Going with a swing (and a lift and a slide)

We travelled only ten miles today, from Thorne to Keadby, but it was one of the most interesting days of our cruise so far. There were no locks, but moveable bridges galore: swinging, lifting and sliding.

After the Princess Royal Swing Footbridge comes Wykewell Lift Bridge.

Yesterday the duckweed started drifting towards our mooring in Thorne; today we were well and truly in the thick of it.

Duckweed in front of us ...

... and duckweed behind us.

It didn't really impede our progress much, though, an occasional blast of astern cleared the prop. It's nothing like as bad as leaves.

There isn't time to document all the wonderful variety of moveable bridges here, but I can't not show a few photos of the amazing Sliding Railway Bridge just east of Vazon Swing Bridge.

The railway - and it's a busy one - crosses the canal only just off the level. Rather than swinging or lifting out of the way, cables pull a great slab of angled bridge, complete with rails, so that it retracts to one side of the line to the east. It's difficult to describe without an aerial photo or plan.

As we went through the gap we could see the ends of the rails (with white marking).

As soon as we were through the bridgeman closed the bridge. It's a 24 hour a day operation.

We tied up briefly on the bridge landing so that I could go and see the bridge from above. The towpath conveniently crosses on the level affording excellent viewing. Just as I had crossed a train came past, its whistle preceding it by only a couple of seconds.

Here you can see the angled cut through the tracks. The rails either side of the join take a hammering - the noise of trains going over is incredibly loud.

Especially when a freight train crosses. This is a coal train on its way to or from Drax Power Station I expect. How do I know it's coal?

Because it says so. The noise carries straight down the canal to our mooring half a mile away.

I also have to show the reason for our being at Keadby: the lock onto the Trent. Shortly after we tied up three boats came into the lock from the river, followed by two more. The lockie had the first three wait before the swing bridge until the other two had come up the lock, then he let all five through the swingbridge at once.

This is where we are; Jubilee is the middle boat.

To end a glorious T-shirt and shorts day there was a nice sunset over Keadby (gas-fired) Power Station.

An early alarm call for us tomorrow as we'll be checked in at 0645 by the lockie ready for an estimated 0710 release onto the flood tide to take us to the safety of Torksey Cut.

I'm looking forward to it!

Stocking up at Thorne Boat Services and preparing for the Trent

We were in no rush, so we left the mooring outside the New Inn at 0945. As expected, it had been a quiet night. I forgot to mention yesterday that the coleslaw accompanying the meal there appeared to have been home made. It was very good.

Thorn was only three miles away, so we were soon at the swing bridge and lock. The swing bridge is manually operated but the lock is electric; when penning down (the terminology in these parts) you have to fill the lock and open the top gates, then close the road barriers, then swing the bridge before entering the lock, closing the bridge and working down.

We tied up initially on the linear moorings before the boatyard. The man on a neighbouring boat told us how his boat and that of a friend had recently been set adrift from there by members of the local populace. As soon as I'd done some more diesel sampling we moved onto the boatyard's services mooring for a tankful of diesel, after which we moved to the finger pontoons by the CRT services block, with entry by BW padlock.

At the boatyard, Thorne Boat Services, in addition to the diesel we bought two new automatically inflating life jackets, two 40' lengths of rope and a tin of grease. The long (ish) ropes are for Keadby Lock; the helpful boatyard man spliced eyes in them for us.

Now, on the subject of diesel, the result of my sampling the far recesses of the tank this morning was a jam jar filled mostly with good clean fuel, but with a certain amount of crud at the bottom. I showed this to the boatyard man who said that the dirt probably contained water, and suggested that I drain the agglomerator. I will do this tomorrow; if a significant amount of water comes out I will consider replacing the filter as well. This despite having put a new one on only a few weeks ago. The man (I really should have asked his name) said that if the fuel take-off is not at the bottom of the tank then, over a period of a few years, a lot of water/muck can build up without becoming apparent. This could lead to a problem when entering bumpy water for the first time. On the other hand, had the boat been built with the take-off at the bottom, the tank would constantly be "cleaned" by the filters preventing build-up of anything which isn't diesel. He approved of my "small" diesel tank, though, agreeing that a relatively high turnover of fuel is a good thing. (Jubilee's tank is 100 litres; many narrowboats have tanks double that capacity.)

As well as checking the agglomerator tomorrow, I shall get the anchor out and attach it to the boat, and check that the insurance covers me for the tideway.

Oh - we had a barbecue this evening, while the smoke from a neighbouring boat's stove drifted across...

No water found in diesel

The first job this morning was to sample the bottom of the diesel tank. The way I did it was to strap a thin flexible plastic pipe to the dipstick and suck up fluid to nearly the top, then allow it to empty into a jamjar.

I had to fix the pipe to the dipstick to keep it straight.

This was what I got out. There are a few bits of muck, but no water that I could detect.

Having done this, and satisfied myself that there was no water in the diesel tank, we set off. But, later, I had another thought (dangerous). What if the bottom of the tank slopes, or the boat itself was listing slightly? Then any water would have found its way to the lowest part, not necessarily where I put the sampling tube.

I'm going to have to do it again, this time poking the tube into different "corners".

To the travelling, then. I know I took photos of Conisbrough Viaduct on our way into Sheffield last week, but it really is a splendid structure.

Just beyond Barnby Dun is Bramwith Junction, where the Stainforth and Keadby Canal forks right, with the New Junction Canal on the left. We took the right fork - now we are on yet another waterway new to us.

Just past the junction, past more boats than we've seen for a long time, is Bramwith Lock. Time to get the windlass out again; this one has more conventional paddle gear (although there is no pawl on the easy-to-wind gate paddles - one just winds the paddle down again without having to do anything else. That fooled me for a moment or two). One interesting feature is the chain and hook used to keep the gates shut after use.

There are a few more locks on the system where this would be a good idea!

After eight hours on the engine clock we tied up in Stainforth right outside the New Inn. Saving the meal which Jan had been cooking for later in the week, when we might be far from shops or pubs, we ate a good meal in the pub. And the beer, Kelham Brewery's Easy Rider, was excellent.

We now have time in hand before our scheduled entry onto the Trent on Friday, so tomorrow we'll just pootle the three miles to Thorne where we'll spend a lot of money in the chandler's. On the list is proper lifejackets and long ropes.