I’ve just come across the following on the C&RT site. Some interesting images of the breach now the cofferdam is drained. Mark Penn’s aerial drone photos have given us a good idea of what has been happening, but it’s interesting to see footage from a lower level. With staff in the footage they give the cofferdam scale, showing the sheer size and depth of the Aire and Calder.
Sean McGinley is certainly being kept busy this year.
Scarborough
Tilly seemed to have a good night, her world calming down, just a shame that calm world was disturbed today.
After reclaiming the house over the last six months, (still plenty to do) we decided to have the carpets cleaned. Unknown stains on most carpets left for us by tenants and the aroma from spliffs, the smell now mostly dissipated. The new to us lounge and dining room carpets were looking decidedly manky, if we had the money we’d have been replacing them altogether, but we haven’t so a good clean would have to do instead.
So this morning everything bar the sofa and dining room table were moved from the downstairs rooms into the kitchen, access to sink and fridge kept clear. The upstairs items were either moved to different rooms or placed in bath tubs. Mick set about hoovering everywhere to be cleaned as I scrubbed a vinyl bathroom floor.
By the time we’d finished it looked like we’d never returned to the house. Tilly spent most of the morning in my work room, special dispensation given for un-supervised snoozing close to my Panto model whilst all the hoovering was happening.
The carpet cleaner arrived, neighbours had parked their cars outside our house helping to reserve the nearest spot. The chap laid out his hoses, told us his plan, started up his machine inside his van then had a cuppa chatting away to Mick. He did a good job, managing to shift all but the most stubborn of stains, magenta pink in the bathroom, but he did like to talk all the time with the noise from his machine polluting the street. Our poor neighbours! Poor Tilly still recovering from yesterday.
Several noisy hours later he turned his machine off and coiled up his hoses and peace and quiet returned to our part of Scarborough. He did mention that he gets complaints, I’m not surprised!
No furniture should be returned to the rooms for the next 24hrs. So we reorganised things in the kitchen and piled the dining room table high. This gave Tilly a good vantage point to look out for Bogey Face Alan.
Have to say it is so nice having clean carpets, only a few days to enjoy them though.
Tilly test drove her manicured claws. Having them trimmed by the vet yesterday means it’s a little bit troublesome to cling on as I climb. She says they will grown back, I HOPE so! But it is also nice not to get caught in the carpets all the time.
The Goole Escape facebook page had been getting a touch excited yesterday when crane mats had been seen arriving. Then this afternoon the crane arrived to go with them. Boaters started to prepare themselves as they may be able to move somewhere different.
The comments went quiet after half an hour of giddiness. Then around 4pm a C&RT notice came in.
Goole Caisson stop planks have been removed and the Caisson is now open. Navigation is now possible from Rawcliffe to Goole Caisson and onto Goole Docks. Navigation remains closed between Rawcliffe Bridge to Pollington.
By the end of the day at least one boat from Goole had been through the caisson and cruised past Rawcliffe, free again, well free to cruise for four miles. I suspect there will be lots of little jaunts up the way, we’ll be joining them to give Oleanna’s engine a good run before we head off up or downstream.
0 locks, 0 miles, 1 caisson open! 6 rooms, 2 landings, 2 staircases clean, ahhh, 1 mountain of chairs, 1 more normal cat, thank goodness.
Another sunny Saturday another set of photos from Mark of the breach site. Thank you as always.
I have to say I wasn’t expecting much to have happened in the last week and to a certain extent not much has.
The access road into the cofferdam has been extended, lots more white aggregate has been piled up against the northern piling. This looks like it now goes over where the big puddle was last week.
They have dug out the silt/clay before adding the aggregate.
Along the piling there are a couple of yellow cables/pipes/sticks? No idea what these are for, maybe markers showing where the drain goes underneath.
It’s interesting comparing last weeks photos to this week.
There may be another yellow post on the southern side standing up above all the water pipes.
Whitley Lock, the next one up from Pollington has now developed a fault, a hydraulic leak making the paddles and gate inoperable. So unless contractors have been able to sort the problem this afternoon then the route between Pollington Lock and Sykehouse Lock on the New Junction Canal is closed again. Hopefully the problem won’t take long to fix.
Yesterday there was a chap who brought a little boat to Goole Boathouse to launch for a day out. He was unaware that the caisson had stop planks in it but as his boat wasn’t that deep it was thought that if he lifted his outboard engine he’d be able to glide over the top. His original plan was to head up to Pollington Lock, but Mick pointed out that he’d be lucky to get that far. The chap returned late afternoon quite astounded that the canal was totally blocked off at the breach site. Even so he’d had a lovely day out.
