Last night we kept all the windows firmly shut, only a couple of house flies to pester us overnight, no more midges and more importantly no more bites. The existing ones are being a right pain, even the one I’d doused with cream immediately has decided to join in with the others!
There she is in the Humber with the red box
Knowing that Exol Pride would be on it’s way at some point we decided to stay put for the day. The thought being we’d rather be moored on rings, bollards or chains when she comes past than on spikes. Here we have chains. We checked on Vessel Finder to see her position, the Humber. They don’t always have their GPS tracker on and it usually gets turned off when they reach Goole. But on the website it suggested that she was due in Goole this morning, would they continue on up to Rotherham today?
A little rest before I go out again
Tilly was given nine whole hours, it being a drier day she made full use of them, only returning to the boat when she really had to.
With very itchy arms and back I needed to find a distraction. I chose the shower, it needed a very good clean. All the edging strips were removed for cleaning. The doors taken down one at a time for a full clean. The rest of the cabinet given a very good going over with cleaner and vinegar. The shower condiment basket was given a good scrub too.
Sparkling, well almost!
Then the walls and ceiling were attacked. This was doing a very good job of distracting from my midge bites, but in the process I somehow managed to cut stumpy (the tip of my little finger that is no more). It’s nothing major and anywhere else it wouldn’t really bother me in the slightest, but right by the scar tissue…!! Ow!
Redoing the sealant will be the next job for the shower, I’ve been putting this off for a very long time as I hate sealant. We also only have a tube of white onboard and the corner of the cubicle would really want clear as the panels are blue. The shower gets used just about every day, so being able to leave it to cure for a day or two when we are away would be good. All of these are just excuses though, I will get round to it, I will.
At around 2pm Mick could hear an engine coming our way. A quick glance out of the stern doors confirmed that the big blue boat was on its way to Rotherham.
Wonder how big her bow wave is on the Humber ?
She slowly crossed the aqueduct, speed not possible in the narrow channel. Then once clear she sped up a touch. Though not going at full pelt she still was pushing a bow wave. We watched as she came closer, three crew on board. Blimey she was carrying a weight.
Why can’t I be on the catwalk!
Tilly came to watch too, being asked not to stand on the cat walk whilst Exol Pride passed. Then the wash started to hit us, our ropes taking the strain, maybe it’s time to get the new ropes out as the stern one has seen better days. We’ll save these mangy ropes for our next visit to York with all its silt.
Bye then
During the day we seemed to have been attracting flies again. Not midges but house flies. Mick spent much of the day trying to suck them up in the handheld hoover, semi successful. Then he made a fly trap from a plastic pot with holes in the lid and a glug of red wine in the bottom. This seemed to attract them to the area, just not into the pot to die a drunken death. So the hoover kept coming out, Mick launching himself at the pesky flies. We still don’t know if the charge at them method works better than the sneaking up behind them method.
A failed trap
0 locks, 0 miles, 1 sparkly clean shower, 2 sealants required, 9 hours, 1 hour homework, 1 hour setting up, 1 big boat, 1 bow wave, 27 house flies, 1 boat moving on in the morning.
Sykehouse Junction to Bramwith Junction, Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation
Well overnight those little blood sucking b**tards made a feast of me, by the end of today I could count ten bites. The only one that wasn’t complaining was the one I saw happen so I applied cream to the area straight away which most probably helped greatly. I don’t think I’ve been eaten so much since I was a child!
A good vantage point
It was raining when we woke so we decided to let Tilly judge when we should move on today. The back doors opened for her to head off and explore. But she really couldn’t be bothered with getting soggy so early in the day, so she went straight back to bed.
River Went Aqueduct
The weather improved and by 11 we were rolling back the covers and getting ready to push off to cruise from one end of the New Junction Canal to the other. Opening in 1905 the canal was jointly funded by the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation and the Aire and Calder Navigation. It links the River Don Navigation, Stainforth and Keadby Canal to the Aire and Calder and was the last waterway to be built in England for commercial purposes. It stretches 5.5 miles and is dead straight, however this doesn’t mean it’s plane sailing as there are 6 bridges and 1 lock to operate. It looks like originally there were another two bridges now long since gone.
Commercial traffic still works these waters with Exol Pride running oil between Hull and Rotherham. Mick had noticed on vessel finder that the big blue boat had set off for Hull today, we assume they’ll return to Goole tomorrow and then head up the canal Wednesday.
Went End Footbridge
Once winded we crossed the Went Aqueduct passing under one of two footbridges on the canal that didn’t require any action from us. With nobody behind us today we’d not be leapfrogging our way along.
