Today is what She calls my ‘Gotcha day’. Five years ago I was quite happily clambering over the high edge of a pooh tray heading towards a scratch post, stopping to sniff and kill a mouse en route, when the She I’d been staying with picked me up and walked with me on her shoulder to the front door.
I was little then
Here my She stood with a big smile on her face. I had a cuddle and a purr showed off my tail to She and her family and that was it. This was the day I became a boat cat.
It’s such a hard life
Back then the back of the sofa was a good place to sit, that was when we lived on Lillian. Then on Oleanna the sofa had a secret passage behind it which only got revealed every now and again. Now we live in Scarboreugh the sofa keeps moving but always has a route behind it, which I find handy for getting to sit in the window.
Toms boating coat
Life has changed somewhat in the last five years. They no longer move the outside and there are far FAR too many other cats who visit my outside, both front and back! In the last five months I have not murdered anything! Trees are hard to come by apart from in the park and She doesn’t take me there quite as much as she used to.
Out in the park
However, the tree that Tom chopped down has been brought inside. I can now go through my door (when they bother to open it for me!) and climb it to my hearts content, not having to share it with every other cat in the neighbourhood. It’s quite cool and I can stand at the top and sneer at Bogey Face and Fatty Betty who don’t have their own tree.
MY tree
You may think that I am now a house cat. I would disagree. I still get the same rules before I go out ‘You have an hour, no friends home dead or alive or putting them on the roof for later’. I still have to find a route that is accessible to the roof. I get ‘Thank you for coming home’ Dreamies. And quite frequently get told ‘Boat cats don’t claw furniture’ or ‘Boat cats don’t bite’. Lockdown in a house is boring so I have to find new ways to amuse myself.
The highlights of my day are at getting up time and bedtime. My birthday present from last year may have lost numerous feathers now, but it is still tops. She swings it round and I pounce from one end of the bed to the other. I stalk it and wait for it to come out from the Wardle room.
I do get to look out above the trees when She and I go to work. There is lots of this happening right now. I have been given a cushion to sit on so that I won’t try to squeeze into the model box anymore, She’s been busy making things to go inside it, they are poisonous! When we worked on Oleanna everything used to get tidied up every day and put away. Well She is now very very lazy and leaves everything out. Standards are slipping.
Tut Tut Tut!
Tom says that three years ago She wondered what I’d make of life in a house. Well there is a lot more room to run around after visiting my pooh box and good windows to sit and look out of. But the lack of friends is the serious down side along with there being too many cats. She says that one day, hopefully soon, we’ll be back on Oleanna and they’ll be moving the outside again. We just have to get to the other side of this lockdown and the breach. So my killing days may not be over.
Dreaming of Boats!
0 locks, 0 miles, 5 years second mate, 4 white paws, 1 white tipped tail, 5 months house bound, 1 lockdown and breach to pounce over, 3rd sofa, 1 tree of my very own, 2 cat walks, 3 cushions, 2 many cats, 0 friends, 2 lifes, 60 miles apart.
Aire & Calder Navigation Main Line Location: Ferrybridge Lock and Goole Caisson Starts At: Lock 11, Ferrybridge Flood Lock Ends At: Goole Pipebridge
Update on 19/02/2021:
Works at the breach continue this will create fluctuations in water levels between Pollington, Sykehouse and Goole.
Skippers of all craft are advised to check their mooring lines to ensure their vessel is securely moored allowing for water fluctuation.
This notice from C&RT came through mid morning. Oleanna is moored on the other side of Goole Caisson, but that doesn’t mean the levels in the docks are any more constant. In fact this morning I received a message from Lisa saying that Al was on his way to the marina to check on boats as the level had dropped significantly overnight.
The thought was that ships had been through Ocean Lock and taken a lot of water with them, therefore dropping the level. It would take some time for the pumps working around the Caisson to bring the level back up again.
Al checked Oleanna’s ropes and sent through a couple of photos. She certainly was a lot lower than when we’d last had a photo, but not as low as when we’d first visited her after the breach. Apart from the lack of water all seems well. Thank you Al and the others in the marina for keeping an eye on things.
