Tuesday 17 April 2018

Bingley 3 and 5 Rise - in the Sunshine...

Well, Yesterday morning arrived and after a bit of a miserable night before, the sun was shining as promised and we set off from our woodland mooring.

School boy error the night before in that we moored under trees which deposited all sorts of 'bits' (can't spell debris?)  to the boat roof and solar panels over night... hmmf...

Still, it was a pleasant morning chugging as we headed up through the locks and towards Bingley.



They're assisted passage ONLY now (as is denoted by the sign stuck to the bottom gate...)



As we penned up, the keeper on the bottom 3 confessed he's only just began working these - having moved down fro Gargrave...  I was unsure whether my decision NOT to use a centre line was going to be a good one... turned out we assended in total (and gracefeul) control - WELL done that man.

Onto the 5 rise and we attracted quite a crowd of observers which followed us all the way up... once again though, all went well - if a little wet in parts....


Once at the top, we filled up the water tank before moving on a little and tying up for the night - unfortunately on a bit of a ledge which became quite annoying as the night went on - to the point that I awoke around 1.30 and had to go outside and loosen the ropes as we were leaning quite a lot as the water leaked down the flight...  By morning proper, it was even worse and we ended up having to use the gang plank.  It's a shame really that they can't put in a couple of concrete lintels to allow for more visitor moorings here.

On the plus side, whilst moored her, Lady Teal the 5 * luxury hotel boat came up the locks and I took the chance to go and introduce myself to the proprietor Nick.  He's been very kind in offering help and support should we need it - they also filled up with water and then went sailing on by... I DID take a photo as they sailed off into the sunset but once again my phone was playing up and it didn't register.  

This morning, we said goodbye to Alan and as I walked with him to meet his taxi, I noticed the lock-keepers letting water down the 5 locks to bring more boats up... that in turn made the pound even worse so we decided to move along a bit and have ended up in Keighley for the night - on the visitor moorings.  I did have a miss-hap in the winding hole (caused by the wind) and need to source a new antenna now - meanwhile I've done a bit of emergency repair work... alas NOT good enough to get a tv picture but at least the Radio picks up still..



Until Next time...

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