We’re finally on our way!

It seemed as though there was a conspiracy to prevent us leaving though… We were moored at The Rendezvous when we made the decision to head towards Leeds today. We needed diesel, so I rang Snaygill Boats on Monday morning, intending to fill up there, turn around and head back to Skipton to top up the water tank and the larder. “Sorry, no diesel” was the reply when I asked. “No more till after Christmas” Oh. OK.

So we turned around just beyond Snaygill Swing Bridge and headed back into town. I tried ringing Pennine Cruisers a couple of times on the way back but got no reply.  Odd.
We got moored up near Belmont Bridge and I had a walk to the wharf where Pennine Cruisers is based, just at the entrance to the Springs Branch. No-one about, but a sign on the door advised would-be customers that it was the staff Christmas do, but normal opening times would resume on Tuesday.

Braving windy and wet conditions we reversed in amongst the boats moored at the wharf yesterday morning, took on a full tank of the red stuff and a replacement gas bottle before coming back through Belmont Bridge. We topped up the water and disposed of rubbish before mooring in same spot as the previous night, now facing towards the east.
A trip to Tesco topped up the groceries for the time being, then I thought I‘d better check for problems on the route. Oh heck, vehicle damage to the parapet of Farnhill Bridge has forced it to be closed until the displaced masonry had been recovered from the canal and the rest made safe. That’s just 2 hours from Skipton.
Anyway, I rang a very pleasant young lady at CRT Leeds who advised me that they should have it reopened in the late afternoon (yesterday) but she would let me know in the morning (today).

So this morning we set off under cloudy skies but with the promise of a bit of brightness later.

Out of Skipton for the last time this year (hopefully).

We were lucky at Snaygill Swing Bridge. A chap pulled up in his car as we arrived and opened it for us. He wasn’t really doing it for us; L&L Short Boat Kennet was on the way back to town having had a paint job.

I still hadn’t heard from Joy by the time we reached Bradley so we pulled in just before the bridge there and I gave her a call. No word yet, in fact she’d been trying to speak to someone from the council who were responsible for making the damage safe, without success. But she promised to keep trying and would let me know as soon as she could.
We had lunch and I’d pretty well reconciled myself to staying at Bradley when she rang. Yes, the bridge is passable. It’ll be officially reopened tomorrow, but the CRT dredging crew are still there and will let us through. Excellent. It was now about a quarter past two, still plenty of time to get to our planned stop at Kildwick.

“What’s the rush?”  I hear you ask. After all, we’d been stuck in the area since July…
Well, we’re booked to drop down Bingley Locks on Friday, early afternoon. And sensibly (at our pace) it’s a two-day trip. Not a half-day and a 1½ day… Especially as tomorrow is showery and today was fine.

Anyway, we set off again, through Bradley Swing Bridge and Hamblethorpe Swing Bridge, squeezed past a fallen tree and arrived at Cononley Bridge to find the unattended work boat moored in the bridge ‘ole.

Hah, it tried but the tree didn’t stop us…


…but the dredger did!
 

Pins in, and convinced we’d have to wait alongside the busy A65 until the morning, we were pleased to see two CRT chaps arrive. They’d been called away on an emergency but would move the work boat now.

So at 3 o’clock we were on the move again, with three more bridges and about a mile until we moored. No more drama, unless you count being scowled at by car drivers we stopped at Warehouse Swing Bridge. There’s a Primary School next to the bridge and we arrived at the same time as the doting parents. The open bridge did cause a bit of a traffic jam but I’m sure they sorted themselves out – eventually.

Moored for the night looking out over the Aire valley

Unless the rivers Aire and Trent go into flood, there shouldn’t be any more hold-ups now till we get past Nottingham and onto the Trent and Mersey. Then we’ll have to negotiate lock and bridge closures again.

Hi Nev. Happy Christmas to you too. You asked about batteries… We’ve 4 x 100ah AGM batteries for the main bank, 1 x 110 ah older lead acid dedicated to the Eberspacher water heater, and an 80ah maintenance-free battery for the starter. A Sterling A-B charge controller looks after the alternator output. The heater-dedicated battery is connected to the main bank through a voltage-sensitive relay which trips in when the main bank reaches 13.3v, out at 12.7.
 
Locks 0, miles 4½