Day 29 - Saturday 21st July 2006 06:20, we left Dunham. Some boats were leaving Torksey at about the same time and we passed one of them before Gainsborough. He was cutting the corners, and nearly pushed us into a sandbank as we overtook him on the correct side. He was soon behind us, but he did go a bit faster once we were past.
The next Keadby boat was reached just after Morton Corner, and a wide beam barge was just ahead. He was going into Ferriby Sluice, but I thought he was a bit late on the tide to get there. Perhaps he was planning to push the tide, but being able to make no more than us he was in for a long trip. As we were getting close to the motorway bridge the heavens opened in an incredibly heavy thunder storm, and I still managed to get wet under the brolly, it just started to stop raining once we reached Keadby. We reached Keadby at 11:30, and apart from not getting close enough to the wall to get around in one hit, we had no problems. I could tell the water in the lock was running out however, as it was difficult to get close to the lock wall. The lock keeper wanted us to wait for the other boats, and in about 10 minutes a little open day boat turned up. I had seen him well behind earlier before Torksey, but didn't expect them to be going so far. 5 minutes later the barge passed, and then a couple of minutes later the narrowboat pulled in, after clouting the upstream wall. They then started to mess about, first getting it into the lock, and then passing up the ropes, which weren't really long enough to reach the bollards, let alone loop back again. I said to them to moor alongside, and the little boat then went along side the wall where they were - it's a wider than a normal lock. They were just closing the gates when the other boat appeared, as the water was disappearing over the cill. It was about 3ft when the last boat had entered, so after a locking it would be even lower. They had to fill it slowly with all the boats tied on to us, and then rather than getting the swing bridge ready before the lock, we had to then wait for that. They asked us to clear the lock quickly, which we did at 12:10, and continued straight up to the sliding railway bridge. We had to wait for two trains, but then the bridge keeper said there was a fault with a sensor. An engineer was already on site, and had a look at it. It had come lose after the bridge keeper had temporary fixed it. The freight trains rattle the bridge to bits, and the bridge has only lasted 2 years without problem, this being the first incident after a complete replacement. It was another four trains later that he finally managed to open the bridge at 13:00. Several cruisers had set off from the lock, and were also waiting. I opened the swing bridge just next to the railway bridge, and everyone piled through. There are several swing bridges down this stretch, and so we kept up with the cruisers. As we approached Thorn it was our turn, but since we were now at the front, and we didn't want to miss out on being first through the lock, I got on my bike and opened the other two bridges. Typically everyone else pulled in at Thorn, but never mind. We had a good run all the way upto the New Junction Canal junction, where it started to rain again. By the time the third bridge was gone through it was starting to get heavy. At the fourth bridge, Kirkhouse Green Lane, the bridge was showing a fault, and Dad used the telephone in the control box to log the fault. While we were waiting it started coming down as good as it gets, until the next storm came over, and the wind changed direction, then it rained like it had never rained before. Because I was using the wind to hold the boat on the mooring, I then had to get a rope on, but because of the wind I had to get Dad to hold the umbrella while I did that. It was heavier than a good shower, and just the 2 seconds I took to throw a loop on got me really wet. I then had to shut up the back, and so had to put the brolly down to get it inside, so more wetness. After a couple more minutes a bedraggled BW bloke got out his van, and reset the electronics. He said that if the power goes off, they all need resetting, and he was working his way up the canal. He tested the bridge by opening it, and we got through, and then Dad had to reclaim his keys. We finally reached the lock at 18:00, and after working out how to get through it by having to open the bridge in it first, started to drop down. Just before it was ready, a huge crack of lightening right above cut the power, and just then the BW man turned up - he could not have timed it better. Thankfully the lock has a generator because of the bridge across it, so after a couple of false starts the BW bloke got the genny running, and made the relevant switches to get the gate open. To recover the keys however, the lock had to be completely shut up, and the bridge shut, so we had to wait awhile for that to happen. It didn't really matter however as since the power was still off, we could not get through it. We had a mince stew while we were waiting. The power finally returned at 20:35, and the three other narrowboats waiting went through. We finally reached Goole at 22:00, and filled with water. Since we were off early the next day, we stayed on the sanitary station mooring, which is often full anyway. --- Mike Askin nb. Kismet http://shoestring.zapto.org/ ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> See what's inside the new Yahoo! Groups email. http://us.click.yahoo.com/2pRQfA/bOaOAA/yQLSAA/ygtolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! 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