We were thrilled and hugely honoured this year to be invited to spend a week on a friend’s narrowboat on the Leeds-Liverpool canal. The luxuriously appointed Blue Otter is usually hired out for https://blueotterboats.com/ holidays by Ben Hopkins and Liz Smailes but as they were going to be spending a week in New York on their own holiday, hence not available for handover or support, they offered their beautiful boat to us for the week! We’d been out with them for day cruises a few times and thirty plus years ago I’d had several canal trip holidays with like-minded folkies, so we were confidently excited. Our not altogether plain sailing adventures went something like this:
Ship’s Blog – Captain Jane’sWay – Barge Date 25-08-24 – Groundhog Day
A challenging first day which started with a parking fine in the Cavendish Street car park in Skipton while we were unloading our bags. That put a dampener on our initial jubilation that we were off to an early start thanks to the previous guests collecting their car and disembarking ahead of schedule!
We planned to go out towards Liverpool but the boat was facing the opposite direction, so first we needed to cruise to the Rendezvous Hotel as the first spot to turn round. While Mark was on terra firma at the swing bridge I shunted back and forth at the unofficial winding hole there, which is a little tricky thanks to the farmer’s recent addition of enormous boulders.
Heading back into Skipton we moored at the Mill House care home for coffee with the ageing parents in The Anchor Hitch, then progressed back to Skipton to fill up with water opposite where we’d picked up the boat 3 hours earlier.
We filled up with diesel and got a pump-out at the very helpful Pennine Boats who broke the news that there had been a breach at Bank Newton flight of locks. The canal was hence closed till further notice in that direction, thereby putting the kibosh on our route plan for the week!
And then the rain started.
Feeling somewhat deflated, we moored up just yards from where we’d first picked up the boat, had lunch on board and looked at the rain. Armed with umbrella we headed to Tesco’s to stock up on alcohol and other essentials for the week.
At 4pm we set off. Again. Ferris Bueller style out past Mill House and The Rendezvous. This time we kept going.
The brisk wind made our arrival at Bradley swing bridge very tricky. Mark made the first attempt to pull alongside the towpath. I made the second and grounded us near the opposite bank! He had another try, unnervingly close to a moored boat. I took the tiller again. Tempers were fraying. I tried again and still failed to pull in for him to disembark on the towpath side. The wind appeared to have rendered all the normal rules of boat steering null and void. As I drifted helplessly towards the opposite bank yet again, in desperation I ordered him off the boat on to that ‘wrong side’ of the canal to just get to the *** bridge and open it! This unorthodox method worked. Later in the week, I was gratified on our return journey to see another boat experiencing the same issue at the same spot and similarly resolving it!
By this point Mark was deeply regretting forgetting his morning dose of Naproxen for his bad back and my old frozen shoulder injury was niggling and threatening a comeback from wrestling the tiller against the wind and associated current!
At 7.30pm, after Farnhill and a difficult swing bridge we threw in the towel for the day. I questioned the wisdom of continuing for the rest of the week, but neither of us like to be beaten, so after a comfort food dinner on board of GF pie, mash, peas and gravy we turned in for an early night, hopeful of a smoother second day. Top marks for the Blue Otter’s comfy bed for a good night’s sleep.
Ship’s Blog – Captain Jane’sWay – Barge Date 26-08-24 Bank Holiday Monday – Getting into the swing (bridges)
We moored up near the Marquis of Granby in Riddlesden for lunch prior to their arrival and knocked in mooring some pins to tie the boat to, using the front and back ropes. After our on-board lunch we were having a senior snooze in the comfy chairs when someone knocked on the roof of the boat. The wind had been at work again. Evidently two ropes were not enough; one of the pins had pulled out and the rope unravelled. So while we were drifting off to sleep, the front of the boat was drifting into the middle of the canal! We were highly embarrassed but the neighbouring boat owner who alerted us was very kind about it, knocking the pin back in more competently and re-tying the rope for us. Moving on…
Dan and Emma’s cruise with us was mercifully smooth and they seemed impressed by our handling of the boat and bridges which restored our bruised egos a bit. Mila, their labrador, was not too sure about it all. Emma was amazed to see a turtle in the water and while Dan and Mark thought she must be going mad, I remembered I had read about there being cases of other sightings due to unwanted pet terrapins having been let out into the canal!
After the offspring left us to walk back to their car, we pressed on towards Bingley. We called the Canals & Rivers Trust and learned that we wouldn’t be able to progress down the Five Rise flight of locks until the next day, so we took our time to cruise there and moored up for the night ready to go down early the following morning when the volunteer lock-keepers arrived at 8am.
