Thursday August 4th dawned with heavy cloud and a terrible weather forecast - not the ideal day for my first encounter on the tidal River Trent.  My first journey was to be from Torksey Lock to West Stockwith then entering the Chesterfield Canal with an aspiration to get to Clayworth before dark.  Prior to the trip, the more experienced crew discussed the ‘black art’ of the ‘running of the tide’.  I made out that I understood what they were talking about, but, to be quite honest, it would have been easier to understand two drunken Polish sailors describing how to navigate a submarine into Gdansk harbour.

At least it was dry when we arrived at Torksey. I was quickly, and I mean quickly, fitted with a life jacket and placed on Python’s support boat Phoenix.  This was to balance the numbers with 3 on each boat. The reason for the hasty departure was that we had arrived in the ‘nick of time’ as the lock keeper had called the boats through about two minutes before we got there.  I was certainly lucky being placed on Phoenix as the tiller is covered, providing a relatively safe area to stand.

Being on Python is quite a different story with the tiller area being fully exposed to the elements.

Phoenix also provided me with an excellent vantage point to take some Python pictures.  As we entered the Trent it started to rain and I got my first glimpse of a dreaded gravel barge - boy are they big. They sit really low in the water due to their payload of 350 tonnes of gravel.  Luckily for us, the barge passed in front of us and quickly disappeared down river. From that point onwards, I fully expected to meet another one on every bend. Thankfully this didn’t happen. Perhaps they will get me next time. The Trent itself was approaching high tide meaning that we had the current against us. I was ready to take a turn for the first part of our three hour trip. Both Phoenix and Python behaved well in these terrible conditions and our journey passed quite quickly.

The two-way radio on Phoenix was chattering away for most of the time but, as we neared West Stockwith, we contacted the lock keeper to confirm our approach and give them time to prepare the lock.

The procedure to enter the lock worked like clockwork and involved both boats doing a pirouette in mid-river and approaching the lock from the opposite direction to our direction of travel.

The manoeuvre over, and with both boats in the lock with the gates closed, it only took twenty minutes before we were cruising up the Chesterfield Canal.  We managed to get as far as Drakeholes and decided to moor overnight and make the final leg of our journey on the Friday morning.

It was without doubt my best day's boating so far and one I won’t forget in a hurry.  I would like to thank my colleagues for the day, Mick and Branson on Phoenix and Tom, Arthur and Richard on Python, each and every one of them passed their knowledge onto me, however I think it will be some time before I'm ready to take a boat on this stretch of river, I need loads more practice.

Thomas adds "This was my first time on the tidal River Trent and boy was it scary coming out of Torksey lock seeing the gravel barge go steaming past and then heading out of the mouth of the lock and into the incoming current. We moved slowly until eventually the tide changed direction and we speeded up. After some rough bits and some really tight, almost 360 degree, bends we made it to West Stockwith lock where, after coming out of the corner, we turned so we were heading backwards and eventually crabbed over and into the lock. Welcome home Python and her great Pythoneers!!! And of course Mick, Branson, Toby the dog and Phoenix!!!"

Here is where Thomas and Richard moored for the night, Drakeholes Tunnel before going on to Clayworth

The next day I joined them again to take the helm all the way to clayworth

The next festival that Python will attend is on 3rd/4th September at the Retford and Worksop Boat Club, which is holding its 50th Anniversary celebration. There will be displays, side shows, food (BBQ) and drink (real ale), etc. Our promotional trailer, the James Brindley, will also be there and hopefully a Marshall traction engine. There will be half a mile of boats to see moored end to end. Everyone interested in canals or boating is welcome.

Hopefully this time you might be able to catch Python and other boats lit up for the parade on Friday night. Details are to come.

Written by: Michael Edwards

Photos by Michael Edwards and Thomas Flewitt