We’re just cruising in the rain, just cruising in the rain…

Friday 19^th May 2017

I have said it before and will now say it again, cruising along on a boat as carefree as we all are, it does involve so much planning to be so carefree – there is a focus on what the overall plan is for the year and the bookings that we have in place.

With our plans in mind, we had a need to head further on towards Ripon – the end of this waterway – only problem is that there was a little bit of rain already coming down.

Diane then had a “brilliant” idea – why don’t we go past Linton Lock and head towards Boroughbridge for the day – just a lazy 20 miles (and 2 locks) and the rain, let’s not forget the rain.

Luckily is was not heavy rain and also luckily there was no wind – those could have made it much less than desirable to cruise.

The basis of Diane’s thinking is that 2 days to Ripon is better than 3 days – which would allow us to pick up 2 days for later on in our travels – which you will see why the reasoning is so correct.

 

A bit bleak and overcast but the idea was correct for what we needed to do overall

we were not alone

there is always a church somewhere along the way

Despite the drizzle, the cruising was simply lovely – the easy style of deep water cruising and for such a distance means that you can just sit back and relax – and wipe the rain off the glasses.

 

The weir at Linton Lock - on the left, installation of a hydro-electric screw
to generate power - this should be down at all wiers on all rivers

Linton Lock with an unusual winding mechanism
for lift the gate paddles - Note Diane still in her
wet weather gear...

and the walls of the lock are sloping 

Milby Lock - they are all pretty well tall lock gates

and sloping walls again

The approach to Boroughbridge - that area through the trees at the end
is the moorings 

It was not that long before the rain disappeared and with only the 2 locks we found ourselves at the end after just 5 hours – but it seemed a bit less than that.

 

We did get some good weather and sunshine along the way

All those little holes in the banks of the river are homes to birds - I think
that they are Sand Martins

Just so the in-laws know what we look like

I dropped Diane at the services to empty the cassette; she left me to moor up and was perfect in her timing (as usual) – I had finished it all by the time that she made it back.

Her story was that she was talking to the garage people (the garage is right next to the canal) about the sale of red diesel, which they had, and also a boom with hose for the boats.

And the price was just 65.9 ppl – fill up time when we move off.

But for now it was discovery time again – new place to see new things – oh we really enjoy all of that.

After tying up we headed off into the town centre – I say town centre, but it has a definite village feel – we found a chippy and Diane, being on her tour of English chip shops, had to sample them, but also being just on their afternoon closing time there was a sausage and fish cake in there too – free – otherwise they would be thrown out.

We thanked them and carried on.

We went off doing a bit more exploring and some geocaching which we do from time to time and found our way to the Devils Arrows, which are three huge Bronze Age standing stones and of course there is no reason as to why they are there, but very impressive.

 

The Devils Arrows - number 1 above...

...and two more across the road

We continued back down to the shopping area for a look around and then back to the boat.

After 20 miles of cruising we were a bit tired although there were no problems – it’s all that fresh air.

20 Miles, 2 Locks

YTD:  462 miles (744 km), 224 Locks, 15 Tunnels, 9 Lift Bridges, 18 Swing Bridges

Total: 5094 Miles (8198 km), 3375 Locks, 139 Tunnels, 75 Lift Bridges, 190 Swing Bridges