0 locks, 0 miles, 2 foot down, 1 very bored cat, 4 guns finished, 9 at least halfway, 1 assistant locked out, 128 photos of a white card model, 2 notebooks, 0 missing blog photos!
My phone pinged this afternoon with a notification from Mark Penn. More photos from his drone above the breach site. So I cleaned my hands off from glue and paint to take a look.
The western end of the cofferdam is now fully in place. The piles have been driven down and now resemble the piling along the towpath. There are two people in a small boat working on the dam.
On the offside bank there are six pipes that look like they are attached to a floating pontoon. This is where the water from the canal is now being piped out and around the breach site.
No piles are sitting in the field, I suspect they are awaiting more to arrive.
The level in the drain below the breach looks lower again, but the amount of water coming through from the canal is very visible now. A couple of pumps are still in situ, pumping water out from the drain into the River Don.
Here you can see the progress that has been made on the eastern dam. It looks like they are loading more sections of piling onto the pontoon.
I wonder how long it will be before they can’t get the pontoon to the loading area anymore? I doubt they will keep the pontoon inside the cofferdam as it would just get in the way.
Here you can see the amount of water being pumped round the site. Once the cofferdam is fully in this will then feed through to Goole Docks. I wonder if the caisson gates will be opened then, or will they keep pumping round them into the docks keeping the gates as a precautionary measure?
The bags of aggregate by the tarpaulin are visible again, which suggests the level has dropped. Apparently Goole docks are busy with ships again, as I write this there are four vessels shown to be in the docks and more heading up the River Ouse (MarineTraffic).
This one shows how large an area there is within the dams. There are reports of an unmapped culvert here, so this may be why they have had to block off such a large section.
Considering they have built just about a whole dam in the last week, I’d expect that the second one will be completed early next week. Then before all the water is fully drained they will do a fish rescue. It will be interesting to see what it will all look like when it is fully drained.
Then we will see if supermarket trolleys have an ability to travel distances. The nearest shop (West Cowick Spar) is just about two miles away, then the usual culprits, Tesco, Morrisons and Asda are further at about five miles.
Yesterday there was an update on the C&RT website regarding the breach.
Update 08/02/2021
The repair programme remains on schedule and the site will continue to be monitored daily until completion of the cofferdam installation at the end of February. The team are around half way through the installation of the steel piles for the cofferdam and once in place the water between the walls will be pumped out so our engineers can view the damage. While pumping this water out, any fish trapped between the walls will be rescued and relocated back into the canal. A detailed investigation of the damage will then inform the repair programme and costs involved.
The weather hasn’t been too conducive for flying drones over the weekend, but Mark has been back out this morning to check on progress since last week.
The western end of the piling is about two thirds of the way across the cut now.
The piles, I’m guessing are about 18 to 20ft long, are being driven in further now. Once they reach the other bank and if the level drops on one side the piling will have to be able to withstand a lot of pressure.
You can see on the far bank three pipes which turn towards the canal, these will be used to pump the water around the cofferdam. It actually looks like there is a forth, they just haven’t finished laying it yet.
The level in the drain below the canal looks to be lower than it has been since the breach occurred. Water can still be seen coming out from the bank of large rocks.
On the road side of the canal there are two more sections of pontoon. I wonder what these will be for?
Maybe they are being used to transport more sections of piling to the large pontoon.
More piling sits in the snow covered fields, waiting to be transported to the canal.
It must be very chilly out there.
Thank you once again to Mark for letting me use his photos, good to see that C&RT are using them too.
On the Shroppie dams are now in place around the two breaches and water is being pumped up from the River Gowy to help maintain levels north of Locks 10 and 11. The navigation has reopened for essential travel. NB Bargus and NB Halsall the coal boats on the Four Counties Ring are working their way around the stoppages both here and at the northern end of the Trent and Mersey where there has been a landslip into the canal. These coal boats also have coal vans, so they can still deliver to boats not currently reachable by boat.
