Thorne

Here I am Rune

Distance 6.8 miles

Total 2778 Locks  130 Tunnels

Running total mileage 3791.0 miles 

We have now arrived at Thorne after a fairly easy sort of day, with one small highlight of someone falling into the canal from our boat. Thankfully it was neither myself now crew but the crew of another boat who had hitched a lift to their own boat at Bramwith Lock. The lock moorings below the lock were a bit restrictive and the first boat out of the lock went a bit too far into the permanent mooring area and her crew couldn’t get through the gate to her. We stopped at the actual lock mooring where I picked up crew and offered the other crew a lift to her boat, which she accepted. I headed towards her boat with the intention of swinging the stern in so that she would be able to step across but she didn’t seem to understand what was going to happen so walked along the gunwale towards the front of our boat. Unfortunately she stepped on one of the rubber tubular fender on the gunwale,  lost her balance and pitched over the side between the two boats. This was a point of some peril since the two boats were now coming together with her between them and there wasn’t a lot of time to do anything about it. I gave our boat a quick burst of reverse to take some of the momentum off the boat but then had to put it in neutral to make sure that the woman in the water didn’t get caught up in the prop. The eventual solution was to drop the life ring down, firstly for the woman to hold onto and secondly to keep the boats apart. Once that was done it was just a case of getting the woman back out of the water, not always easy but she eventually managed it. It was a good example of how things can go from nonchalance to danger in a matter of seconds.

We will be remaining here at Thorne for a little while now.