Saturday 16th April
Yesterday was a shopping and pub day and I won’t bore you with it! We did discover the boat yard in Silsden no longer does diesel but apart from that nothing of note happened.
Today has been a bit of a marathon really, (11 miles and 10 swing bridges), things conspired against us and our plans went slightly awry. The plan was to go to Skipton to get diesel, gas and coal. Get water and do the elsan on the way. Then we were going to spend a couple of days in or near Skipton.
Things started well and we had a good trip to Skipton. There was no one at the waterpoint/sanitary station so we did that with ease. Opposite the sanitary station were 2 visitor moorings so we went across and moored up. In front of B and B were some people they had met on the Shroppie last year and they told us the best places to moor after Skipton. This canal is quite shallow and at times it’s very difficult to get in to the side to moor (as we would find later!)
We walked up to Pennine Cruises boatyard to arrange to get diesel, gas etc and the chap told us to come at 2-30pm when the trip boats had gone out so we could get near the diesel pump easily. We then went into town which, being Saturday, was very busy. It had got out sunny by this time so it was hot too. B and B were going to look round the market, Ken and I had a quick look then scuttled off to the pub!
At 2-30pm we went to get the diesel and – disaster, the pump wouldn’t work! Apparently it’s been temperamental for the last year and the boss is the only one who can fix it. He, of course. wasn’t there and wouldn’t be until tomorrow. We got the gas and as they had only 4 bags of coal we bought them all, giving one to B and B because we had to borrow one of theirs yesterday when we ran out!
We decided to go through the next swing bridge, moor up and then come back tomorrow for the diesel. As we went round the corner we found out the next swing bridge was out of order and the BW man was waiting for someone to help him fix it! Fortunately there was enough room to moor and wait. Soon it was fixed and we joined a couple of other boats who had also been waiting. Through the bridge we found somewhere to moor, not the best mooring but ok. Then a man on a passing boat told us there were nicer moorings through the next swing bridge (about another mile). As we had to go about half a mile further on from there to find a winding hole to turn round and come back tomorrow we decided to try and find these nicer moorings.
The scenery was lovely but we just couldn’t get into the bank! We kept going, passing what we thought was the winding hole but we weren’t sure. We got to the next swing bridge, kept going. Still nowhere to moor. At the next swing bridge, another mile on B and B were at the front of the queue. When you do swing bridges in convoy the front boat crew get off to operate the bridge and the other boats in the convoy go through. When you get to the next one the new front boat crew get off and the other boats go through and so on.
This bridge was really tough so I had to get off and help. Eventually with Barry’s help as well we managed to get it open and the other 2 boats passed. The chap who had told us about the nice moorings offered advice about opening tough swing bridges then said he hadn’t meant us to come this far to moor up. We explained that we couldn’t get in to the bank and he said yes it could be difficult! If he hadn’t mentioned the nicer moorings we would have stayed in Skipton!
We had to keep going until we eventually found a deeper spot just before the lock approach of Holme Bridge Lock just outside Gargrave. We got moored up just in time to watch the football. It’s a lovely spot but we are now about 4 miles from from Skipton. Too far to go back tomorrow for the diesel and certainly too far to walk back in. Never mind these things sometimes happen. We won’t take any notice of anyone when they tell us about nicer moorings again!
The next place we can get diesel is Barnoldswick (hopefully) about 9 miles and 14 locks from here. If we don’t get some soon George may be pressed into service to pull the boat!
