The last leg…

After rain overnight and more Thursday morning I expected the river to start to rise a bit, but it doesn’t seem to have been affected at all. Not that I‘m complaining…

Boroughbridge weir and fish ladder

We were intending to push across to the services before we left, to save having to bother as soon as we arrived at the marina, but another boat beat us to it and didn’t seem to be in a great deal of a hurry, so we contented ourselves by just taking the rubbish over on foot.

The appropriately-named garage alongside the bridge sells red diesel on the canal side, currently a reasonable price of 64.9 ppl. 

Looking back to the top of the weir


Spells of light rain dogged us all morning, not too much of a nuisance but combined with the breeze made it feel quite cool. Just less than an hour saw us arrive at Westwick Lock.

These three locks, before the navigation moves onto the Ripon Canal, are all very deep, but only ¾ full at normal water levels.

The heavy lower gates have slide-out extensions to give greater leverage.


(click to enlarge)

From Westwick to Oxclose Lock is less than two miles, passing the elegant Newby Hall.

Looking back at Newby Hall

We've attended a few classic car shows here in  the past.

We leave the river at Oxclose Lock, it rises way over near Great Shunner Fell, not far from Sedburgh in Cumbria. But it ceases to be navigable here.

Oxclose Lock, looks like there’s plenty of water in the Ripon Canal.

Coming up the very well-kept lock. 

Ripon Racecourse Marina, our destination and mooring for the next few days, is just below the next lock.

It’s around here somewhere…

…ah, there!


Installed on Pontoon A, centre of picture

George and Margaret were waiting for us as we arrived, and joined us for a fish and chip supper. They stayed overnight on the car park in their motorhome, and came back aboard for breakfast.

Howard arrived mid-morning, he was here to collect Neil and Val and take them back to Ingleton for a few days before they fly back to Canada.

Family Affair…
George, Mags, Val, Neil, Howard and Margaret.

It was very quiet after they’d all left… We would see George and Margaret again on Saturday afternoon.

One of the reasons for coming up here was to attend an old friend’s wedding, at Bishopthorpe on Saturday afternoon. It was a fine day, with a large turnout. A lot of the gentlemen came in highland gear, in consideration of Arthur’s ancestry.

George and two Margarets outside the church

The happy couple, Arthur and Wendy Swaine

We didn’t make it to the reception, Mags was starting to feel a little jaded after a long but enjoyable ceremony, So we rejoined Meg in the car and drove back to Ripon.

Yesterday we had yet another visit, this time from Mags’ grand-daughter and her family, on the way home to Middlesborough. This one was completely unexpected, but all the more pleasant for that.

Mags with Zoe, Terry, and the youngsters Kyle, Natalie and Demi.
They spent the afternoon with us before heading north and home.

We may have a couple of quiet days now…

Locks 2, miles 7½ (Friday)

Surplus to requirements as we cruise upriver to Boroughbridge.

We left York at around 10:00 this morning. Neil was on the tiller from the word go; initially because I had a problem to sort out. Earlier the shower pump had failed, not a good thing when you’ve guests aboard, so I had to fix that.

It was an easy but temporary fix. One of the lobes on the impellor had partially separated from the hub, and it must have jammed the impellor inside the housing. So I simply cut it off completely. It’ll be less efficient but it does work.

That done I went to relieve the helm, only to be told to leave him to it. So I did…
Having Neil on the tiller allowed me to get on with a few odd jobs, and get tonight's dinner started. But consequently I didn’t get as many pictures as I would normally have done.

A Dutch tjalk, still in sailing rig.

The River Nidd comes in near the village of Nun Monkton.

There are several tributaries up here, their own watersheds contributing to the Ouse’s reputation for rapidly flooding.

We had to pause while a work boat moved out of the way

He was collecting and dumping driftwood from the river. Quite a bit of it about, probably the result of high water last week.

Newton-on-Ouse keeps itself well hidden, up on the east bank.
The river turns to the west here, making for Linton Lock.

Silt banks encroach on the lock approach, the channel is marked by buoys.

Linton Lock Weir, with the fish ladder and an Archimedes screw hydro-electric generator to the left.  

The gates were open, a workboat was on the lock landing, so we were able to go straight in. But the gates are extremely heavy,  it took all my effort to get them closed.

Neil in Linton Lock, the gates are very high to accommodate floodwater.
These locks on the Ouse above York restrict boat length to 60’. With quite long fenders we only just fit. Care is needed on the way back down…

The C&RT crew had asked us to reset the lock (empty it) again after we’d gone up. They knew what they were doing. Apart from the very heavy lower gates, the worm-drive sluices were bloody hard work, too!

Neil has a go, my shoulders were giving up
Linton Lock is about halfway between York and Boroughbridge. There are only moorings here at Linton and Boroughbridge in the 26 miles up to the Ripon Canal.

The River Swale contributes it’s share of water from the high moorland near Kirkby Stephen in Cumbria.
The Swale adds quite a bit of water, consequently the Ure (it changed it’s name from the Ouse 5 miles downstream) is a lot smaller further upstream.

Milby Lock, just downstream of Boroughbridge, was our second and final lock today.

It’s a tight fit…

Peat from the fells makes the water coffee coloured.

Only a couple of hundred yards along the lock cut is a length of visitor moorings. There were a few boats here and I thought that we were going to be unlucky, but there was space on the end.

We’d have moored across the cut at the services if we had to… We only just made it. We’d had a couple of light showers through the afternoon, but that black cloud was just waiting to dump on us.

Tomorrow we’ll be in Ripon.