Lisa sent through a photo of Oleanna this morning. The level at the docks is just about normal and Oleanna was sitting there in the rain. Yesterday it must have been sunny at the marina as the solar panels were doing a good job of keeping the batteries topped up and the engine bay got up to 8 C. It’s handy being able to check on her from afar, keeps our minds at rest.
Paper stretched and ready
Here in Scarborough I’ve been busy with work. A new, to me, art shop is proving very handy. I’ve not had chance to go into The Art Room yet and I can’t see what art materials they normally stock, Delia responds to emails swiftly and is very helpful. This week I was after a pad of thick cartridge paper and a wooden board so that I can stretch the paper properly. If water colour paper isn’t stretched, when you start to paint the paper cockles and will never lie flat again. In the past I’ve half heartedly taped paper to a plastic board, but this never really worked that well. So I have invested in a board that will take A3 paper comfortably. This will first get used for my boat origami paper design. Then I hope to use it for paintings of the waterways, which I’ve been planning on doing for some time now. I have the equipment, the reference, all I need now is the time!
This week I’ve started work in earnest on Panto for Chipping Norton. Sketch technical drawings enable me to make pieces of model, then do adjustments. Yesterday I finished working my way through the show, there is still lots to alter and work out, but I have solutions for most things. I’m quite happy with my galleon set, but the smugglers inn isn’t right yet! Hopefully this coming week things will get sorted before my next work arrives on the doorstep!
Cotton top measuring up
I’ve finally finished knitting a top for my sister-in-law which is now measured out and blocking on some new foam mats I’ve treated myself to. These will be handy to take back to the boat as they breakdown into foot squares, but once clipped together they give me 3ft square to pin items onto. They will save me pinning things out onto the back of our mattress on the boat and hoping things will be dry before bedtime!
Cricket on the TV, who’d have thought
Mick, whilst not watching the cricket, has been working on the blog. Two years ago we moved to WordPress and our current deal is nearly up. There are things we’d like to try to improve, but unless we spend more money they are proving hard to sort. Paul (Waterway Routes) suggested sometime ago we tried WordPress.org, this is free but we’d need to pay to have the blog hosted, which is all working out at a similar price to if we stayed put. We could go back to Blogger and Open Live Writer, but photos had been problematic, Mick is still working his way through the blog inserting them and I like the way wordpress works.
Tomorrow Tilly it’s too dark to go for a walk now!
However we miss having a blog roll that moves with peoples posts and a forwards and back button. Mick has found the relevant code, we may need to enlist my nephew Josh into giving us some guidance with this. We’ll see what happens.
Mick is taking his time reading the book he selected from our Christmas stash. The chap has left Kate Saffin and Alarum, headed to the Exeter Canal and is now somewhere on the Bridgewater Canal.
I on the other hand have finished mine, which I’ve really enjoyed. When we first moved on board I read a lot, but in the last couple of years I’d got out of the habit. With so many books to choose from I was spoilt for choice. So when Sam from NB Red Wharf said that Canal Pushers was really good and Debby from NB Chuffed asked for a review I thought I’d best start there.
I like a good crime story and with it being set on the canals it started off on a good footing. Andy Griffee has taken the theory of a serial killer, pushing people into the waterways around Manchester and set a similar story on the Stratford, Worcester and Birmingham Canals.
Jack has just picked up a narrowboat to see if a life afloat will suit him after recently being divorced. Let down by a friend who was going to help him learn the ropes he is soon rescued by a lady walking the towpath, Nina. A friendship is formed between the two of them, Nina keeping herself a bit of a mystery.
Look at those whiskers
Knowing the stretch of canal where the book is set is quite warming to a sole that misses being on the cut right now. Jack’s experience of The Navigation Inn at Wooten Wawen made me smile as it was very similar to ours when we hired our last boat from there seven years ago. Stratford with the tourists and theatre, Wedges, Packwood House, all the time Jack learning how to handle the boat as the mystery of the death of a young homeless lad unfolds.
Not breakfast, but a beetroot and feta burger in homemade gf buns with lockdown chips
Several plots intertwine, gradually unravelling themselves at a narrowboat pace. There are several moments where the pace speeds up which has lead to a couple of nights where I’ve kept the light on whilst Mick has snored away. I don’t want to say too much as I don’t want to give the plot away, as it is well worth a read. My only criticism, I’ve always walked down hill to the shops in Alvechurch, not up hill.
