Keadby

We rose at 6:00am, our usual time and were moving by 6:55. A call to Cromwell Lock advised the lockie of our approach and the gates were ready for us on arrival. So by 7:55 we were on the tidal river. The high water flow coupled with the falling tide gave us an immediate 6.6mph on 1600 rpm, so we stuck with this. We passed a loading gravel barge very soon after, but otherwise we had the river to ourselves all the way to Torksey. Sunken islands in the river were well signposted, so sticking to the axim of keeping right on left bends and in the middle for right hand bends we had no trouble with shallows. The turning at Torksey was easily identified by a large sign and we joined the lock approach easily. We winded first and then backed onto the transit mooring for our expected 1 hour layover. Pat was anxious to find a shop which Nicholson Guide suggested was near the lock. She returned disappointed. Our guide is 9 years out of date. At the appointed hour we set off again, this time accompanied by a small cruiser and two other narrowboats. The tide was now against us for the first hour, but sticking to our 1600 rpm we were making 3.6 mph. The gravel barge, now fully laden was approaching the lock approach as we emerged and soon overtook everyone creating little wash. Slowly we overtook the two narrowboats and later two or three cruisers came up behind going much faster. After about an hour the tide was clearly on the turn and our ground speed slowly increased to about 6.6 mph, then after Gainsborough maxing out eventually at 8 mph nearing Keadby. I was first in line for the lock which was ready, perhaps lucky, because I failed the Keadby Test big time. Embarassing really because I thought I had it all worked out and it was going well until the last minute and the stern just would not go over resulting in a large bang on the upstream wall. Seemingly the correct way is to gently put the nose on the same wall, reverse back briefly, blow the stern round and then make a clean entrance. Keen to turn the lock round for the two narrowboats behind, we were let out to wait before the swing bridge, before it was opened for all four of us. We are moored on the visitor moorings. A long day!