I’ve been wondering how long before C&RT would give us an update regarding the breach. Sometime this morning they have updated the website page with the following.
Our engineers have now completed detailed inspections and a design solution has been agreed. We are starting construction work on a permanent repair programme and expect repairs to the breach site to be completed by mid-August.
The Trust is planning to remove the stop planks in Goole Caisson next week. This is expected to be completed by 30th April to allow passage past this point. The Trust is continuing to maintain water levels downstream of the breach.
We’ve always known that we wouldn’t be able to escape in the direction of the New Junction Canal for sometime. But if we’re hoping to return to Goole at the back end of the year we now know we’ll be able to via an easier route than Trent Falls, which is a relief as weather factors and daylight hours may have more bearings on a passage by then. It also opens up the possibility of crossing the Pennines via the Huddersfield Narrow and Standedge Tunnel.
News regarding the caisson stop planks will be a great relief to those who’ve been stuck at Rawcliffe Bridge since before Christmas, some of them are chomping at the bit to move to new moorings. It does also mean that before we descend Ocean Lock we’ll be able to give Oleanna a run up the cut to check everything is working properly before heading onto tidal water.
Yesterday news came through from the Goole Escape group that C&RT would be updating their notice regarding passage through Ocean Lock in Goole.
Mick’s inbox was checked frequently yesterday, nothing. But this morning as we were having our cuppa in bed the following appeared.
We have been advised by Associated British Ports they are to open up limited penning for leisure craft from Monday 19th April.
Bookings will be controlled by the Duty Assistant Dock Master at Ocean lock on Tele: 01405 721128 on a first come / served basis and with a 24 hr confirmation call required.
ABP will offer a penn out at 1hr before HW and a penn in at 1hr after HW on daylight tides only and this will be managed around commercial traffic.
PLEASE NOTE: penning outside of these offered times is not available and that at no times should vessels anchor in the Goole reaches nor any part of the Ouse from the area of Skelton Railway Bridge to the Apex.
We won’t be one of the first boats to leave Goole. But we have been looking at the tide times to see when might be a possible tide to get us round Trent Falls to at least Keadby. Then the next tides to carry on upstream to Torksey and Cromwell. There is a date in mind and research to be done regarding Trent Falls.
The list of jobs at the house has gradually been getting shorter. Builders have been giving the roof and chimney stacks some tlc over the last couple of days and Frank has fitted us a new bath panel. The bathroom just needs to be decorated now.
Appointments for all three of us are in the diary. Sadly no news of our second jabs yet.
The list of jobs on Oleanna remains long, but work will start on that list soon.
My panto model, which I’d been hoping to get finished by the end of the month, will have to sit on the back burner for a little while whilst things get sorted.
0 locks, 0 miles, 1 good update, 2 relieved boaters, 1 booking to be made, 2 many jobs to do, 1 press stud sorted, 1 chicken jointing lesson to be given (Frank), 1 quizzical cat, 1 garden catch up to fit in (Duncan), 2 busy but smiling boaters.
The first boats to cross between Sykehouse and Pollington Lock happened today. The passage is assisted and pre-bookable with C&RT.
Two Lock Keepers and a volunteer were on hand to see boats through. Apparently ten boats had booked passage, but only two headed northwards from Sykehouse and one southwards from Pollington.
The pound is being kept low, some say to help protect the cofferdam at the breach site. Others that there is another leak between the reservoir and Pollington Lock. But what ever the reason it looks like the low water level over the last three months has affected the banks of the canal in several places. With less water pressure in the pound the piling in places has fallen towards the water. At Christmas I posted photos of areas where this had happened on the Aire and Calder, there are now patches on the New Junction Canal.
Levels at Southfield Reservoir are obviously low too. The sailing club is looking elsewhere for it’s members to sail for the foreseeable future. Luckily the normal depth of the Aire and Calder is around three meters in the main channel so the passage between locks didn’t necessitate any boats scraping the bottom today.
One of the boaters moored at Rawcliffe Bridge visited the breach site today and had a chat with the engineer in charge. According to his post to the Goole Escape group it is looking like the breach will not be repaired until the late summer. C&RT are in talks with ABP regarding Leisure boats using Ocean Lock. Also they are looking at removing the stop planks at the caisson in the next couple of weeks, this will enable boats currently stranded at Rawcliffe Bridge to move to Goole should they want to.
Hopefully the stop planks will remain out which will mean that we’d be able to give Oleanna a bit of a blast up the cut to check everything is running smoothly before heading out onto the Tidal Ouse and Trent. It would also give boaters who don’t plan on escaping Goole the chance to at least get out from the marina for a short pootle.