Verdict, a good read especially for those with a canal interest, but this is not required and it certainly doesn’t turn into a manual for narrowboat handling. I’m looking forward to the next book in the series River Rats which takes place in Bath. I may read my way down towards the Kennet and Avon via Murder on the Oxford Canal by Faith Martin. I wonder if there are enough novels to cover the whole network?
Also not breakfast, but turnip curry, beetroot and carrot curry with homemade gf nan breads
This weekends walk will prove to be a rosy cheeked one as it is currently trying it’s best to snow, although I doubt it will settle. An east wind will be whipping up the sea and will chill us to the bone, thermals needed today.
Last week we braved the climb up onto Oliver’s Mount. Down into the valley to then climb back up the other side and then further all up hill. We chose to go cross country avoiding felled trees up to the top.
Up the top
Here on the summit a telecommunications mast stands. Back in the early 1990’s this was the only place in Scarborough to get mobile phone signal when the telephone exchange had a serious fire knocking out all landlines in the town. The other high point here is the war memorial that marks a view point.
We took our time looking for family names. None from the Geraghty side, but quite a few Capplemans. I shall have to dig out the family tree I was sent after my Dad passed away and see if any of them are mentioned.
The view right up the coast
Oliver’s Mount makes for a great view point. Looking down all the usual landmarks have found new positions around town (as they do!) and the South Bay looks more like a smugglers cove. Views right into the North Bay and up the coast, we took our time spotting friends houses.
The South Bay
The way back down we followed the roads which make up the Oliver’s Mount race track, stopping to say hello to the beach donkeys who are on their winter holiday, sadly they were just a touch too far away for a good photo.
Us last week
0 locks, 0 miles, 1 level back up, 1 glimpse, A3 sketch board, 20 sheets, 0 cow gum, 1 new proscenium, 1 white card sketch model complete, 409 pages, 1 cotton top, 67 pins, 2 t-towels, 6 capplemans, 5 miles up and down, 1 bored cat in need of a hobby, 1 windswept short walk, 0 cobwebs.
Us today!
Where Were We
2020. Sheepcote Street Bridge, Birmingham.
2019. Thorne Lock, Stainforth and Keadby Canal. LINK
Mark Penn has been back to the breach site this morning.
The site compound has had more portacabins added.
Sections of roadway are laid off to one side and this is where the piling looks like it is off loaded from lorries when it arrives at site. I wonder if these fields have already been planted, we will see through the coming weeks.
At the canal end of the road way the piling waits to be picked up. The gravel ramp into the canal will be how they are moved onto the pontoon, you can see track marks. To the right of the digger/grabber you can see the start of some piling that has been driven into a mound of clay by the bank.
You can see here on the left of the photo where pegs mark out an area around where gravel has been added down a hole. The water level could be a little bit higher than in the last photos, but then the water will be cloudier making it harder to see the bags of aggregate near the tarpaulin.
On the off side numerous lengths of pipe work are being carried along the towpath. Once the cofferdams are in place water will be piped around the breach site to help maintain the level of the canal, helping those boats moored at Rawcliffe, and to feed the needs for water at Goole Docks. At the moment it looks like four pumps will be used for this job. I wonder whether they will need to pump the water out from the breach site? Or will it just empty itself into the drainage channel below?
On the opposite bank to where the gravel ramp is you can now see a mound of clay, this is where the digger was in a previous post. The dam at this end of the site will stretch between the two mounds of clay.
Looking the other way the pontoon is mid channel, working it’s way across the canal.
The surface of the pontoon has had roadway sections added for the grabber/digger/pile driver (?) to ride on. The two large pipes have been lowered into holes in the pontoon to hold it steady whilst work is carried out.
A small tug sits at the end of the pontoon, ready to move it into a new position or to return to the gravel ramp for more piling sections. One section of piling has been laid from the pontoon to the towpath. Is this being used as a walkway, to keep the piling straight or both?
