Pastures New

We have finally dragged the boat from the the marina, over the hump of weed and mud that had built up around it. I am not a boat polisher but even I will have to institute a programme of washing and polishing. We got aboard the other night and checked out all the system etc. Everything was fine, at least to start the trip anyway! I took the car back home and caught the train back to Thorne. It was after 1700 when I got back so we stayed one more night.

As always the wind seemed to pick up just as we were ready to leave, or maybe it was just nerves after so long a way from the helm. I remembered to get the mooring lines out, and even put the tiller on, something I regularly forget it my eagerness in the mornings. And then we were off.

The Princes Royal swing footbridge has been notorious for malfunction but this time there was a chap there to operate it. I'm not sure who he was as there were a pair of boats doubled up that came through and they didn't pick him up. He closed it after us too.

We were soon up Thorne Lock and passing Staniland's Marina.

The Stainforth and Keadby Canal is largely wide and deep, certainly in the middle. There is very little civilisation to be seen after leaving Thorne and getting to Stainforth.

This is whats left of the loading wharf for Hatfield Colliery. The earth is full of coal dust and is a great mooring too.

The canal is called the Stainforth and Keadby as they were it's terminal points. The canal was built to link with the River Don Navigation that had improved the river, cutting off meanders and adding weirs and locks and reached about 4 miles away from Sheffield. The marina basin at Stainforth is where the new canal locked down into the River Don to continue on the river.

We passed through Bramwith swing bridge and tied up on the services. We purged our hoses and then filled up, also getting rid of rubbish collected on our short journey.

A little way further we were at Bramwith Lock. You can see how long the lock could be, but we were using the short one at the other end and Helen is just opening the gate, her first no electric one so far this year>

Bramwith Juction is hard right to Goole and Leeds, and straight on to Doncaster and Sheffield. We head straight on, but I couldn't miss the River Don Aqueduct. The canal goes over the river, but at times of flood the river rises above the level of  the canal. The guillotine gates at each end are lowered to prevent the over topping of the banks into the canal. There would be hell on if it failed at the wrong time. Do you remember the scenes at Fishlake, just over the other side of the River Don, when a bungalow was flooded almost to its roof!

We got to Barmby Dunn Lift Bridge and called it a day. You can have too much of a good thing on day one; plus it looked like rain!