New Walk, York to Haddlesey Flood Lock, River Aire
As we laid in bed with our morning cuppas we could feel Oleanna moving, no sign of a boat anywhere, it had to be the effect of a speedy boat’s bow wave. A few minutes later one of the big trip boats came motoring past at great speed totally empty. This was to be todays River Bus and it’s first pick up was most probably at Naburn Lock.
Soon after breakfast we pushed off, winding and headed down stream. This stretch of river now feels like we live here, so it was time to put some distance between us and it. The River Bus was on it’s way back up stream, having picked up from at least two campsites by the river already, at least it was doing a more reasonable speed now!
A cruiser just beat us to the water point above Naburn Lock, Mick laid out our hoses to show intent another boat sat between us and the tap, we’d be sharing the trip down the Tidal Ouse with this boat today. Kenny , the Lockie, said he’d open the lock at 12:15 and he’d set us off down stream around 12:45. Water topped up, rubbish disposed of, yellow water sorted we were ready and waiting as the top gates opened up for us.
Mick discussed who would go first with the other boat, we’d lead the way, apparently we’d be faster, we weren’t sure about this, but led the way from the lock. From Naburn you punch the incoming tide for what feels like an absolute age. We’d been warned that a boat was coming towards us and sure enough they came round a bend leisurely at speed as we fought our way.
After a short while we started to meet a lot of detritus in the river. You expect it on the Ouse, but today there just seemed to be so much of it. A constant flow of branches, rafts of twigs, it was a whole floating forest. It kept on coming mile after mile of it. Mick did his best to avoid it all, the cruiser generally following us. Maybe this is why they wanted to be behind us, we’d part a way through it all for them. Trying to avoid it meant sticking to the edges, hoping there was enough depth. Then cutting right across the stream of it all to find more water before we were forced into the bank.
At the water ski club two boats were being put into the river. How would they cope with everything in the water? I’d certainly not want to be on a ski being dragged through all this stuff! Well to be honest I’d not want to be on a water ski in the first place. Onwards we battled, weaving our way slowly forwards, this is our fourth time of visiting York and we’ve never seen it this bad.
Then from nowhere behind us the two speed boats arrived and over took us. Filled with people and towing no skiers, as soon as they were past us they opened up and soon vanished into the distance leaving us in their wake with trees bobbing up to say hello left right and centre! Thanks guys, this was stressful enough without you adding to it.
The flow was pretty strong, Mick had upped the revs, we were only managing 2mph, the engine temperature was gradually creeping upwards. I opened a tap in the galley to run off some hot water. The sink steamed away for a good ten minutes. The engine temperature dropped a few degrees. Mick knocked the revs down.
A clearish patch ahead, the cruiser chose it’s moment and passed us. They could go faster than us and now we’d got through the majority of the detritus they cranked on ahead.
Cawood Swing Bridge, manned today, we wonder what they do all day if it doesn’t need to swing for boats? Maybe they have other jobs to do, totally unrelated to the bridge. Now the tide stopped coming towards us, soon it turned and aided us down stream. We were now using fewer revs than when we’d been doing 2mph and we got up to nearly 8mph.
Once round the steep bend and out of all the floating logs we had lunch on the move. The kilometre marks on the banks were moving past much faster now. The river wider, the sun showing itself. We radioed ahead to the lock, Nigel was just penning the cruiser up, he’d be ready for us in ten minutes, perfect.
Soon we reached the big final bend before Selby. Mick slowed the engine, kept to the middle of the spans of the bridges and then bided his time to come level with the modern flats. Time to turn to face the tide and drift back towards the lock.
A couple of blasts from the bow thruster helped us to turn, then we drifted back to about level with the lock. Nigel stood on the bank chatting to someone. Mick waited until it felt right, then swing the bow round to face the lock, turning up the revs, Nigel pointing to keep going, keep going, into the lock. Job done another perfect entrance.
We wanted to get a bit further today, so as soon as I could step off the bow I headed off to work the swing bridge on the canal. The key of power only held up a couple of cars. Onwards, I opted to walk whilst Mick brought Oleanna along. New boats sat on most moorings, including a Mr Whippy boat!
Under bridges, some curvy, some narrow to walk. A wide beam had nearly got into the side at Burn Bridge. A boat was at the high mooring, someone must have persevered more than us to removed all the branches. It was warmer now the sun was out and I was striding along. Two boats came past us. How much further? I really could do with a wee. A bridge hole up ahead gave me the opportunity to jump on board, then once I’d added to the yellow water tank I hopped off again to finish walking the Selby Canal in one go.
Ahh! Of course it’s bank holiday, that’s why all the moorings were full, including the ones at the end of the canal at Haddlesey Flood Lock. Well that’s not strictly true, there was a gap, only 22 paces long and we needed 26! Argh. We’d had enough for the day now and really didn’t want to risk getting to Beal Lock and there being no space there either. A lady stuck her head out from her narrowboat, ‘you won’t fit in there!’ We knew that, Mick was just picking me up. We crossed our fingers that the lock landing for the flood lock would be unoccupied and headed out onto the river.
Strictly speaking we shouldn’t have moored up on the lock landing, but as the flood lock is open at the moment and you can just go straight through it we didn’t feel too bad mooring up for the night. Only one boat came past us after we’d moored up, the cruiser we’d come down the Ouse with, they were hoping to reach Staniland Marina this weekend.
For some reason this evening the laptop has decided to process over 200,000 items! Because it is doing this it won’t sync things and therefor is hiding things that were synced from elsewhere! Very frustrating especially when there are lots of photos to go through. The IT department has looked into it and it seems to be a problem other people are having also. For now we’re leaving the laptop on so that it can continue processing things, it could take up to 56 hours!
Apart from the computer it was a quiet evening with a good view along the River Aire, who knew a pipe bridge could actually be picturesque!
2 locks, 1 flood lock, 24.4 miles, 4 swing bridges, 1 opened, 2 held up, 2 rights, 5 mile constant stream of wood, 7 footballs, 2 buoys, 1 trip boat, 2 speed boats, 10 minutes cooling down, 1 emergency wee, 1 lock landing mooring, 0 shore leave for Tilly.
Internet tonight.
Hard to tell really
