Selby Swing Bridge to Selby Basin to West Haddlesey Flood Lock

A call from the Sainsburys delivery driver asking could he be early was welcome, he arrived quarter of an hour before our slot. We were glad to see that the plastic bags that had been compulsory during lockdown have now gone mostly. This does mean delivery takes a little bit longer, but the driver was happy for the crates to be put on the stern of Oleanna and then for us to sort our purchases before handing them back. Sadly they had sent a substitution for Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, not a good choice in my opinion so it was left on the van. Stocks of white wine should last for a while longer.

The dates on a box of eggs were a touch disappointing, but at least they arrived in recyclable cardboard rather than the plastic boxes we’ve had on the last couple of deliveries. I did have to laugh at the amount of ginger that we got too, washing peg for scale, we’ll have to have ginger and lamb with everything we eat !

With everything stowed we headed for the swing bridge managing to time it well with Richard and Heather bringing Isabella through. Needing to dispose of rubbish we also topped up the water tank. We’ve been seeing numerous photos of overflowing bins around the network since the Bank Holiday weekend, here in Selby there was plenty of space.

Jobs done Mick winded Oleanna, leaving NB Gandja by the lock, they’d made it from Naburn yesterday and as we pulled away back towards the swing bridge it looked like WB Doofer was just coming into the lock from the tidal water, another escapee from York.

Through the bridge we had to keep a very keen eye on our position on the Waterway Routes map. According to our trip computer Oleanna was about to reach a mile stone. After 0.59 miles of todays journey Oleanna had reached her 4000th mile, just before Bawtry Road Bridge. There were Hoorays!!! all round.

A short distance further on a crane was in the process of lifting a weed boat into the cut. These don’t collect duck weed, but would most probably be used to cut and collect the pennywort that is taking over in parts. A touch further on we pushed past the large island we’d encountered yesterday and then we gave a reedy island a centre parting.

Nearly two hours later we passed under Tankard’s Stone Bridge and had a choice of where to pull up at West Haddlesey. The flood lock ahead was closed which wasn’t that surprising and a short while later WB Doofer came past and worked their way through onto the River Aire.

Some cookie dough had just finished baking when two familiar heads bobbed along the top of Tankard’s Stone Bridge, we had visitors. Bridget and Storm our friends who used to own NB Blackbird had come to have a catch up whilst we were reasonably close. We all sat out on the moorings having tea and biscuits chatting away the afternoon, lots to catch up on as we haven’t seen them for around 18 months.

Whilst part way through telling a story I maybe leaned forward just a touch, the contents of my pocket slide out and made a small plop noise as it hit the surface of the water and glid down to the bottom of the canal. My bloomin phone! We had a look to see if we could see it, maybe the metallic cover would glint back at us? Maybe it wouldn’t.

We tried a torch, then Mick got out his endoscope, but couldn’t get it to work. So we gave up till later, it wouldn’t be going anywhere and we had guests.

The rain beat it’s forecast by an hour or so. We persevered sitting outside for a while, but in the end gave in a retreated to inside. Bridget and Storm are the first two people to step onboard since March other than ourselves. We did our best to keep our distances whilst we had another cuppa and finished off the cookies. A lovely afternoon with plans of another meeting in the next month or so, hopefully.

It then peed it down! Not conducive for trying to find a mobile phone at the bottom of the cut. But when it started to dry up a touch Mick got his endoscope working. He worked his way along where we’d marked the spot the surface of the water had devoured my phone. A glimpse of something, yes it was my phone. Now how to get it out?

The endoscope was tied onto the end of our cat landing net and this was used to try to locate it again. Sadly this meant the silt got stirred up and the water became cloudy. So we decided to wait until dark when our powerful torch might just help.

With the boat pushed out from the bank we shone the torch round. Holding it at an angle worked best as you could see where the beam hit on the canal bottom. But sadly nothing was obviously phone shaped. A trawl around with the landing net again didn’t bring anything up other then the silt. The hope of recovering my phone to possibly be able to reuse the sim card was drifting away. I’d be needing a replacement one of those as well as a phone! I really shouldn’t have mentioned about throwing my phone in the cut in yesterdays post!

0 locks, 5.33 miles, 1 swing bridge twice, 13 cars, 7 pedestrians held up, 4000 miles! -1 box of wine, 1 large chicken, 1 larger chunk of ginger, 1 weed cutter, 1 mooring to ourselves, 2 ex-boaters, 1 pair of pants, 1pair of socks, 3 hours of chat, 4 friends, 1 sunk phone, 1 endoscope, 1 landing net, 1 sighting.