REWIND 36 hours...
We've been living in crew quarters for a few days now in preparation - trying to get used to sharing (I have 1/4 of the space allocated for some reason) a wardrobe/dyson cupboard/wine store...
The newly made mattress covers and fitted sheets by our dear friend Denise proving to be a success. The cassette toilet in the cupboard, slightly less so since I omitted to clean it out properly last time we had friends on board... *lesson learned*...
Our first guests joined us on Tuesday morning - from the visitor moorings at Stanley Ferry... we'd all being following the weather forecasts AND river levels for the last few days so it didn't REALLY come as a surprise to us that plan a had to be abandoned.
NOT to worry - we opened the champers and set off in the vague hope of being able to get on the river...
Alas that was NOT to be...
Somewhere under 5 foot of water in the next photo, is a lock landing stage...
Hmmf
Hey ho.
SO - we turned the boat (with about 1ft front and back to spare) and set off towards the dizzy heights
of Altofts...
We could see more clearly how high it was when we went over the new aqueduct at Stanley ferry... a bit scary!
Luckily, a bit of bubbly goes a long way and even Andy had a glass to celebrate the culmination of 8 years saving and planning.
After a couple of big electric locks, we tied up briefly a little upstream from Woodnook lock and had a wander to the river to see how bad it looked down there...
Not good was the answer - and certainly no chance of a quick dash down to Castleford - oh well, at least we got to use the gang-plank for the first time *read Wickes Scaffold board*...
Having turned, we went back up to Kings Lock for the night and moored on a (currently vacant) long term mooring for the night.
At first light - this morning promised a better day... a promise that didn't last long.
We set off back (having topped up the water tank) and the rain began once more in earnest... The plan HAD been (having looked the EA website first thing) to try and get on the river after Stanley Ferry and make a quick dash up to Fall ing lock .
Through Kings lock and then Birkwood , the precipitation varying form light spots to torrential.
It's raining again now and although the river HAS fallen a little, it's still in the red - we'll give it another hour and then look again - if the smallest bit of yellow is showing, we'll crank her up and race upstream for the night... if not - we may introduce our new friends to "wine Wednesday"...
Until next time...
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