Tilly’s fish kept her occupied this morning

No hold ups for us this morning and it appeared that today we got the wonderful weather we’d been promised for yesterday, sun all day long.

Surrounded by tuperware not the most accessible pump

Mick last night had walked up to look at Supreme Marine Boat Yard to see if they sold diesel. With no towpath access he walked over the bridge to look. There seemed to be nothing obvious at the yard. However when we pushed off this morning we could see the bold lettering on the side of a breeze block wall. But in defence of Mick, needing new glasses, everywhere was filled with cruisers. Not too inviting to pull up against to fill your tank. So we carried on.

Wonder what their second mate is called?

We passed NB Nelson’s Lady who we moored with at Crick a few years ago. This is the boat with the trike on the bow, although it was parked up on the towpath today. It also looks like they now have a second mate too. No one was in view so we couldn’t say hello, although they will remember us as being yellow.

Going through the flood lock

Castleford Flood Lock was open at both ends, so plain sailing through today. The lock is so big it looks like you’d be able to wind in it if it wasn’t for a few bits and pieces sticking up out of the water.

At the junction we turned right onto the River Aire, heading in the direction of Leeds, hoping to find a suitable mooring for Tilly.

The old route shown with dashed lines

Three and a half miles of river. We tried to spot where an old cut had been that is shown on the Waterways Routes map, but there were very few signs of where it had once been. On the old canal there had been Kipax Locks and Lemon Royd Lock, today these have been replaced by one very deep lock Lemonroyd Lock. At 14ft 7″ it is deep, with it’s length and width too there is one heck of a lot of water in that chamber.

Lock to the left, weir  to the right

Emptying the lock, Oleanna well back

We pulled up on the lock landing at some distance away. With the key in the panel I checked that Mick and Oleanna were okay before I started to empty the chamber. A thumbs up came back and I pressed the button. The paddles raise by themselves at intervals.

Calmly emptying

You really wouldn’t want to be down there!

Looking on the chamber side of the gates the level slowly lowers, the other side is totally different. This is certainly not a lock you want to nudge the gates of as it empties!

I had a little difficulty removing my key of power from the panel, it hadn’t given my that little clunk noise which most of these do when everything (gates and paddles) is back where it should be. In the end a twist of the key the wrong way in the panel gave me that reassuring sound.

Filling the lock

Mick held tight to the centre line passed round a yellow riser as far back in the chamber as possible. Thumbs up and I pressed the button to start filling the huge chamber. Once pressed I have no control, other than to press the emergency stop button, the paddles work themselves, slowly raising the level of water. Staying back in the chamber makes for a gentler rise.

People working on their boats

We’d been thinking of mooring up opposite Lemonroyd Marina for the rest of the day, but a lot of people looked like they’d taken root there. Anyway the aroma from the nearby sewage works was off putting so we moved along the cut looking for the next suitable place. 

A rather nice mooring

A small m was shown on our map just after a disused arm, nobody was there. We managed to get ourselves positioned between trees to make the most of the bright sunshine. Tilly was out straight away, the silver birch trees being conquered within minutes.

Trees!

Kindling

Whilst Tilly hunted, Mick chopped wood and did some work on the blog move, I got on with some work. I want to get my illustrations for the Separate Doors 3 report done before I launch into panto. Another half day will see them completed, then I can turn my attention to East End London in the 1960’s.

They were rather yummy

With quite a few off cuts of pastry left over from yesterday and half a pot of ricotta cheese I decided to put them to good use and made some Lemon Puffs. Well when at Lemonroyd I just had to!