What was That Bump Under the Water?

Moored at Barrowford on Friday morning and the thunderstorms didn't eventuate so we set off just after 10am to make the entry to Foulridge Tunnel (1640 yards) on the half hour. Only a 15 minute trip to the entrance and a short wait for the lights to turn green and we were off again.

We passed through this tunnel with no problems at all. I say that since last time I attempted this tunnel (my first one ever) I was wearing sunglasses; I don't recommend sunglasses as tunnel wear! Friday turned out to be a long day, 15 locks and plenty of swing bridges. Coming out of Lock 42 of the Greenberfield Locks Rachael snapped this boat?? being built on the canal.

It was pleasant cruising, the scenery was great. Passing through the small village of East Marton we saw this unusual bridge.

The Bank Newton Flight needs a little maintenance, it took a while to empty a couple of them. Just a few leaks in this one! 

Coming into Gargrave we met a CRT Volunteer helping people through Lock 33, he pointed out the nest on the back of the lock gate. Rachael managed to get close enough to take a photo of three chicks waiting for their dinner. A busy place to have a nest!

We gave a passing thought to stopping for the night at Gargrave. It was more the thought of doing three more locks to get to Skipton that was foremost in our mind; it was starting to get late in the day when we are usually well and truly moored, we did continue on. I think that if we were on a different, busier canal we would have stopped but we were confident of getting a mooring, there has always been plenty of mooring space on this trip north. We manged to moor in Skipton around 8pm but that was not before nearly being tipped off the boat as I moved away from the top landing of Lock 30. I'm not sure what's down there but it certainly lifted Serafina out of the water, me sideways holding on to the tiller for grim death and heading straight for the open lock gate which I hit slowing down. On hitting the gate I nearly knocked a lady, that was helping us, into the lock.

In Skipton, first things first, we had the boat electrician call. After an hour checking he decided that the boat batteries were wired incorrectly and the leisure batteries were only charging to the level of the starter battery, which is 90 Ah. I am now doing a series of tests to confirm his theory and the we have made another appointment to do the re-wiring.

After the electrics were done we were off into Skipton town centre to have a look around. A selection of photos from our two days in Skipton.

Skipton is a market town

Skipton Castle

 

Freddie Trueman, one of the locals.

A quiet drink in the beer garden of The Cock and Bottle

We enjoyed our late evening cruising coming into Skipton so much that we decided to take off after dinner on Monday and do a couple of hours cruising before turning in. The boat behind us didn't help either, the engine ran at fast idle for nearly ten hours per day, the diesel fumes were getting to us. We ended up, after several swing bridges, at a small village called Low Bradley.

Today was a hot one...finally! spent doing lots and lots swing bridges. Rachael was doing as much walking as possible between bridges.

Saw this boat along the way, makes a change from the usual bright orange life boats you see.

Nothing too exciting today so we overshot our original target of Keighley/Riddlesden and finished the day at another small village called Crossflatts. Moored just after two hire boats who are moored on the swing bridge landing of Bridge 198A, hope no one wants to use it!