Trent Falls

[canaldrifter]

OK, to labour the point a little.

 

What would the reaction have been if he had (accurately) described the unlicenced fishermen as "black" or "asian"

 

Okay, to clarify and expand. They were fishing for food, so they were not fishing within the terms of a UK angling rod licence. I spoke to them about keeping an eye on my boat while I went to the pub, which they did. They told me, when I asked, that they were illegal immigrants from Poland. They seemed quite proud of it, probably recognising that I am a sort of water gypsy myself.

 

Due to my previous warnings by the police about not approaching such groups when I was a bailiff on the Basy, I did not bother to ask whether they actually had a rod licence as it seemed certain they didn't, and I know that fishing within 50 yards of a bridge or lock (they contravened both these regs) is illegal. It seemed obvious that they couldn't have a rod licence if they were illegally in the country. I did not try to stop them or report them. (Does that make me an accomplice?)

 

Now.... the reality of Dave Mayall's comments are that he seeks any way he possibly can to ridicule me, the reason being that I once ridiculed him by challenging him to bring his criticisms of Nabo to council, when I was Vice Chair. He didn't. It is a childish revenge thing.

 

He is right about one thing though. I have fallen out with every waterway organisation that I have belonged to, because I won't be a sycophant, and I do speak my mind, rightly or wrongly.

 

So be it. Let it be.

 

Tone

Edited October 29, 2010 by canaldrifter

[tommylad]

Well, having just returned from our voyage round Trent falls I thought it might be useful to share our experience.

We have a 48' narrowboat, with a JP2 which pushes us at a max water speed of just below 5 mph, so fighting the current wasn't an option - we had to get there around low water so the ebb carried us down the Trent and the flood pushed us up the Ouse.

I did quite a bit of preparation for the trip - bought Sissons charts for both rivers, and also downloaded the latest charts from ABP (really nice to have!) http://www.humber.com/Estuary_Information/Navigating_the_Estuary/Chart_Viewer/

We timed the trip to coincide with a convenient neap tide, which gave us a bit more depth of water round the falls (there was also minimal fresh on the rivers to keep things simple).

I also kept a keen eye on the weather forecast beforehand - I quite like XC weather for its focus on wind speeds, but also watched others. They were consistently predicting force 3 NEE which I felt should just be OK. In the event the wind was nowhere near this strong, and the only cavitation we got from windswept waves was above Keadby.

We started the day from Torksey, at 05:15 (HW Torksey). It was unfortunate that this was an hour before dawn, as it was quite unpleasant heading out there in the dark. A mist didn't help, which forced us to extinguish our nav lights, as the light simply bounced off the mist and I couldn't see anything! I checked the forecast one last time just before passing Gainsborough, and with the promise of the mist not getting any worse we pressed on using high revs to try and get there on time! (We passed West Stockwith at 08:06 & Keadby at 10:05)

Passing Keadby the fun started! The nerves I had in anticipation left me and we just got on with it, keeping to the charts and occasionally plumbing the depth with a 12' boat pole with 1' markers for quickly measuring water depth. Below Burton Stather the river widens considerably, and we needed to follow a transit (keeping two posts in-line) to guide us down the channel. A pair of binoculars were essential for this task, as by the time we left the transit we were 2 miles from one of the posts! Simply aiming for where we wanted to go wouldn't work due to the cross currents.

In the event we were 3/4 hour late getting to apex light, so we had to punch the incoming tide, which, happily was very weak. The turn round the light was dead simple and we had plenty of opportunity for photos! We passed from the Trent to the Ouse at 11:45.

The passage up the Ouse was unremarkable, except for Howden dyke, where we had to deviate from the charts. Having read the Tuesday night club's blog I was fore-warned that the channel may have moved, and sure enough, when we got there it was clear that we had to cross the river much closer to the downstream side of the M62 bridge than shown in the charts. The minimum depth I recorded with my boat pole was 4' - which at that speed was quite concerning.

To fit in with our holiday plans we pressed on to Naburn, arriving at the lock at 18:00.

One benefit of going round at low water is that you can be fairly confident of not having to deal with commercial traffic - for us, the only moving craft we saw all day (75 miles!) was a fat boat below Naburn lock.

I was very pleased with the trip - basically nothing went wrong and we had an easy passage. The hardest thing was actually going ahead with it when very few people around me thought it was a good idea! Apparently only 5 narrowboats made this trip this year, and very few professionals in the know are willing to volunteer that it's a good idea! In the end I decided that we should go for it, because I have a boat that despite its limitations I can trust, I had 2 other people with me who can both handle the boat and the engine, and the weather forecast was favourable.

 

 

 

[matty40s]

Fantastic report and well done, it's on my list of things to do.

Great excavation of an old thread as well.

[Naughty Cal]

Nice one. Not many narrow-boats make it that way.

 

Shame you didn't have the time to anchor up. It's a lovely spot to have a spot of lunch.

[nicknorman]

Very interesting, thanks. I am especially impressed that you left the side hatches open - I think I would have them "battened down" even though they are not the lowest point of ingress!

[matty40s]

Very interesting, thanks. I am especially impressed that you left the side hatches open - I think I would have them "battened down" even though they are not the lowest point of ingress!

When you have a proper engine, you show it off, even if just to seagulls and seals.

[Naughty Cal]

You don't get that many seals on the Trent or the Ouse

 

Mind you we have seen a porpoise between Keady and West Stockwith!

[David Mack]

Mind you we have seen a porpoise between Keady and West Stockwith!

Was he treading on your tail?

[Naughty Cal]

No.

[tommylad]

Thanks to all on here for information - it all helped us prepare for our trip - hence my post above for others! I'd say with the correct preparation you should go for it - what could possibly go wrong??? ;-)

btw - the extremely helpful lock-keeper at Barmby says they've had seals in the Derwent!

[Tony Dunkley]

"Of course you don't attempt it in bad weather or fog. But, as long as you are prepared to sit on the mud and wait for the incoming tide if you go aground, I don't see that it is in any way dangerous for a narrowboat. Lets face it, the local narrowboaters do the Humber to the River Hull often enough."

 

 

You've identified there the circumstances when a narrowboat is probably most likely to come to grief in the Humber or lower Ouse and Trent. Grounding and then waiting for the next tide certainly isn't a problem, but the arrival of that next tide may turn into a potentially very dangerous situation, depending on whether you've sat down on mud or sand and if the tides at that time are big Springs which start running up at a very brisk pace right from the first of the flood.

Narrowboats, like any flat bottomed vessel, can 'suck in' to soft mud when drying out and then fail to lift before getting swamped on the on the next tide. A few hard bursts of ahead and astern are likely to do the trick, but, depending on such as freeboard and hull openings, there can be no guarantees.

If you've grounded on a big tide and get swung beam on to the flood as you float free, particularly on the outer end of a sandbank, a vessel with so narrow a beam and probably very small GM could be rolled over by the force of the incoming tide.

I would suggest limiting passage by narrowboat in these waters to the times around the smallest Neaps, when the first of the flood is nothing more than a gentle and slow rise in water level, which will neither try to roll you over nor swamp you before you can get free if you're in soft mud. Of course, both these potential dangers can be much reduced, but never completely eliminated, if you're with someone who has sufficiently good, and very importantly up to date local knowledge to avoid grounding in the first place. The fact that there has not yet been, as far as I am aware, any really serious mishap with a narrowboat in this area, doesn't mean that they are suitable or safe vessels for use in these waters. You can get away with walking across the M1, but it doesn't make it a safe or advisable thing to do.

Edited October 2, 2014 by tony dunkley