Going up
Soon at Sykehouse Road Lift Bridge I hopped off with the key of power. Waiting for a gap in traffic is all fine when you can see both ways, but from the control panel you can only see for about 20 foot either side. When crossing the road I’d noticed a car being overtaken and could still hear the engine running, however it wasn’t getting any closer. I’d expected it to have passed by now, so I had to walk back up onto the bridge and take a peek, there was the car, closer than before, still in the middle of the road with people stood round it chatting. It wouldn’t be coming anytime soon, so time to push the buttons. I held up 3 vehicles here.
One coming through
At Kirk Lane Road Swing Bridge we could see the barriers coming down, closing the bridge to road traffic, someone was coming the other way, we sped up hoping they’d see us. Once swung the bow of their boat came into view, the chap at the helm spotting us and relaid the information to the button presser. 0 vehicles were held up here.
Sykehouse Lock
The amber light was lit at Sykehouse Lock, meaning it was on self service. This lock is often manned and on the several occasions we’ve been through I’ve only had to operate it once.
This lock is operated with the key of power, as most locks round here, but it does have one difference it has three control panels and a swing bridge right over the middle of it.
Central panel
Your key goes in the central panel, which doesn’t have any buttons on it, but once turned your key is retained until all is closed again.
Swing Bridge open to the lock
A click can be heard from the road barriers for the swing bridge. These are manually pushed round until they lock in position closing the track that crosses the lock. You then lift the locking latch and swing the bridge out of the way until it locks into another latch. This completes a circuit which enables the lock now to be operated, the two panels, one either end illuminating.
The chamber was empty so I opened the gates and Mick brought Oleanna in, he hung back and passed a rope around a bollard whilst I closed the gates and then walked up to the other end to the panel there. The lock is 215ft long, Oleanna seemed a very long way away.
Button pressed and held for 2 seconds and the sluices started to open, they do this in stages until fully opened. Once full the Water Level light illuminates and you can open the gates, letting your boat out.
Sluices closed, gates closed. Time to lift the latch on the swing bridge to be able to close it again. This releases the locked barriers. Once the bridge is back in it’s latch and the barriers are opened the central panel gives a little click meaning your key can be retrieved again.
0 vehicles were held up here, 2 cyclists stopped for a banana break before retracing their route southwards.
Once a swing bridge
The next bridge is around 1.75 miles away, but along this stretch there used to be two more bridges, one obviously was a swing bridge, the other has left little if any evidence of it’s existence.
Lift
Kirkhouse Green Lift Bridge, I managed to get 6 vehicles here.
Another coming through
Top Lane Lift Bridge, the barriers came down as we got close, another boat coming through. We were waved on and passed under thanking the lady at the panel and only holding up 1 .
Swinging the last bridge
At Low Lane Swing Bridge you need to use your ears as the road bends round either side out of view. I couldn’t hear anyone approaching so pressed the button to open. Here we held up 2 vans.
Don Doors
Ahead were the Don Doors. These are two guillotine gates that are lowered at either end of the Don Aqueduct when the river below goes into flood. The aqueduct in normal times is full to the brim, any excess water spills over the sides down into the Don.
Aqueduct brimming
The last bridge is a footbridge over the canal just after the Don Doors, no key of power required here.
Footbridge and Mick
By now the sky was getting very dark again and the wind had picked up. After a couple of loads of washing yesterday we were wanting a top up, so we turned left towards Bramwith Lock where there is a water point just above it.
Approaching the junction
The tank filled as the heavens opened. A narrowboat came up the lock with the assistance of a C&RT Lockie. This chap is in charge of volunteers in the area. Last year they had 8, this year there are now 30 volunteer lock keepers and rangers, he’s kept very busy training them all.
Not wanting to descend the lock, we also didn’t want to get pinned against it’s top gates by the wind, so Mick decided to reverse back up to the junction before winding. We then pulled in to the towpath, tied up and let Tilly out. Well she wasn’t too pleased that it was raining and hung back for a while. Then she was off to stare into the friendly cover.
1 lock, 5.46 miles plus a little bit, 2 winds, 1 left, 3 lift bridges, 3 swing bridges, 2 footbridges, 12 held up, 2 worked for us, 0 leapfrogging/hopscotching, 4 hours, 1 steady internet connection, 1 hour homework, 1 hour setting up, 1 blustery wet day, 1 full tank, 1 load washing, 2 much drying inside, 1st performance at VET after lockdown, 10 bites itching, 24 hourly pill, 1 tube of anthisan!
Naburn Water Point Pontoon to Naburn Visitor Moorings
Levels were certainly dropping this morning, but would they get low enough for us to head downstream tomorrow? Our main hope for the day was that the levels would come down enough, early enough for us to play do-ci-do and reverse back to the 48 hour moorings and let Tilly out. We all had our fingers crossed.