Locks 2, miles 20

A bit of trouble with O’s and a run up the Ouse…

I’m afraid I’ve been a little remiss in not posting sooner, but it has been a little busy…
Over the weekend I had a job to do, replacing the top and bottom hoses from the engine to the skin-cooling tank. It should have been straightforward, although awkward and messy.
The new ones had been ordered over the internet, and arrived at the local Argos store soon after lunchtime on Saturday. I set to, removing the old ones and allowing the old coolant to drain into the wedge-shaped enclosure alongside the swim. It was then that I realised I’d got the wrong size of hose. I’d measured the internal diameter as best as I was able with everything connected up, and got it wrong. I’d ordered 35mm, they should have been 32!
It was getting on a bit now, so I left it till the morning to give the Selby Boat Centre a ring to see if they had some. Thankfully they did, and a couple of hours later they were installed and full of 50% anti-freeze mixture.

The new ones have a pretty green stripe…

The old ones are quite stiff and brittle.

I didn’t waste the time when I realised I’d got the wrong hoses; an engine service was about due so it got an oil and filter change, as did the gearbox.

The full moon and crossing jet contrails left an interesting pattern in the sky on Saturday night

We were early to bed, it was a dawn-chorus start for us on Sunday to catch the flood tide that would push us most of the way to Naburn.

Through the swing bridge above the lock at 06:30. The barge was coming down too.

We had time to fill the water tank and empty a loo and rubbish while we waited for the flood tide, it was running a little late. But by 07:07 we were down at river level and ready to rock and roll.

And we did a little, heeling over as we were caught by the rapidly flowing incoming tide.

We set off first, being pushed along at a brisk 8½ mph as we passed the old wharves, a legacy of Selby’s important ship-building past.


Clear of the town and out on the wide river

It’s still running up at fair rate of knots…

We’d passed two bridges as we left Selby, then there’s a gap with no crossings till about the half-way point at Cawood.

Cawood Swing Bridge

As we got further up river the effect of the tide became less and our speed dropped off. We could have gone faster, I was only doing 1100 RPM but we’d already left our locking partner behind and it seemed likely that the lockie at Naburn would want to shepherd all the upstream boats into the lock in one go.

We weren’t the only early starters…




Travis, the barge that followed Mags through the swing bridge at Selby, had locked down after us but seemed to be in a hurry…


…but then it didn’t avail him much as we were still behind him at Naburn!

As I suspected the lockie decided to wait for the other narrowboat, and another coming upstream from Goole, so it was another 35 minutes before we made our exit and headed for the moorings in the lock cut.

Four in Naburn Lock

We’d tied up before 10:00, time for me to get a Sunday lunch started. We were having guests…

We’re attending good friend's Arthur and Wendy’s wedding next Saturday. They live locally so came down by bike to see us and join us for lunch.
We spent a great afternoon catching up.

We had yet more guests arrive yesterday afternoon, these though staying with us until Friday. Mags’ son Neil and his wife Val are over from Canada for three weeks and are spending some of that time
with us.

We’d intended to head into York later in the afternoon, but the weather was pretty grim so we decided to stay put.

A walk around the locks was fitted into a gap between showers…

Unusual manual paddle gear on the locks.   
Although the gates and sluices have all been mechanised, the manual gear is kept operational, though hard work to use according to the lock keeper!

There’s a flood marker on the wall of the workshop…
You’ll probably need to click to zoom in… It didn’t go high enough to record the 2004 flood level though. The water was 6 inches higher than the top of the board!

The end of the building houses the machine shop, with lathes, drill and a bench press, all originally driven by water wheel. A mill once occupied the lock island, and when it was demolished the wheel and and mill race were “recycled”.

Swing bridges cross the two lock chambers



Adorned with the City of York Coat of Arms, awarded to the City by Elizabeth I in 1587. The colour scheme is wrong, though. The five lions should be gold, representing the city’s support of the monarchy, and they are mounted on the Cross of St George, which should of course be red on white.


Naburn Lock cut

Neil and Val, the duty lock-keeper and a boat just leaving the lock

Today was a different day entirely. Gone were the grey skies and the blustery showers, giving way to sunshine, although there was still a cool breeze.

With 5½ miles to go to the city, and a bit of sightseeing to do this afternoon, we were away at 10:00, heading out of the lock cut and back onto the river.

The old York to Selby railway line is now dismantled, but the bridge carries a footpath and cycleway…

…and a wire-frame sculpture of and angler and his dog.
He’s not got a fish on the hook, though. In keeping with the railway heritage of the city, he’s caught a locomotive!


Fine day for a river cruise



The Bishop’s Palace at Bishopthorpe


The unusual cable-stay design of the Millennium Bridge allows pedestrians (and dogs) a clear view of the river.




The River Foss comes in front the right, navigable for about 1½ miles above Castle Mills Lock a short way above the confluence.
There are moorings below the lock, but passage up through it is restricted.

From here the river passes through the city, with wharfs and warehouses on either hand.

Skeldergate Bridge…

…and the Bonded Warehouse

Skeldergate Bridge carries the (properly painted) City Coat of Arms, and also another emblem linked to the city.



The crossed keys are those of St Peter, representing his role as gatekeeper to the kingdom of heaven. The link to the city is to do with York Minster. It’s correct title is The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York, but it’s a bit of a mouthful, isn’t it…



Queen’s Staithe, with Lendal Bridge beyond.

There’s St George again…


Moored up at the Museum Gardens.

We had some heavy showers this afternoon, but managed to avoid them up in the city.
Mags stayed aboard with Meg while Neil, Val and I went to have a look around. I left them went they went into the Viking Centre, we needed supplies and I had the dinner to prepare.

Since leaving Selby Basin – Locks 2, miles 21½