Naburn Lock visitor moorings to the high wall by the lock

She insisted I sat on her knee this morning to have the rules recited. I had to concentrate hard as there were a few said with extra gravity. I think it’s because She and Tom kept peeking out of the curtains last night, they both even opened up the one way hatch and used torches to have a look down. Words were mumbled to each other then we could all get back to sleep.

At first today I was told I had all day. Fantastic!!! But it depended on how things were. I didn’t understand this so just humoured them and went to wait for Tom to open the back doors.

There was something wrong! Someone (it wasn’t Tom or She because they were in bed all night, I can vouch for that as I slept on them both) last night must have partially pushed the outside away from us. The wetness that is normally on that side was creeping along this side. Just how was a cat meant to get to shore, it was shore leave after all.

This was going to take some calculations. An extra stretched leap got me to the bank, back on the outside. Phew! time to find some friends, see you! Except there were woofers. I needed to sus out how to get back on board. This was going to take more calculations.

From the top of the bank it did not compute. Access to the small wall was too slippy and I might fall into the abyss of brown water, She’d warned me that the darker water was the worst, but I wasn’t keen on any of it.

The steps, yes the steps. Hmm, now there was a patch of outside still visible, a hop onto that then the cat walk, job done.

She opened up the cratch to give me more options, but that only really led to having access to the top of Oleanna. But from here I could jump onto the outside with the help of a post. Job done, no woofers I was off!

I kept myself busy with the friendly cover, climbing trees, playing with friends, I decided to leave the conker spiky things for others to play with. I’d been quite happy when She came calling for me. Brilliant playtime! Except She wanted me to go home.

But hang on, the shore had been busy whilst I was in it and had started to leave Oleanna! Was this really what shore leave meant?! I didn’t like it what ever it was! The little island I used to do a hop and a skip on last time had vanished, nowhere to put my paws on to get to the cat walk!

She picked me up, then stepped onto the water!! How was she doing this?! What kind of miracle? This water walking was a noisy sloshing scary business. I took the first opportunity to make a jump for it through the one way hatch, a good grip with my back paws meant I made it safely back inside.

They both could walk on water. To be able to do this they had to put on wellies. She said this was the first time she’s used hers, so I think she was a bit of a novice, but Tom had it down to a T. A very noisy T.

We had a walk up to chat with the Lock Keeper and book our return to Selby for next weekend. He’d been checking the levels upstream, as had we, and the forecast was that levels would rise again overnight. We could move to near the lock where there is a higher wall to moor alongside or if space became available on the pontoon that would be good also. With the tide coming in the water going over the weir was very nearly level.

Rubbish was disposed of, then we had a walk to check out the campsite for the London Leckenbys. It’s about a five minute walk up the lane to the main road and their field is off to the right, handy for the water point and bins. Here’s just hoping the rain doesn’t turn the field into a quagmire!

On our return to the boat the level had risen again, our welly toes now submerged. After walking to the stern it was hard to see where the edge was, so extra care was needed stepping on and off the boat which was now quite a big step.

After Lunch Mick went to check with the others on the moorings. Jo, with her kids, on a widebeam was keen to move over to the higher wall. Richard and Heather on the boat infront of us would happily breast up to us once we’d moved. Locations were checked again with the Lockie and we pushed off. Hopefully to find a shore that wasn’t going to leave us!

A bit of tooing and froing before we were happy, tyre fenders deployed should the levels rise more and away from any under water obsticles we might get caught on as we, hopefully, went down. Jo followed us over, then Richard and Heather on their new to them boat.

Long conversations followed regarding their boat, bought second hand a few days ago. It’s in need of some work internally and is only undercoated outside. All those decisions to make, things to discover, very exciting. Last night had been their first on board and they’d been glad we’d warned them about the levels as they were too busy just being on their new boat.

Watching the levels and forecast levels during the evening it looked like things would gradually improve and hopefully there wouldn’t be a second spike overnight. Mick still made sure our ropes were loose before going to bed. At least on this side we should be able to sleep better despite not being able to see much of the outside world.

0 locks, 0.13 miles, 1 level river, 14 inches over night, 1.43m by 3.15pm, 4 wellies, 4 cat wellies required, 2 boaters walking on water, 1 big field, 1 cats shore leave curtailed, 1 short move, 0 view, 2 lock keepers, 1 crewless boat, 4 boats on the high wall, 0.85cms higher than 13th August, 2 happier boaters feeling safer.