Just as we were about to tuck into breakfast we heard an engine and movements from outside. Had someone else arrived? Or was someone leaving?
It was the latter. The Abandoned boat was on the move. Kenny, the Lock Keeper had managed to track down the owner the other day, the chap hadn’t been pleased when he was told his boat had been moved. He apparently changed his mind when he heard that his boat would have sunk if no action had been taken. A couple of days ago smoke was seen coming from the abandoned boats chimney, but nobody saw him until this morning. He asked the hybrid boat to move out as he wanted to be off, so they did as requested. His manoeuvring meant that he ended up across the sterns of everyone else and required a push and then his bow pulling round so that he didn’t remain pinned to us for the rest of the day. He said nothing, headed off upstream, Kenny said he was headed to Linton Lock. Each to their own!
Tom decided to study the charts and lots of words about the Ooose. He obviously needed some assistance so I lent him some, sitting on the book to keep it warm. Very helpful I thought.
Waiting
The lady from NB Gandja came to say hello, we’d been wondering where abouts of the river they’d got to. They had enjoyed their trip up to Ripon and on their way back they had moored at Boroughbridge when the river started to come up. Someone from the homemade vessel, No 9, had knocked on their roof at about midnight and suggested that they should move to the floating pontoon above Milby Lock. The following morning some C&RT staff told them not to move until the level dropped. When it did they had called Kenny at Naburn, but he told them there was no space, so they headed into York Marina as the river was due to rise again. She was hoping for a discount as they weren’t using any of the facilities, just electric and water, at £27.50 a night! Glad we’d headed to the lock! They plan on heading to Selby on Tuesday, so we may see them again down the way.
To while away some of the afternoon we tagged along at the very back of an heritage tour around the lock. These were taking place over the weekend with a volunteer talking about the history of the Ouse and Naburn Lock. We missed about a third of it, but did find out that the lock island had once been home to a corn/flint mill and workers cottages. The mill and lock were serviced by a blacksmith in one of the buildings which still stands.
Up to the yale lock
The chap showed photos of the floods on Boxing Day 2012 when the lock island was under water, right up to the yale lock on the office door, quite impressive. Neither Mick or myself remember that flood, November 2000 was the highest recorded, the gate across the bottom of the lane by my dad’s house had only one bar left above the water on that occasion, I suspect in 2012 there were at least two bars visible.
1.3 the moorings should be visible
Back at the boats the level was getting more and more promising. Tilly did her best to be patient, waiting for her shore leave to return. We waited for a view to come back to each side of Oleanna. Being hemmed in without a view was getting to all of us. At least you got to go outside!!
So nearly there!
The afternoon wore on, Jo had headed out to the park with her kids and a friend, maybe we should have done the boat shuffle before she went out. Mick chatted to Kenny and Richard, both of us heading down the lock in the morning, we’d be joined by a couple of cruisers heading to Goole. We waited and waited. Was that Tiger Storm we could hear? We waited. That had to be them! I baked a loaf of bread for Mick and then got a fish crumble ready for the oven.
At half an hour past my dingding the back of Oleanna dipped. Tom went to chat with Jo She, She needed to settle the kids then could move her outside and give us some back. This all took way too long, a Tiger Tom should understand my needs and hopes, but they just slid away.
About to be set free
As Jo pulled back we could just see the edge of the moorings glinting in the evening sun, any earlier and we’d have been paddling. Everyone was out and ready to move round. Jo winded and headed off up the cut to wind again and return to the visitor moorings so her kids could have easy access to the bank.
Then it was our turn. Mick reversed Oleanna back to the nearest end of the moorings. A blast of reverse then an adjustment with forwards meant he flooded the moorings, luckily my end stayed dry, well drier as there was a layer of sticky silt that the ducks had been paddling about in.
Reversing
Doofer moved outwards, the hybrid boat pulled back and Richard reversed NB Isabella back towards the moorings. Doofer and the hybrid moving back in, both against the pontoon. They will be following us down the lock in a few days time.
As we finished tying up, the beeper went announcing that the crumble was ready. It also meant that it was way past cat curfew. Should we risk letting Tilly out for the first time in days. Our decision was no. Should she get carried away and stay out overnight the tide would not wait for us. She would have to make do with a view tonight.
BUT!!!!!!!!
0 locks, 0.06 miles in reverse, 1 boat gone, £27.50! 5 boats shuffled round, 0 milk at the shop, 7pm land visible, 1 balloon, 1 so so bored cat, 2/3rds of a tour, 1 loaf, 1 crumble, 6 days without a view, 2 sun setting vistas revealed, 1 early night.
