almost non-existent - the lock keeper described it as "like a mill pond" - although we have never seen any mills with ponds on this scale! He closed the top gates carefully - on their own they do not close evenly and let too much water through. We checked very carefully with him and were assured that now was as good as any time to go.

He let the water out of the lock and we were committed! In fact most of the journey, which took 2 and a quarter hours, was unremarkable. With the water level so much higher than normal we could at least see more of the local surrounding landscape over the normally too high flood banks.

East Stockwith

Right opposite West Stockwith is East Stockwith - at one time a ferry made the journey between the two a trip of just a few minutes - today it is a lengthy trip by road via Gainsborough, effectively making the two places wholly unrelated.

The route along the Trent has many small villages and hamlets where the houses face the river even if they can only see the water from upstairs!

Converted Windmill

At Owston Ferry a former windmill has been converted to a dwelling - and substantially enlarged as well.

Owston Ferry Pub

Nicholsons lists several pubs in these villages but this information is pretty academic to the ordinary boater as on these tidal waters there is no place to stop even if we had wanted to.

Although the river gradually widened until we neared our destination we travelled through almost still waters as the tide balanced the fresh flow.

An unusual wind turbine design caught our attention.

Keadby Bridge

Our destination was in sight as we rounded a corner and saw the impressive Keadby Bridge, combining both road and rail traffic. What seems to be the same ship as we saw five years ago when we were last here.

Gunness Wharf

As Christine steered to pass under the main span she suddenly felt the power of the suction of water flowing around the pillars and was, for a moment or two, quite concerned that we would make contact. However, she managed to bring our stern around in time and breathed a very load sigh of relief!

Keadby Lock Entrance

Keadby Lock is on the opposite bank and offers what seems as we approach to be a very narrow entrance right off the river edge. The tide was now having much less effect had we were being carried along on the downward stream quite forcefully.

The textbook instruction is to pass the lock and turn from downstream to approach against the flow, thus having more control over the boat when making the final turn into the lock. But textbooks are textbooks and rarely tell the whole story!

We made the turn happily, with the boat only a few metres down from the lock entrance. However at that point we discovered just how strong the river flow was and that with our engine on full power we could only just make any headway.

It was a nervous 15 minutes or so as we battled against the flow with the lock keeper standing on the bank watching our manoeuvre. He seemed rather less concerned than we definitely were feeling!

Eventually and after much trying of different directions to make best progress, we had the bows opposite the entrance and the keeper urged us to make a turn - until then we kept head into the stream for fear of being swept into the piling of the bank.

Keadby Lock and Road Bridge

From there it went smoothly - the turn was all but perfect and we were greeted by the keeper who helped us make fast along the side of the lock whilst he then filled it.

Just above the lock is the first of many swing bridges - this one the keeper operates for the boast but later we will have to do them ourselves.

After pulling in to the Visitor Mooring we went back and had a chat with the keeper. As far as he was concerned we had done pretty much the right things in coming in - just the effect of the water flow!.
It was now raining again - later to be quite heavy - so we breathed another sigh of relief when we agreed to stay put for the night! we now have to work out our options for the next few days as all of the river connections in this are are still closed - on the basis of today's experience that is probably justified!

12.8 miles - 2 locks