Selby Basin

All the apps and forecasts checked again this morning, still all looking good for Thursday.

Heather Bleasdale will be arriving later today. As part of her preparation for her trip to the River Hull she has asked if she can come with us round Trent Falls. An extra pair of hands with experience of crossing the Wash and cruising the Thames to the Medway will be welcome.

Mick called Nigel here at the lock and talked through our plans. He won’t be about tomorrow, but he has booked us in for 10:00. The lack of Lock Keeper at Keadby tomorrow was a surprise to him. It appears that there is only one Lock Keeper a day at Keadby, instead of two splitting the day, so since the pandemic hours have been cut.

A phone call mid morning was made to Cromwell Lock. Once the Lockie understood our plans he booked us in. His opinion was that maybe we should head to Torksey tomorrow. The amount of fresh will most probably flatten any Aegir on Friday morning.

We would need to arrive at Cromwell before 16:00 when the shift ends there. Mick asked about the amount of fresh today. 8ft! Gosh! A narrowboat had left Torksey heading to Cromwell this morning and by 11:30 still hadn’t arrived. It must be quite a push against the fresh as the effect of the tide on the upper reaches of the river towards Cromwell isn’t much.

Should we postpone our trip until the next set of morning tides when hopefully the weather will have improved and normal conditions resumed? If only we could get off the river at Keadby! Just being round that bend (Trent Falls) would give us more options.

Heather had a conversation with the keeper at Keadby this morning, to see if there was any chance of cover to get us off the river for the night, or maybe two. The Lockie then rang me. He checked on what times we were aiming for and if we were planning on leaving the river at Keadby or carrying on southwards. I explained that we would have penned up at Keadby if their shift times suited as we didn’t really want to be out on the river. He sounded like he wanted to help, but sadly didn’t offer it.

Another conversation with Mick a little later. Mick was more open and asked if there was any chance of cover tomorrow afternoon. The Lockie hadn’t been able to get hold of his supervisor, but would keep trying. Fingers crossed.

The EA have been back and put the flood barrier back across Selby Lock today. Nigel wasn’t too happy with this, what if he had boats to come up off the river! He is of the firm opinion that they should check with C&RT first.

Water tanks to all three boats have had a fill up without anyone moving. Hoses were daisy chained to Lulabelle the furthest away from the water point. Sainsburys has delivered and restocked our cupboards and a bolognaise sauce sits cooking for tomorrow evening on the stove.

If all goes well and we head off in the morning, it will be a very busy day, no time to sit and write blogs.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 barrier, 12 free scans, 0 copies, 3 attempts to get cover, 8ft fresh, 10am penning, 2 boxes wine, 3 boaters with all fingers and toes crossed, 1 cat climbing the walls.