River Trent again and the Stainforth and Keadby Canal

We are now well on our way towards Sheffield which we hope to reach tomorrow, but we have been socialising and suffering poor internet reception so I am now trying to catch up with a posting taking us to the east end of the Stainforth and Keadby Canal and will later do a post taking us up to Sheffield.  So the last posting was from West Stockwith where the Chesterfield Canal meets the tidal River Trent.  Last Thursday (20th June) we set off through West Stockwith Lock down the Trent:

Before we go down the Trent we wanted to share this photo of a pair of Painted Lady Butterflies on some flowers by the lock at West Stockwith.

So here we are with fellow boaters, Martin and Sue on Braggabout, ready to go out on the tide. We had been up the Trent from Keadby but neither of us had done the trip down this bit of the Trent before.

We went down a few feet onto the high tide level on the river.

We thought these other boaters watching us looked a bit smug.  "Well at least we don't have to go out on the scary river ourselves."

Looking back we could see Braggabout coming out to join us.  We could also see some dark and threatening clouds which brought their share of rain in our direction later.

About a mile and a half down the river we were surprised to see a boat coming towards us fighting its way against the outgoing tide.  Presumably he ran out of tide coming up from Keadby.

Here we are in the rain which came down pretty heavily.  We are passing Owston Ferry with its pub the White Hart.  By this time with increasing flow from the ebbing tide and the river we are doing about 6 or 7 mph.

You can see the flow of the river as it passes these mooring posts for commercial vessels.

After about an hour and a quarter we saw the motorway bridge (M180) ahead.

A few miles on we came to Keadby Bridge and spotted a ship moored below at Gunness Wharf.  The bridge acts as a sign that Keadby Lock is coming up soon.

Just to the right of the crane on an empty ship wharf you can see the tower of Keadby Lock.  What you may not immediately have noticed is that we appear to be going backwards.  We had been told by the lock keepers that the best technique is to turn before the lock to face up stream and against the current and drift slowly back to be ready to power into the lock.  But how far in advance to do this?  Well we did it too soon and found ourselves going backwards very slowly.  So we had to reverse for some of the way down to the lock.

Here is the view into the lock as we drifted backwards slowly past it.  The art is to pick the moment to turn on the power and steer into the lock without hitting the sides as the river current pushes you sideways downstream.

Here Helen is at the bow with the camera looking back to Ian applying the revs to turn us in.

Success!! We nearly made a clean entry but just nudged the outer flood gate gently.  So not 100% but quite well done.

We are now in the lock with ropes up waiting for the arrival of our fellow boaters on Braggabout.

Like us they drifted slowly backwards past the entrance and then turned in successfully.

After the drama of the tide we had a quiet night above Keadby Lock.

On Friday we set off along the Stainforth and Keadby Canal to Thorne.  The first excitement along this wide and deep canal is the Vazon Sliding Railway Bridge.  The whole of the railway deck above the canal slides to one side to allow boats through.  We had to wait for about 15 minutes until there was a sufficiently long gap between trains for the signalman to slide the bridge back and let us through.

Here Leo is heading for the gap now that the bridge has been slid back.

This picture shows the railway deck slid open.  We have previously watched this in action and it is fascinating.  Lots of cables are used to pull the rail deck to one side and back again after the boat has gone through.

Coming into the village of Crowle there used to be an even more surprising railway bridge over the canal with a central section that swung on a central pivot to allow boats underneath.  All that remains is the brick end where the bridge began.  Both this and the Vazon Sliding Bridge were designed to allow sailing vessels through without dropping their masts.

There's a fine matching of technologies here.  First comes the canal and Medge Hall Swing Bridge, then the pylons and most recently the wind turbines of which there are many around here.  Not surprisingly it also tends to be windy in the first few miles from Keadby.

This is Wykewell Lift Bridge which is usually boater operated.  At present it has a fault so you have to book to be let through by a CRT person.  Graham, who let us through, was kind enough to also open two other bridges for us which  ordinarily we would have done ourselves - what a nice chap!

A few of the visitor moorings in Thorne are in a secure locked compound with toilets and showers on site.  What a treat.  We went shopping in Thorne and bought a pie from a splendid pie shop.  More of that later.

Thorne once had a castle which stood on this mound or Motte.  Thorne is quite a 'boaty' place and in the evening we had a pleasant drink outside at the club bar at Staniland Marina.  Sitting outside watching the sun go down on the longest day of the year: you can't beat it.

On Saturday we cruised on a short way to Bramwith.  In this photo we are approaching Thorne Lock where we had to queue for the first time this year, waiting for the broad beam Yorkshire Pud before we could go through once more with Braggabout.

Above the lock is Staniland Marina where we had a drink the previous evening.  More boats in Thorne than we've seen anywhere so far this year and more boats moving too.

Above Bramwith Lock we moored, leaving our friends on Braggabout to carry on to Doncaster.  We moored here to see our daughter Lucy's friends Kerri and Sharon whose boat and home is moored here.  We had a good chat with them on Leo later that evening and caught up on their news which was nice.

But I'm jumping ahead a bit.  We only had a short day on Saturday and stopped in plenty of time for a leisurely lunch.  And you've guessed it, this is where we cut into the excellent pork pie from Thorne!

Time now I think to go and explore our surroundings on the edge of Rotheram before we go up the Tinsley Locks tomorrow into Sheffield.  Our next posting on the blog will be from there.