We were approaching the end of familiar waters, we had negotiated the tidal Trent from Cromwell to Torksey on our way to the Wash but were now heading down to the mouth of the Trent where it joins the Ouse and becomes the Humber Estuary. It was approaching low water springs when we arrived at Cromwell and a walk down the towpath showed the large sandbank between the weir and lock exit.

The next morning we locked down onto the tidal river and headed north past the entrance to the Fossdyke and Witham at Torksey and down to Gainsborough, formally a large inland port but now left in decline as larger ships cannot navigate that far up the Trent and now discharge their cargoes at Hull, Goole or Immingham. A reasonable mooring for the night on the floating pontoon in the tideway.

The Monday morning broke clear and with a gentle S breeze, perfect for boating. An uneventful run down to the anchorage before Trent Falls, as the junction of the Trent and Ouse is called. Joined two other boats and had lunch while the end of the ebb flowed past us. The tide turned on schedule and we pushed down the last of the Trent, around Trent Beacon and turned onto the Ouse, past the entrance to Goole and up an increasingly fast flowing flood tide, round sharp bends with eddies and whirlpools. A challenging entrance to Selby Lock [on a par with Limehouse] finally saw us end an eleven hour day in a duck weed filled canal basin.