Ship’s Blog – Captain Jane’sWay – Barge Date 27-08-24 – Toothache Tuesday
We managed the early start pretty well, considering we are not what you might call early risers. And we were first into the top lock. Going down in pairs of boats is the preferred procedure, so we were soon joined by another boat.
Under the impression that his presence was not required, Mark vacated the boat leaving me to manage the tiller as usual, assuming the team of lock-keepers on hand would assist. He enjoyed watching a kingfisher further down the lock flight while I made friends with my fellow boatman, a guy from Australia who had bought his boat and was living on it for two years touring the UK canals as there are no canals in Australia.
Moving from one lock to another up and down a flight of locks with another boat is usually easy, simply moving forward together, but his boat was so long that there wasn’t room for the gate on his side to swing in to open, so each time I had to move forward for him to move out diagonally behind me. The volume of swirling water meant that my best attempts to keep to one side or the other in the next lock until he arrived alongside was easier said than done. Especially with no one on the front of my boat to push out the prow occasionally. It was all somewhat stressful, for me at least, but we just about had a system going by the fifth lock!
After the 5-rise came a 3-rise almost immediately but thankfully Mark re-boarded to take a brief turn on the tiller and I unclenched my teeth!
Then as we walked up Victoria Road in search of an alternative, I started with horrendous toothache.
We found The Pepper Mill for lunch and I downed some strong ibuprofen to enable me to eat something. Then the rain started in earnest. Convinced I must be starting with an abscess, I went to a pharmacy in desperation as the toothache continued to rage. Armed with Codeine and Corsodyl we went back to the boat to decide what to do. We called a Shipley dentist and found they were open until 7.30pm but I would have to pay for private consultation/treatment. I decided to see how it went for the next couple of hours and in order to at least get the boat closer walking distance to the dentist, set forth again, fuelled by painkillers, on the tiller, in the rain.
The toothache was at least no worse, so I decided to continue to ‘see how it goes’ until the next day and we set about drying our clothes. Thankfully the Blue Otter is equipped with very efficient central heating, so the radiators were soon draped with coats, trousers and shoes. So much for an August holiday!
Finally, around 8pm the rain stopped and the sky turned a beautiful pink evening glow to cheer us.
Ship’s Blog – Captain Jane’sWay – Barge Date 28-08-24 – Pyerates Boarded
Our chums from home, Maddie & David Pye came to join us for the day and were put to work. Their idyllic vision of a cruise and a nice canal side pub lunch didn’t quite transpire though as our holiday luck continued in the same challenging vein!
Thankfully, at least the toothache was in hand with the painkillers and no sign of abscess swelling. And although the heavens opened shortly before David & Maddie’s arrival, it had pretty much stopped by the time they embarked.
On the basis that we planned to turn round at lunchtime anyway, as we were already halfway through the week, we decided to attempt to turn round.
Having read in the boat instruction manual that if not using a proper winding hole (very wide place) then on no account should you turn round with the engine on as you can damage the propellor, we knew we would have to attempt this by manually pulling the boat round with the ropes. This was where the Pyes first baptism of fire came. We couldn’t have even attempted it without them. It was very hard but we were making some headway and might just have managed it when, lo, a team from the Canals & Rivers Trust arrived to inspect the tree and assess what to do with it! They went off to fetch the necessary equipment, so we moored up, put the kettle on, made a cafetiere of coffee and got the biscuits out.
We were happy to let the boats behind us go ahead while we packed up the table and chairs we’d had out on the towpath, then cruised on to catch up with them at the next set of locks; the first for David and Maddie who were newbies to all this navigational lark. Mark and David disembarked and walked up ahead to help set the locks.
There was all sorts of drama going on. The aforementioned lunatic woman was being very abusive to the other boat owners and to Mark and David. Evidently someone had pointed out that she had effectively ‘pushed in’ back at tree-gate and she had reacted very badly to this. The C word was being used very liberally. As a result, no one wanted to share the lock with her.
Unsuspectingly, arriving last with the Blue Otter and seeing someone wave me forward, I pulled into the lock, realising only at the last minute whose boat I was pulling alongside! It was too late to retreat, so Maddie and I had to stay alongside the mad woman and try not to rile her any further. She told me off for not thanking her for ‘sharing her lock’ with us. Discretion being the better part of valour at this point, I refrained from pointing out that three other boats had declined to because she was evidently crazy. Or drunk. Or both!
Gratefully escaping unscathed at the bottom of the flight, we moored up to recover and since no public houses or other dining options appeared to be anywhere nearby, we foraged in the fridge and managed to produce a buffet lunch of sorts on the towpath while the weather held.