Elsewhere on the network non liveaboards can now stay overnight on their boats. Some areas of the network will get very busy as they did last year when Lockdown 1 ended. But in other areas there are problems, another culvert is causing problems on the Llangollen. At the Figure of Three Locks on the Calder and Hebble, which has just reopened, a large plastic pedestrian barrier was drawn through the lower ground sluice paddle box this morning, damaging the paddle so the lock can no longer hold water. Hopefully this will be sorted soon.
Thankfully the weather hasn’t stopped Mark from visiting the breach site today, here in Scarborough it is doing it’s best to snow, I suspect drones and the fingers that control them are not too keen on the white stuff.
The cofferdam is now fully drained.
You can see where people have been walking in the silt. Levels to the west of the cofferdam are still low.
There is a large puddle (bottom left), for want of a better word, very close to where the big hole on the towpath is. My first thought was could this be where the piling or base of the canal has given way.
But then Mick said , why is it full of water?
Maybe this is where the breach is but the route out for the water is higher than the hole, so it has acted as a kind of U bend like you get on a toilet. Once the water level is higher than the route outwards the water drains away until it is level with the last thing blocking it’s route out. The footage below was taken on the 30th December.
Certainly when water was draining into the drain below it was rushing under the towpath, over the top of the drain and around the end of the bridge where there are now large boulders. The footage below was taken on the 29th December by Mark. Where the digger on the back of the boat has it’s bucket is where the hole in the towpath is. So the stern of the boat is right over where the big puddle is today.
Hopefully the engineers have been to site to have a look and see what the extent of the damage is.
It may well be that most of what was once under the towpath over the drain has been washed away.
Large blocks have been placed on the bank presumably to stop machinery and vehicles from missing the access ramp into the cofferdam.
The pumps keep going supplying the docks with water. Hopefully a sufficient amount to increase ABP’s confidence which hopefully will then lead to limited passages through the locks for leisure craft.
The Goole Escape group now has 45 members. Most boats are moored in Goole but there are a couple of boats who are stuck at Rawcliffe Bridge which is between the breach and Goole caisson. Currently stop planks block their way to access the docks.
David has called the Lock Keepers at Naburn, Selby, Keadby and Torksey in the last couple of days. All locks off the River Ouse and River Trent are operable. But unfortunately the swing bridge out of Selby Basin is currently unsafe to use, the main bearing on the bridge has weakened, possibly due to heavier than normal road traffic over it. Surveyors have advised C&RT not to use the bridge until the problem is rectified. Then at Tankards Bridge there is a 7ft height restriction. So currently there is no escape route through Selby. The Lockies at Selby are going to keep us updated as things progress.
So escape routes will be to York, Barmby, Keadby, Torksey. Some boats are talking about heading to Hull or even Grimsby.
Thank you Mark once again for letting me use your photos.
*This post was superseded by A Glimmer Of Hope yesterday*
Whilst waiting for news regarding the breach and possible escape from Goole we’ve not been idle. Well I say we, but in regards to boaty things Mick has been the busy one whilst I’ve been working painting my panto model.
On our last visit to Oleanna we brought back the life jackets. These were in need of a service, in fact a year overdue. Last time we paid for them to be checked over to much consternation from readers. This time Mick followed instructions on Youtube.
He checked for any damage, wear and tear. Weighed the gas bottles. Checked the dates on the firing mechanisms. Blew the whistles. Inflated them and left them overnight (well a couple of days) to check they remained inflated.
A couple of the firing mechanisms had a few months left on them and Mick had broken one of the clips that is used to indicate that a firing mechanism has been manually fired. The green clip obviously needed replacing so it was worth getting a couple of new mechanisms.
When they arrived the oldest dated mechanisms were swapped out for the newest and put into the jackets we use the most, these will last us till 2024. The middle aged ones were put in our two spare jackets, these will last till December 2022. The oldest ones we are keeping as spares and run out in February 2022.
The next job was to fold and roll the jackets back up into the covers. This is possibly the hardest part of the servicing. But they are all done and in the crate ready to be returned to Oleanna on our next visit.
Next was the VHF radio. We bought our hand held radio a few years ago and use it to listen in to the big ships around Goole and when we are on tidal waters. You should have your radio licenced and have completed a course to use it. Mick has been meaning to do the course for a number of years but had never got round to it, I suspect like many others. My sister-in-law had looked into it for his birthday last year, but it was going to cost too much.
With the only way out of Goole for the next few months being through the docks to Ocean Lock and down onto the tidal Ouse (when/if ABP allow leisure craft), we have decided the cost of the VHF course and test would be worth doing. ABP normally require leisure boats to have two crew, life jackets and a VHF radio. Should the chance arise to be able to pen down onto the Ouse we’d rather meet all the criteria.
