4th August

Due to go out of Torksey Lock at 10.30am. so no rush, we could take our time.
Dog walking the dogs along the embankment, giving them a good free run, to try and ware them out.
Final checks and we moved down to the lock at 10.00, and moored up just before the locks. Spoke to the lock keeper who said that we would go down the lock at about 11.15 and be ready to enter the lock at 11.00.

All went to plan and we left the lock at 11.25 in front of the other boats.

The river Trent was in full flow and we set off avoiding the flopsome that was rushing by as we exited the lock channel.

The day had started as forecaster, wet and cooler, now it was raining hard with a strong head wind, the sat nav told me we were doing 7 mph.

It wasn't long before a fully loaded sand/gravel barge came towards us down the Trent, occupying the centre of the river we chose to pass him on the wrong side to give him more space.
We then came across a widebeam boat, floundering on the inside of a bend as if it was stuck on the bottom, apparently they had run out of diesel and could we tell the lock keeper to get some diesel to him.  When we got to Cromwell we found out that a following boat had stopped and offered them a can of diesel, but didn't want any other help!!
It took a full 2.5 hours to get to Cromwell Lock. After we had passed through the lock we moored up against the high wall  just above the lock. We then had to haul the dogs up the wall to give them a run.

After we had struggled to get them back on board, I had a scout at the other moorings and found one on the pontoons, we both moved rapidly to the new mooring.