River Trent Day 2

What a difference a day makes.  After spending a pleasant few hours cruising down the tidal Trent to Torksey I stopped overnight before completing the longer leg to Keadby.  As I woke to grey skies, strong winds and drizzle I knew a cold damp day lay ahead.  Setting off at 9:00 the wind was in my face an the tide was still rising so progress was slow for the first hour.  After about an hour I noticed the tide had turned and was now slowly ebbing allowing me to reach a dizzy 6 mph over ground.

There is little to see on this stretch as it largely meanders through open country.  The only large town on route is Gainsborough which retains many of it's large quays designed for much larger vessels that use to carry cargo here from Hull. 

The strong wind was blowing agains the ebbing river causing a 2 ft swell with small breaking waves. Not conditions the boat is designed for but she pushed through them with ease.  After a further 3 hrs of cold dull grey drizzle the M180 bridge appeared which meant that Keadby was only 3 miles away.

I have only made the turn into Keadby once before and was very chuffed to have managed it with out any problems.  It is quite tricky as you are trying to turn into a narrow lock entrance while the river tide is ebbing at around 3 mph.  This means you need to approach from downstream and gently ease across the current which lessens as you approach the entrance.  There are also some strange eddies caused my shallow mudbanks which build up around the entrance.   This a video of me doing it properly last time.  It's quite tricky balancing power and rudder against the tide and wind.  This time I got it wrong and hit the wall beneath the lock sign head on at around the 15 sec point in this clip.  No damage to the boat but the sudden stop was enough to eject some crockery and glassware from their cupboard.  Nothing a dustpan and brush couldn't tidy. 

Having put the big river behind me I'm now safely on the South Yorkshire Navigations.