ANOTHER TRIP ALONG THE RIVER DERWENT
This was a trip from Sutton upon Derwent on the river Derwent to our new
mooring at Breighton. We called BW at Barnby Barrage giving 24hrs notice that we
needed the lock opening for us to travel down river. We arranged this for 10am.I
took a friend for support who said we should take about 1 1/2 hours, I reckoned
2 hrs! just as we arrived at the lock the outboard cut out, a bit of choke and
it fired up. we entered the lock and waited for it to empty. The gates opened
and away we went, then the outboard cut out again (it was Tuesday the 13th !)Id
forgotten to open the fuel vent! a tug on the chord and the little Yamaha fired
into life. It appears very shallow coming out of the lock going by all the mud
the prop kicked up but soon we were in deep water. trees encroach the river
making chicanes along the river as far as Pocklington canal. As we were making
our way around a tight part the outboard cut again. Lots of pulling on the cord
and nothing! then I noticed the fuel tap turned off, how it happened I haven't a
clue but problem sorted. A little time later and the engine stalled, weed. The
outboard is only 4hp and would push us along quite well but as soon as we
encountered weed it would slow to nothing. Nothing for it but to keep clearing
it. Boats don't often come this far, stopping at Pocklington canal so weed was a
problem. Once past Pock canal the river opened up the weed wasn't a problem and
the little yamaha pushed us alone at a fast walking pace at 1/4 throttle,(10hp
Evinrude being repaired) any more and you just got a lot of noise and not much
more speed.3 hours later and we arrived at our new mooring. this worked out at
about 10.5 miles. An eventful trip but pleasant despite the problems, mostly
mine apart from the weed.