Wakefield to Skipton... Day 3 in the town centre - a family visit. and Skipton - Gargrave in the rain!

I'm running behind here again due to a boat move.  Yesterday morning we realised we might still be over-staying the 3 day mooring rule... (in that although we HAD moved, we were still within the town centre visitor mooring section with a 3 day limit) - so, we pulled ropes through rings and set off (in the rain again) towards Gargrave.

The day before however, you'll recall we'd arranged to meet up with my parents for them to see the boat and head out to Bizzie Lizzie's for lunch...  their treat, re. my birthday.

Impending visitors of course, did mean we had to have a bit of a clean and tidy up inside the boat as it's amazing how quickly a small space can become chaos - looking round again this morning it appears to have returned too! ... I for one don't remember having a party last night but sitting here you'd be forgiven for thinking it's the aftermath of one.

Anyway, no sooner than we'd got the boat (inside at least) clean and tidy, did a text arrive from my mum to say they where they were so we set off to meet them.  On route we got a pleasant surprise when we bumped into an old Aunt and Uncle, who on hearing we were here, decided to come for a surprise visit.... (the boat gets more visitors than WE do lol) and before long we were all sat (sitting) in the restaurant having lunch.  IT was nice to catch up with them all and once replete, we headed off down the tow-path to the boat.

I'm not sure whether everyone was just being kind but the general consensus seemed to be the boat is 'quite good' - which I'm taking as complimentary... the subtext may well have been, 'it's quite good considering YOU'VE done it' lol. 😑

6 people on the boat in the saloon area is a bit cramped  cosy but no-one seemed to mind.  WHAT I am narked about is for whatever reason, I totally forgot to take any photos...  which is a shame...  next time I'll remember!

SO, instead of a family shot, here's my birthday card.

They obviously have a similar sense of humour to me now... I finally ground them down.

Given the wind (outside) was still quite strong, we didn't go for  a chug ... a good job really, as I'd had a couple of glasses of wine with my lunch and was ready for my afternoon nap.

...............

Now the thing about 'mothers' is that they hold a whole lot of medical information in their heads.... gained from looking after various kids,neighbours and other family members over the years.

WHY am I telling you this? - well, when we left Leeds the other day, I trapped my finger in the outside hatch (Andy's fault for opening a paddle without telling me whilst I was closing them in preparation for a leaky lock).... (I don't hold it against him - much)....

I took this shot just after I did it - it swelled up quite a bit more than that and on presentation, 'mother' got that surgical glint in here eye and off we trotted into town to buy the required implements...

The wine was my addition... to help with the pain NOT to sterilise....

Anyway,  I've released the pressure now and soaked it in the Epsom salts for a while.  It's a little bit better so I'll repeat the process a few more times... as per my instructions from "Dr Mum".

...............................

So, yesterday...morning - for whatever reason we didn't get up until about 8.30 which is very late for us and once breakfasted we looked at the weather forecast  of more rain but less wind and decided to chug along to the winding hole before Gargrave locks and spend a night out of town,  Partly because  we've been unable to get a tv or (any other than Stray FM) radio signal and only had a couple of dvd's left to watch....

It's a nice enough run in the dry, but within moments of setting off, the wind and rain returned.

we got quite wet again.

Having taken shelter for a short while, we decided to go a little further and see if there was space in Gargrave to moor (and go to the pub for tea)...

There were a couple just passed the top winding hole but as we walked back to the boat, we got chatting with a couple from a cruising club on the water point ...  this was a bad move, as by the time we'd gotten back on board and set off up through the locks, someone else had moored where we had in mind.  On the plus side, the time delay did give a hire boat chance to come up with us which made the locks easier.  IT got a little congested on the second one but all was well.

Our original plan had been to turn, and then reverse a 100 yards or so to moor up...  unfortunately, our hirers had the same plan so given their boat has to be back to base in a couple of days, I chugged on past and moored 300 yards or so further down.  It's not a bad place to be but does mean a lot more reversing tomorrow morning to turn... which we'll do very early doors so as to limit the audience AND reduce the chance of on coming traffic.

Until next time...