Coming in at Keadby and carrying on.

We were on schedule to arrive at Keadby Lock on the Trent at the time of predicted change of tide to flood and had just passed Owston Ferry.

At one time Owston Ferry was quite a busy little inland port with the keels of the Humber and canals bring in goods and taking local produce out from wharves right on the bank. There was even a crane in the 1920's. It must have been hard work running barrow loads of coal up the plank to the bank at low water. A bit easier to get the sacks of grain down from the warehouse to the hold.

As the tide fell more mud was revealed on the 'ness's' (inside of the bends) and the wading and sea birds took advantage of the chance to feed. Here on Kelfield Corner there were plenty of them. On the outside of the bend in the Kelfield 'boil' where the water turns over in a flurry of water. There was evidence of it as we passed but on bigger tides and at a different height of tide it can be quite fearsome.

To the north of West Butterwick stands the remains of another tower mill that was built in 1824. It seems to have become derelict during WWII but still had its sails just after. They do make interesting houses etc.

The breaks in the clouds allowed the sun to bring sparkle to our wake as we headed northwards.

We arrived at the M180 Motorway bridge. This motorway was started in 1977 as a bypass around Brigg following the Flixborough explosion. The last part to be completed was the Trent viaduct that was opened in 1979. The motorway is 25 miles long and runs from the M18 where via the A180 it connects to Immingham Docks, the oil refineries and Grimsby as well as the Humber Bridge. It is the longest motorway with a 3 digit number. What a claim to fame!

Once through the motorway bridge a call to Keadby lock asks us to carry on even though the tide is still ebbing. The lock keeper says that for the last few tides it has changed to flood on time. At Derrythorpe are some moorings for barges and sea going traffic with the tide board. As you can see there is only about 20cm on the gauge. In this area we used to swing and put the bow into the bank to await a rise in water after having to be so early on the tide to be able to fit under Keadby road/railway bridge on the way to Beckingham Wharf.

Keadby Bridge used to be known as King George V bridge and was built between 1912 and 1916 by the Great Central Railway Co. and replaced a bridge that had been built in 1864 for the South Yorkshire Railway that had a swing section for the passage of ships. This bridge was a Scherzer Rolling Bridge. The lifting bascule was electrically operated and it rolled and rotated on the counter balance. It has two rail tracks and a two carriageway road crossing it. It last lifted in 1956 making it quite exciting to pass under it with a ship!

We arrived off the lock to be told that the tide was still ebbing and we had to wait. We swung head to the current and had to wait about 25 minutes before were were called in to enter the lock. You can see down by the lock the other short boat that had followed us up from Torksey, also waiting for the lock. They penned up with us.

You can see we now had the green light to enter the lock that is just below the white control tower. No ships of the wharf to make life even more interesting today.

Once the gates were closed we slowly rose up the lock. Once the level was made with the canal and the gates opened we then had to wait for the road bridge to be swung to allow us to leave. We were carrying straight on so went first. There were four boats to take our place to head up to Torksey on the first of the flood tide.

There was some activity at the sliding railway bridge. It turned out that there was a little weed cutting boat work there between the closing to allow trains to pass. We waited midstream for a fair while and then following another closure for a train passing the weed cutter didn't reappear! It was 16:00 and he had knocked off and not even indicated to us. The bridge works by being winched to the side and as the tracks cross the cut at an angle it clears the water and allows passage. Just through the rail bridge is the Vazons swing bridge that is a 'normal' man-o-matic road bridge. It has definitely been fixed since the last time we passed as it was very easy to operate this time.

At Godnow Bridge the rail track is very close to the canal so the closing of the road crossing to open the canal bridge has to be coordinated with closing the road crossing of the railway so a chat with the crossing keeper ensued. It was he that told us there was a closure at Wykewell bridge closer to Thorne.

As we drew closer to our stop for the night, imposed on us as the Wykewell road bridge is only open between 0900 and 1000 in the morning and 1500 and 1600 in the afternoon, the sun was warming up and the wind was dropping so it was a pleasant evening. We stopped on the moorings by Maud's swing bridge that was for a very quiet road and just far enough from the railway line to be not unduly disturbed over night.

Thorne Moor has plenty of the wind turbines rotating away but they didn't disturb us. We had a little distance and one swing bridge to work before arriving at the bridge with restrictions so we would have a slightly early start in the morning.