I wonder how long it has taken them to get this far across the cut? A day or four?
On the off side bank you can see two more mounds of clay in the water. The piling appears to be heading to the nearest one. The pipes for the pumps continue out of view.
Thank you again Mark for the brilliant photos and letting me share them. It’s great being able to see work as it happens.
Page 17 accompanies this with an article about the gravel barge, Farndale H, and it’s first trip from Hull via Goole up to Leeds last September, which is when we were moving back to the house.
Fusedale H is also a gravel barge
It turns out that Farndale H had just shortly returned to Goole docks after it’s last run up to Leeds for the year when the breach occurred.
There is also an article on page 21 about Kate Saffin and Alarum Theatre Company. On the papers website there is also an article about Alarum celebrating their fifth anniversary. LINK Congratulations to them.
Talking of theatre, today is the last chance to listen to Haunting Julia from the SJT. The other day I enjoyed an afternoon listening to Alan Ayckbourn in triplicate, he plays all three parts in the audio version. It’s a great play, I admit I am biased as I’ve designed it twice. But it’s most certainly worth a Sunday afternoon listen.
We miss Towpath Talk, after it had been read and the adverts perused it would be kept for lighting the multifuel stove on Oleanna. In the house our open fire isn’t kept in 24/7 so we have to eek out our Saturday newspaper for relighting it most evenings. When we’re allowed back to Oleanna I think we’ll be picking up a few copies of Towpath Talk and bringing them back to the house.
0 locks, 0 miles, 1 article, 5 years, 1 secret box, 1 little Miss Mozart, 1hr 45 minutes well spent, 1 maybe 2 bats, 2 new boating neighbours, 0 newspaper until Monday for the fire!
Tilly is getting more and more demanding to go for walks, it is getting so I can’t actually do any work until we’ve been to have a look at the trees. I have tried suggesting she takes up a hobby, something like macramé, but she’s not too keen on that idea. Any how, when we returned I decided to have an early lunch and check the world of social media, up popped a link to new drone footage from the breach site. Thank you Mark.
It looks like there has been quite a bit of activity.
The roadway that had been laid across the field from the base has been extended onto the towpath. Here a pile of aggregate has been added into the side of the canal along with a mound of clay. Could this be where they plan on building one of the dams? Or are they just widening the towpath?
The roadway and footpath from the site base compound
A footpath has also been laid next to the roadway. A digger looked like it was reinforcing the access over a drain by the road. Are these extra roadway sections lying in the field by the roadway? Or are they piles waiting to build the coffer dams?
On the other side of the canal new hard core has also gone down. Presumably the track to where the pumps are helping to keep the level in the drain down, was getting far too muddy. An area has also been covered with hardcore on this side, possibly for machinery when they start to build the dams. A digger was busy, maybe dredging the edge where one of the dams will cross to.
Pegs around the faded grass to the left
Looking at the area where the breach is, where there was/is a small hole through the grass, marker pegs can be seen. This suggests the area around the hole is unstable.
Less of the blue tarp showing above the water
Comparing Marks photos from about two weeks ago to todays it looks like the canal level is up by just a bit. A bag of aggregate and the blue tarp seem to be sat a little lower in the water than they were before.
Now that is one big pontoon
C&RT in their update had mentioned pontoons that they were setting up and sailing down to site. Now there are pontoons, and then there are huge PONTOONS. This is one of the latter. It looks like there are two large poles (for want of a better term) lying on the top of the sections. These are likely to be lowered through a couple of holes in the pontoon and used to anchor it in position. Back in September we saw a similar pontoon being used near Doncaster.
Mark was informed this morning that the piling for the dams will start to go in over the next couple of weeks, then the area between the dams will be dewatered towards the end of February, weather permitting.
In Fridays Boaters Update from C&RT, there was a section regarding the breach on the Aire and Calder, nothing new was mentioned but good that it got it’s own section between Coronavirus and the £10 million they are spending on the Yorkshire Waterways this winter. I suspect quite a chunk of that money will be going towards work on the Calder and Hebble at The Figure of Three Locks that were badly damaged in last February’s storms.
