Pollington – Thorne (Sun 9th June)

 

Left at 08:45 arrived at 13:45.

Woke up to an overcast and breezy day, the plan is to head for Thorne today probably mooring at the Sanitary station there, we do stay in the best places !!!!!!  The lock was set for us so quickly through, passed a cruiser and lots of moored narrowboats, fishermen out already as well, it looked set for a good day.  Matthew and Niamh are sailing today on his new acquisition (16ft catamaran) early 40^th present to himself, good sailing son.   1^st Lift Bridge at Sykehouse next to a lovely house which has finally sold after quite a few years of trying.  We then went on to a road bridge which leads to a large lock with a road bridge in the middle.  There was a cruiser already in and as I am a bit unsure of the workings I made Derek come with me.  The lady new perfectly well what to do, the controls are in the middle of a very long lock and that is where you put your key, which cannot be removed till all the paddles, gates etc. are properly closed.  We swapped keys and she climbed on her boat and went through, Derek came in and we did the other end, he had to get off boat at landing stage to come and do the manual closing of the road bridge as its very heavy, phew, glad that was over.  We had a coffee break before the next one.  There was a NB coming the other way so I stayed at the controls and let him through.  At Bramwith lock, a proper lock where you use a windlass, there was a boat already in and they let us in also, so I got a ride, 2 coming up, its the swarming instinct in NB again, the sun comes out and so do they.  We found out that the boat we shared with is going through Keadby with us on Tuesday at 6 30 a.m. We did the next swing bridge for our new companions NB Rivendell and when we got to the next lock, another oddity, it has a road bridge just before it and you have to get the lock ready before opening it to let the boat in.!!!!!   Two young men did the road bridge for the Rivendell skipper and on second look, they were identical twins ? Well on further noseying they were two of three, triplets!! Wow brother no 3  was at home. Thanks boys.   We arrived at the Sanitary station and surprise surprise there were three places.  Derek went to get paper and I had a walk to supermarket, we then had a lazy afternoon and evening complete with telly.