River Trent


	After the flat, unloved landscape of Goole, Swinefleet, Gunness, Blacktoft and other unattractively named places, we took the last of the early morning flood tide from Keadby ( pronounced Kidby ) with Vicky and Chris as crew and Mum ( now 91 years old still in bed and shot on the flood tide under the massive iconic road/rail bridge, the first over the Trent.






			After that, the scenery started to become more rural, with lots of windmill stumps appearing

We moored in a pretty little harbour half way up the Trent towards Newark.- West Stckwith

After the rain the rivers were in flood and the lock keepers thought there would be too much water in the river for us to fight against to do the whole trip, besides, Chris fancied pulling in for a look

West Stckwith is actually at the East end of the old Chesterfield canal for narrowboats, so were again the big boat amongst lots of little ones, and we simply would not fit up the canal.

We tied up next to the popular Yacht Club not exactly a sailing club though!


	West Stockwith Yacht Club - It was the most convenient mooring we had used in a very long time

The Stockwith lock keeper, Sue, talking to assistants

We had asked Sue if she knew of anyone who could crew for us up the Trent and Fred was the obvious choice - he had worked on the river since leaving school, skippering gravel and tanker barges, and was lock keeper at Newark just before he retired, Whilst he was there he bought a narrowboat and rebuilt it an named it “Pride of Ancholme” At 84 years old, he was still an active cruiser, and later in the day of our trip, he set off in the car to survey the sandbanks at Trent Falls.

After a further period of heavy rain we returned to the boat and met up with Frank in the Yacht club

Frank knew every aspect of the river, in fact , he was giving a running commentary for the entire trip. Below are some pictures from the voyage.


	vimeo