The tidal Trent

At 08.30 the lockie from Cromwell lock was up at our mooring telling us he was ready for us to enter the lock for our cruise down the tidal Trent to Torksey. There would be 5 boats making the trip and as Carolyn is a bit nervous about tidal rivers we had arranged to follow an experienced boater who had done this trip before.

Leaving the lock and looking back at the weir I was reminded of a tragedy that I had read about while planning this trip.

Some Royal Engineers regiment sappers, of Grangemouth, Falkirk, were on night-time exercise when the vessel capsized at Cromwell Weir, on the River Trent. One man survived, in what remains the 131 Independent Parachute Squadron's largest peacetime tragedy.

The sappers were taking part in the Trent Chase, an 80-mile night exercise from Stoke to Hull, on 28 September 1975.

They unwittingly went over the weir, known locally as the Devil's Cauldron, when conditions were also worsened by a high tide.

The only survivor, Sapper Pat Harkin, was a "strong swimmer" who managed to hold on to the upturned boat.

A retired police officer, who did not want to be named, arrived at the scene after electricity board staff, who were fixing navigation lights on the weir, raised the alarm.

By the time he arrived, the officer said it was pitch black and he could hear just one man shouting from the water.

The officer, then aged 20, along with another member of the force, managed to save him after they rowed out in a small boat.

You have to remember that this is a working river and this is where the 600 ton Barges come to load with stone . We were advised to use our VHF radio on the channel that they use just in case we were to meet up with one on a bend.

On a cracking morning with Geese flying overhead we follow the experienced boater down the river . One thing we were told was not to cut corners and adhere to the chart which we had bought at Cromwell lock . So I couldn't understand why the boat we were following was cutting every corner he came to.

Would you believe it ,he cut one corner too many and ended up hard aground.

There was no way we could get anywhere near to him without going aground ourselves although Dave went in and had a go in his shallow drafted  boat. In the end it was no good as they were stuck fast. With an incoming tide they sat it out until they floated off a couple of hours later.

A fine looking beast .

Eventually after three and a half hours we arrived at Torksey and after mooring on the pontoons below we walked up to see the duty Lockie.

Another first for us as we have never seen paddle gear like this before . Luckily for Carolyn the Lockie does all the hard work .

After reading the notice Carolyn and Carmel sit down chill out and relax next to the water.

With the tide still up we decided to move from our mooring below the lock and lock up onto the Fossdyke Navigation. After saying our goodbyes to Dave and Carmel we picked up this visitor mooring which will do us until we move on towards Lincoln.

                                                                                                Happy Days