Linton Lock to Museum Gardens, York

Not being early risers is an advantage when having neighbours breasted up against you. Yesterday we’d discussed what sort of time we’d be wanting to make a move and 10/11 was a welcomed time, we could hear them moving about and the crew of NB Gandja pushed off a little after 10am.

A walk down to the lock to check our markers for levels was needed before we were going to move. At first glance we could see that the level had dropped overnight, the hard edged mooring was visible again, no longer covered in froth. This all felt inviting, a quick check of gaugemap suggested the tributaries of the Ouse were also coming down. Good news.

A load of washing was put on, delaying our departure as we’d wait for the load to be nearly finished, so that we could top up the water tank before passing the last water point before York. The sun being out and the port side being against the pontoon I had enough time to put some undercoat on the rust spots of the grab rail.

Areas masked off, paint stirred up I started. It was maybe a little bit too warm as the paint didn’t flow as nicely as I would have liked, but at least the next protective layer was going on.

At the lock the bottom gates were open, someone was coming up and taking their time, even more time for me to finish the painting before moving off. It was a lady under tuition on a cruiser, they had come up from York, would do the lock and then return, but we were welcome to use the lock in the mean time.

A large branch had found it’s way into the lock, so it would be accompanying us down. Mick kept an eye on it as I closed the gates and then started the arm aching turning of the bottom gate paddles. Blimey they are heavy and repetitive! I wound and wound, the cruiser returned and tied up on the pontoon we’d just left.

A glance down to see how things were going. There jammed between the gate we’d be wanting to open and the wall was the branch, eight foot above the water! Now if you’d tried to do that it would have been impossible! Would it move when I wound the gate open? Or would it stop this from being possible? Hmm.

The chap from the cruiser went to get a rope, he was going to test his lassoing skills. A loop was dangled down to try to slip round a short branch, then hopefully a tug and it might just come free. Mick moved Oleanna as far away as possible and the fishing started.

From the side we could see that a little more length of rope would be advantageous as the end of the loop was just missing the aimed for limb. Nearly, nearly. The gongoozlers held their breath, Yes! Now would the blooin’ thing budge?! A couple of yanks lifted it just enough, dropping off the line and into the water. Hooray!!! Cheers all round. We just hoped it wouldn’t still be in the way when opening the gate.

Mick managed to get Oleanna’s bow across and behind this gate so the other one could be opened and as he went past he grabbed the branch with a boat hook and pulled it out of the lock. Job done.

Oleanna was moved over to the lock landing/water point and nestled up to the widebeam. They had paid for a mooring below the lock and were waiting for family to join them this weekend. Mrs Widebeam had become nervy over night with the rising levels and they were considering moving up to be above the lock.

With water tank now full we pushed off, extra umph required due to the wind and current coming from the weir. Then we were on our way back to York our winding way bright green and blue in the sunshine.

The levels were higher and our speed much increased with the flow downstream. We tried remembering where wooden structures had stuck up out of the water a few days ago so we could avoid them.

Plenty of people were out on Beningborough beach, swimming, paddling a nice day out. Our journey took us two and a half hours including filling with water and removing the branch, so not bad going.

As soon as we reached Clifton Bridge the number of boats on the river increased, red self drive, three trip boats, York Marina cruiser day boats. Busy.

Before Scarborough Railway Bridge a digger was scraping the friendly cover off the angled stone bank. The bucket then would be emptied into a waiting lorry. As it wanted to move along, the bucket was put into the back of the lorry and was used to push it along. Hope the towpath stays level!

The moorings at the bottom of Museum Gardens had spaces. Two beeps of the horn to warn those on the river we were turning to face upstream, then we came in, in between a couple of big cruisers.

It seems we’d timed our arrival well as within a few minutes a couple more cruisers arrived followed by a widebeam. Boats swapped places and everyone found a mooring. The rings available to us meant our lines were big outies, with not much extra should they need to be loosened. Not ideal on an already high river. But once some shuffling had been done by other boats we managed to pull back onto better rings giving ourselves plenty of slack should we need it.

A late lunch with a moaning cat, she’d hate it here and we weren’t willing to let her sus this for herself. The tyre fenders were deployed as we seemed to be nudging a submerged ledge. On our first trip to York we’d ended up having to be creative, using the life ring dangled between us and the bank, our tyres a much better solution.

We walked up into town for a few bits. The blue sky showing York off to it’s best. Just sooo many people, it’s places like here that need one way pavements. We did our best to weave our way around people, them keeping two abreast and us going single file.

York Theatre Royal was very empty. They have a pop-up outdoor stage at the weekends on their patio. I’m glad the sideways trees have grown substantially since my mum ran the restaurant here, hopefully this will help keep out the traffic noise.

I had brought my mask, Mick having forgotten so today I had my first visit into a supermarket, even though a small one, since the end of March. I even had to go back in for something I’d forgotten!

Our route back was down Marygate, far less footfall and I made note of a possible delivery address for a bigger shop next week.

Sitting quietly this evening, soon to eat, York suddenly became loud! The noise got louder, then people were knocking on Oleanna’s cabin side! We weren’t too alarmed as the voices were familiar. Duncan and Jaye our friends from Scarborough. They were just heading to The Star Inn The City for an anniversary meal, they knew we were about so stopped to say hello. Lovely to see them both and we’ll have more time to catch up tomorrow.

Before bed the ropes were loosened, levels made note of and everything either tied down or removed from the roof as 60mph winds are forecast for tomorrow.

1 lock, 10.05 miles, 1 full water tank, 1 load washing, 1 suitable gap, 2 tyres, 1 bored cat, 2 brief noisy visitors, 1 more mention of Duncan and there’s another!