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Wednesday 2nd July 2014
We cast off from Ferrybridge this morning at about 8.30. Luckily we were straight away following another boat, and they were also heading to Leeds so we had help at every lock.
Later we picked up another boat who joined us for a couple of locks.
Phil, on Mr Sandman, the narrowboat which we had started with wanted to stop at Castleford to buy a gas bottle as he had run out. Unfortunately the boat yard there upheld their reputation of being so laid back they are asleep. One of the brothers had locked the office and gone out for the day, leaving all the keys inside. They weren't prepared to cut the lock off the gas locker for a desperate customer. A new lock would be a couple of quid, a dissatisfied customer can cost more.
Once we got back to our mooring I checked our gas to see if we had enough to let him have one of ours to get him out of the s***.
Unfortunately we had an empty bottle to replace as well (we have auto changeover so don't know exactly when a bottle runs out). With us needing one as well as Phil I rang Damon to ask for the car and then went round to his work to pick it up.
All is not rosy in that garden either. He's just spent about £900 on repairs for the MOT and this morning the steering felt funny so he wanted me to take a look. The wheels didn't look right but I didn't see anything to note. Another friend of his came by and he's pretty good with cars so he had a close look and found that one of the suspension arms was rusted almost right through and had allowed the steering geometry to shift a bit.
I borrowed it anyway and drove it very carefully round to a camping shop to get some gas.
Damon has decided it's too dangerous to drive so has left it at work until he can get it either repaired or scrapped if it's not economical to repair.
One lovely surprise this evening was that Phil came round with a bottle of wine to say thanks for the help.
Leeds is gearing up for the Grand Depart, bikes everywhere, yellow everywhere.

Season of the deer

Tuesday 1st July 2014
The beginning of another month and the weather is once again quite good. We rose fairly early and after breakfast we set off to start the bridge strewn short bit of canal from Bramwith Junction to Southfield Junction where the SSYN joins the A&C.
We had a bit of luck on this passage. We met traffic at Kirkhouse Green lift bridge so that was done for us, and then at Sykehouse lock some CRT maintenance men were carrying out repairs to one of the gates and before they started to dismantle the workings they operated the lock and bridge for us. Lovely service. I think the next boats we met coming down may have been out of luck as the men were starting their work and it would be out of operation for an hour or so.
As the headline says, this must be the season of deer. Last week we saw one in the Fossdyke and today there was another in the A&C.

This little Roe buck was certainly panicking, as there didn't appear to be any way out for it. There was nothing we could do for it though as we couldn't get near it to get it out. There are places where it may be able to scramble out, but it was heading the wrong way.
Two more boats came in the other direction and took up the shepherding. I hope all was well.
We plodded on through Pollington and Whitley locks and have stopped for the night at Ferrybridge/
The saga of our house purchase continues as we must now fill in all the questionnaires again for a different solicitor. Oh joy!