A light drizzle ensued as we pressed on and came to another flight of locks before reaching our destination winding hole, turned round and began the homeward journey. For David & Maddie to get back to their car, we needed ideally to get back to the same place we’d started from that morning, but of course the whole day had run late because of the long tree delay.
Arriving at a set of locks on our way back we had another spot of bother. We’d heard that this particular set was tricky because they leaked, but on first arrival at the flight everything had looked to be in order.
There were no other boats around to go up with us. We’d been warned it’s harder going up than down with one boat as the water pouring in can bounce you around a bit and it was certainly challenging.
Then when the gates opened and I moved to go forward into the next lock, the boat moved a few feet and then…nothing. Careful not to rev the engine it occurred to me that it felt like being grounded. The level of the entire canal for the past few days had been such that that getting grounded was quite familiar by now. But this time we were in a lock, so that couldn’t be, surely, could it?? I grabbed the pole off the roof, dunked it in the water and found to my absolute horror that we were literally sitting in less than 2ft of water, effectively sitting on the bottom, stuck halfway between two locks!
Mark and David set to sorting the problem out ahead, while Maddie and I sat glumly at the bottom of our lock(s) as day dwindled, with her poor labrador Chilli needing a wee, not to mention her tea and no way of getting her off the boat!
Because we were stuck between the two locks we couldn’t just close the gates and refill one lock but had to effectively refill both simultaneously from the third lock above.
While Maddie worried about me hyperventilating, the menfolk got it sorted eventually, refilling the lock above and then refilling again while I panicked that we were going to run the canal dry. Thankfully we didn’t, but it was a long slow job and by the time we managed to escape the locks and cruise again, we were all exhausted!
We dropped David and Maddie near their car and after helping us with the difficult swing bridge, they sped off – too late even to get Bizzie Lizzie’s fish n chips from Skipton on their way home!
Mark and I cruised a little further in the gathering dusk, moored up and stumbled along the towpath in the dark to Shipley in search of somewhere serving GF food at 9pm on a Wednesday.
We were fortunate to discover a Greek restaurant, Acropolis, where we enjoyed a lovely meal, despite my still niggling toothache. Then on the way back to the boat we enjoyed catching the tail end of an open mic night at a local bar where we listened to a very talented 17-year old blues guitarist.
Ship’s Blog – Captain Jane’sWay – Barge Date 29-08-24 – Thankfully easy Thursday
After allowing ourselves a bit of a lie-in we started cruising and Mark was chuffed to find a bacon butty van by a swing bridge, so he was positively jolly. Then our mid-morning stop was back at Saltaire, where we enjoyed a short visit to the now open Salt’s Mill for a mooch around the bookshop rounded off with coffee and cake in the Diner.
It was a blissfully uneventful day and it seemed we’d finally found our rhythm. We moored up in East Riddlesden for the night, this time near the Airedale Heifer where we enjoyed a drink and walked back to the Blue Otter in some evening sunshine.
Ship’s Blog – Captain Jane’sWay – Barge Date 30-08-24 – Friday Feeling
Finally, for our last full day on the boat we were blessed with some proper summer weather. Shorts, sunglasses and suncream – the works! We enjoyed a relaxing cruise, tag teaming the bridges with other boats, and were spared the challenging Brunthwaite swing bridge as some enthusiastic local teenagers dashed ahead in their Tupperware to do it for us.
We cruised into Silsden, waving at the parent’s old house, its new tenant and the respective neighbours who all turned out for a chat. We went on to moor up near Clog Bridge for an early takeaway from Curry Corner – always a treat. Then, as it was still lovely, we took an evening cruise into the sunset and eventually squeezed into a mooring for the night conveniently near The White Lion at Kildwick. It was a tight fit with only a few feet to spare at either end yet miraculously I managed it on the first attempt. Even Mark was impressed. It transpires my parallel parking is better afloat than in a car.
Ship’s Blog – Captain Jane’sWay Barge Date 31-08-24 – Swabbing the Decks
Our final morning cruising was again blessed with beautiful weather, which was a treat for peaceful passage through Farnhill and beautiful pastureland where we were treated to seeing a fawn and its mother grazing before we headed on into the dappled woods and beyond to Bradley.
On the outskirts of Skipton I dropped off the first mate to collect our car which left me alone on the tiller and in sole charge of the boat, which seemed a little daunting. Fortunately I was more than capable by this point and arrived at our mooring with the Blue Otter mercifully unscathed after our week of adventures.
I set about cleaning the boat within an inch of its life before fondly saying farewell and heading home for a rest.
Would we do it again? Hell, yes! Hopefully next time (if we’re lucky enough to be invited to boat-sit again) we can fulfil Plan A and head out towards Liverpool for some new adventures with our honed skills – and maybe the weather will play fair for peaceful cruising a little sooner!