Beverley’s White Horse Folk Club members booked a trip from Goole to Hull on the Humber keel Sobriety from the Yorkshire Waterways Museum in 2012. As they approached Trent Falls on the Ouse the wind was already a force 4 and skipper Chris Sherburn asked the passengers if they wanted to turn back as the Humber was a different kettle of fish to the Ouse. Most of the passengers had boating experience and they opted to continue.
By the time they reached the Humber Bridge they were in a force 8 and the keel was being slammed mercilessly by Barton Bulldogs the very rough waves caused by a combination of wind over a strong cross tide. Several members of Chris’s family were also on board including Goff and Eileen, and pots and pans were flying around the cabin. Steve and his wife Gilli, Chris’s sister, were watching with horror from St Andrew’s Quay as the keel kept disappearing from view in the troughs as Sobriety struggled across to Fish Dock End. They jumped in the car and sped along to the pier to keep an eye on the keel’s progress.
Chris used all of his boating skill to turn her bow into Humber Dock Basin just avoiding the jaws at the basin entrance, and ran her bows onto the mud bank to await the rising tide allowing her to pen into the Marina.
Bill, who was on board as a folk club member, later wrote this tune as a description of the voyage.