Tuesday, April 08, 2008

We had a quiet night in the basin last night, and were across at the lock filling with diesel at 10:00.

West Stockwith Basin at Night
Took 162 Lt at 57p/lt. Not a bad price. We’d run the engine and heating for 154 hours, so we’re still using just over 1 Lt/hr.
Not as good as Carol, though! That old BMC must run on fumes. For over 100 hours cruising, she only took on 76 Lt, better than ¾ Lt/hr! That extra ¼ Lt/hr will make a big cost difference when we’re paying over £1/Lt after November.

Out onto the river at 11:00, in a light shower which set the scene for the rest of the trip. Sunny spells, odd showers and a cool breeze on some of the more exposed stretches.


Away from West Stockwith.

Black Skies over Owston Ferry
Commercial Mooring Dolphins at Butterwick. (I wonder why they’re called “Dolphins”? Answers on a postcard, please…)
Under the M180 and 15 minutes to go…

Keadby Bridge is just before the lock. The RH span is lifted by pumping water into the tank on the end, which raises the road and rail deck by rolling under it’s own weight. Clever stuff, eh.

Keadby Bridge.
I turned alongside a Greek freighter loading timber on the wharf just above the lock, and drifted gently downstream across the lock backwards, much to the amusement of the deck crew.

Keadby Lock under the bows of the freighter.
Carol however decided to go straight in, got caught out by the tidal flow, and only just made it, hitting the piling on the way in.

Carol goes for it……

We followed her in, without touching the sides (Smug B*****d).

Up the lock, through the swing bridge (the first of many…) and we moored on the VM just past the services.

On the mooring we assessed the damage to Corbiere. A few scrapes on the paint, but also…

Ouch!!!
Ah well, it’ll mend. At least we haven’t put the new paint on yet.

That’s the last of the big rivers. We have a few shortish sections of the Aire and the Calder, but nothing of the scale of the Trent. 3000 cubic feet of water a SECOND flow from the Trent into the Humber at Trent Falls! That’s more than the Thames.

Locks 2, miles 13

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