She’s still there. Thank you Al
A photo came through of Oleanna on Friday afternoon from Lisa. Levels still low in the marina, but stable. It looked grey down in Goole and the marina might even have been a touch icy still.
The North Bay, not looking as busy as it felt
Today Mick and I attempted to have a walk to the North Bay in Scarborough, we knew it would be busy as it was a nice day but hadn’t expected so many people in Peasholm Park, so we ended up doing a detour up onto Northstead Manor Drive.
Green Tor
Here very large houses sit above the park, one took our fancy straight away. Green Tor shows off it’s 1930’s credentials with green roof tiles, long stained glass window up the staircase. We had a peak in through the windows as we knew it would be empty being a holiday let. A look on the website shows the owners love of wallpaper. Huge rooms, well they would have to be as the house can sleep 14. It also has a hot tub and the garage has been converted into a games room and cinema!
We meandered down to the beach via the Open Air Theatre. It’s been quite a few years since we’ve walked through here. The lake that used to separate the stage from the audience has been concreted in. Concerts are being advertised, the first being Crowded House on the 8th June! Here’s hoping the season of open air concerts will be able to go ahead this year.
The North Bay chalets and us
My camera was out as normal, but today I was wanting to get some inspiration for a project I’ve been asked to be part of. The North Bay beach chalets caught my eye, as did many other things. We stayed close to the chalets avoiding the crowds on the main footpath and beach, then headed up the cliff towards my old street and a walk back home through town. A lovely walk on a lovely day, just a shame there were so many people about. My suggestion to Mick of getting up early and going for a walk before everyone else didn’t go down too well!
Aire and Calder Breach Site
The weather had also been good in Goole today. Mark Penn had been out with his drone taking photos of new housing, the Siemens Site and of course the breach site on the canal.
Boulders and earth filling the hole
More boulders and earth have been put at the end of the concrete section filling the hole that had appeared after Christmas.
Holes
There are a couple of square holes. One on the concrete above the culvert , this is covered and fenced off, then the other just to one side in a grassed area. They are almost certainly inspection holes to try to see what is below.
Base for the works
Another photo shows that the corner of a nearby field has been levelled off and hard core laid. A Site Office sits to one side and is kept company by a digger and dumper truck, this will obviously be the base for the works when they start.
River Don running parallel to the Aire and Calder
A longer shot across to the other side of the cut shows the pumps which are drawing the water away and into the River Don. You can see the cloudy water joining the darker waters. The whole area is water logged right now due to the amount of rain recently.
Thank you Mark for letting me use your photos again. It’ll be interesting to see the works from above when they start.
0 locks, 0 miles, 1.5 layers of wallpaper up, 2 windows, 1 doorway, 1 electric saw, 1 internal tree, 1 carpenters opinion sought, 1 day of rest, 1 router on order, 3 weeks, 20 x 20, 5.5 miles, 1 bored cat, 2 many people, 1 portacabin, 2 holes, 4C, 100% charged batteries, 1 roast chicken tonight, 1 Happy Birthday!
With the new lockdown we’ll not be getting chance to visit Oleanna for a while.
Last Tuesday Mick gave the marina a call to see how things were and to enquire if there was a local BSS inspector they could recommend.
Levels were reported to be up and down, but Geoff and others are walking round regularly to make sure boats are okay, adjusting ropes if required. Thank you chaps.
Al had also been to have a check on things and sent through some pictures of Oleanna. It’s nice to see Oleanna, but they show that the level had dropped again. I think this will be the state of play for some time, possibly until the breach is mended and the normal flow of water along the canal can be reinstated.
Mick gave the inspector a call and as he lives locally there will be no problem in getting the inspection done before it is due. We do however need to give Oleanna the once over before hand as we’ve spotted a couple of things that we need to do, nothing major, but as we know about them we’re hoping for an opportunity. She will also need to be winded for easier access to the gas locker as we are on a short pontoon. Private Boat Requirements BSS
A few days ago there was an article regarding the breach in the Yorkshire Post. Taken from the point of view of one of the commercial boat skippers, Exol Pride and the gravel barges won’t be going anywhere for months.
