Bartimaeus

As we approached the lock at Torksey, the lock-keeper came out of his office and greeted us warmly.  It wasn’t long before we were heading out of the lock.  There was a huge branch just outside, so I took it slowly so that we could nudge it out of the way.  Once we’d joined the main river I could feel that we were pushing in to the stream a bit, the tide was still coming in.  After a while that feeling had gone – the tide had turned.

We were both a lot more relaxed about the navigation than our previous tidal trip, and there were fewer hazards marked on this section.  It still required more concentration than we usually need when driving.  Clare ended up driving through the bridge at Gainsborough, but then handed over to me so she could phone the lock-keeper.  He assured her that the lock would be ready for us when we arrived.

True to his word, as we came round the corner there was a figure in a life-jacket at one side of the lock.  He signalled that we should turn to face upstream as I expected.  I knew this was the moment when you realise how fast the water is moving – I was still surprised by just how much throttle I needed to stop the boat going backwards.

The lock-keeper was by now waving his arms to beckon me towards him.  I did my best to follow his directions as we slowly edged nearer and nearer to the enormous lock wall he was standing on – at full throttle.  I didn’t quite understand his final signals, but the bow made the gentlest of bounces on the lock wall and we turned in to entrance.  “You’re in” he called as I pulled back on the throttle.  It seems he had been trying to tell me to keep the power on – some people don’t apparently!

I’ve often described narrowboating as mostly tranquil with an occasional short burst of blind panic.  There wasn’t any panic on this occasion.  Although I had to use more power than I had expected, the way the boat behaved was very similar to a number of other occasions when I’ve turned upstream, and I knew what I was being guided to do.  It was a further surprise when the lock-keeper dropped ropes down for us to hold on to.  The usual arrangement of passing ropes up from the boat would have been very difficult – and I’m not sure our ropes would have been long enough.

The lock is very deep, so the water has to be let in very slowly at first.  Once the lock was full, we went across the basin to the visitor mooring and some lunch.  We had plenty of time to decompress from the morning.  The next day we had plenty of time to make everything ship-shape for the arrival of our guests.  Rab and Gail were our house-sitters in our first year on the boat, and have had an invitation to join us since then.  It’s nearly happened several times, but life has kept getting in the way.

We set off up the Chesterfield Canal in the morning.  The weather was kind and we had a very enjoyable cruise in the sunshine.  Rab was enthusiastic about helping with the locks, and was a natural at driving.  Gail is recovering from a knee operation, so her duties were strictly limited to enjoying the scenery and chatting.

The Chesterfield Canal is very slow, so we didn’t get as far as I had originally planned, but we did see some kingfishers.  We got as far as Drakeholes Tunnel and then turned back.  We stopped at a convenient overnight mooring in the middle of the countryside, and then returned to West Stockwith in the morning.  A pub lunch rounded off the visit and we waved them off.

After winding in the basin we headed back for a second night at the countryside mooring, but facing the other way.  That could be confusing in the morning.