The RYA VHF/SRC (Short Range Certificate) Marine Radio Course can be done online for £75. Then the test costs £60 on top. Mick contacted Scarborough Yacht Club to see if they were running the courses and test. This was possible, although the test would have to wait until after April 12th and would be done on a one to one basis at the Yacht Club at Scarborough lighthouse.
Once the course fee was paid a chap popped the handbook through our front door the following day and Mick was ready to do the course. The course takes around 10 hours and Mick has worked his way through doing all the modules in the last week. Before he books for the exam I’m going to look at the course too. Should we be in an emergency situation and Mick not be able to use the radio, I would at least know what to do.
Once the exam is passed Oleanna and her crew will meet all the criteria that ABP require, if this also means that we can cruise as a flotilla with other boats who haven’t got VHF all the better.
*Sadly later in the day Mick received an email saying that as Scarborough Yacht Club building would remain closed until 17th May, exams would not be possible until after that date.
A few days ago marked our 7th anniversary of being boat owners. Today marks our 4th anniversary of the three of us moving onboard Oleanna in Sheffield. So I’d best do a Where Were We
Where were we
2020 Lockdown Mooring 3, Calveley, Shropshire Union Canal. LINK
2019 Above Lemonroyd Lock, Aire and Calder Navigation. LINK
2018 Stourport, Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal and Beverley. LINK
2017 Victoria Basin, Sheffield and Tinsley Canal and Crick Marina, Leicester Line. LINK
2016 Bulbourne Junction, Grand Union Canal. LINK
2015 Kingswood Junction, Stratford Canal. LINK
2014 Bugbrooke, Grand Union Canal. Sorry no link, we were on too much of a mission to write a blog. But we did get Lillian off the River Nene where her EA licence had run out and up the Northampton Flight, her first narrow locks.
This morning we had an email from a chap, David, who is also trying to escape from Goole. He’d posted on Canal World Forum this morning after playing ping pong with C&RT and ABP with regards to being allowed out through Ocean Lock onto the Ouse.
C&RT sent him to ABP, they back to C&RT, and back and forth a few more times!
During the day we’ve exchanged emails ourselves and this afternoon a facebook group has been set up with the hope of trying to find other boaters also stuck in Goole who are wanting to make a bid for freedom out onto the tidal River Ouse.
It is hoped to be able to have a meeting with both C&RT and ABP to see if it would be possible to pen a lock full of leisure boats out through Ocean Lock.
If you are stuck boaters wanting to escape please join the facebook group. The Goole Escape Here
If you don’t do facebook, then please leave a comment at the bottom of this post or use Contact at the top of the page to send us a message so that we can keep you in the loop along with seeing how many boats would like to escape.
None of us will be holding our breath, but it’s worth a try. Maybe as a group we will have a bigger voice.
It’s not often you feel relieved to see a canal with a lack of water in it, but the fact that the cofferdam has drained itself whilst not refilling itself is great. I think it was about a month ago that it was this empty.
There are a few things to note from todays photos, other than it’s a lovely day to go boating!
The western end of the cofferdam seems to have improved water levels, so no overtopping.
The aggregate ramp into the cofferdam has been added to. The pile driving crane is no longer on the floating pontoon. In the photo above you can see what looks like a light with a red box standing on some new aggregate which I think will be used to illuminate the area and down into the drain.
The bags that were dropped in by helicopter are very visible now.
So is the big hole in the towpath by the blue tarpaulin.
What can also be seen in the above two photos is a yellow pump on the north bank by the drain.
There is now a small tarpaulin dam in the drain and the yellow pump appears to have two hoses one to either side of the dam.
Now that the water in the cofferdam has drained down into the drain below, as much as the breach will allow it, my theory is that the drain under the canal will now be pumped out. This will give them access under the canal.
The cofferdam seems to be holding its own now, hopefully things can progress. Will they need to do a fish rescue?
Then, at last, they will be able to pump out the remaining water to reveal the canal bed and the breach itself.
According to a local boater who has recently spoken to the control at Goole Docks, they are still not permitted to pen leisure craft through the locks onto the Ouse. He was told to contact C&RT for updates.
The tide at Goole this evening was going to be high 6.5m, 3 ships would be leaving the docks and 3 more coming in. Both locks in operation. Here’s hoping the high tide means the level doesn’t drop too much in the marina. I hope we left our ropes slack enough!
Other good news is that the Figure of Three Locks on the Calder and Hebble will be reopening on 12th April. This means that if we ever get to leave Goole this year then we might just be able to cross the Pennines via Standedge Tunnel.
Thank you to Mark again for the use of his photos.