Surfing the Tidal River Trent

After leaving Lincoln, we "retraced our steps" back to Torksey, where we stopped over night before going back down onto the tidal River Trent.  The lock keeper informed us that the tide was 9 metres high, and it certainly seemed that way.  When we had previously been below Torksey Lock the walkway to the pontoon in the photo below was very steep as the floating pontoon was lower with the low tide.

So we left Torksey at almost high tide, and for the first hour or so it seemed we going against the tide and the boat engine was having to work hard, but despite that we overtook the boats that had shared the lock with us, and some boats that had left before us.

Scenery wise there was a great deal of green banks and occasional buildings including

The remains of Torksey Castle.  Built in the 16th Century, Torksey Castle was a manor house, which was burned to the ground in the Civil war - see - Torksey_Castle.

There are also quite a few power stations -

The Tidal Trent rushes passed Gainsborough, and there are very little moorings, so we weren't encouraged to stop there.  Which was just as well as we were now on an ebb tide and were travelling a great deal faster than we normally do on the canals.

The photo above is the main bridge into Gainsborough.

Not far from Gainsborough, the Chesterfield Canal joins the River Trent at West Stockwith.  We had planned on visiting the Chesterfiled, but the lock joining the two waterways has been out of order for much of the last week.  When we went passed we didn't see any sign of activity for repairing the lock gates.  Below is a picture of the lock .

Before long we reached Keadby, and what was to be one of the biggest challenges as boater we've ever faced.  The flow is taking us down stream, and the lock keeper's advice was to cruise passed the lock and then to turn around 180 degrees and approach the lock from that direction.  To add to the difficulty, there was a large "coaster" (or ship)  moored right next to the lock entrance.

As we were turning into the lock we were fighting the tide coming towards us coming from the River and from between the Ship and the wharf wall.  Domino was rocking as we fought our way into the lock, with no damage done.  Alton Towers eat your heart out!

Once in the lock the lock keeper secured our bow and stern ropes, which we held tight to keep us against the lock wall, whilst we waited for another couple of narrowboats to come and share the lock with us.

Note the boat in the background whizzing passed the lock before turning round to join us in the lock.

Straight after the lock is a swing bridge - this one was operated the the lock keeper,

We moored up for the night after the swing bridge.  We were both tired, and so was Tonni