Lyra's Travels

Dobson's Locks

Monday 5 September
The weather was reported as being a mixed bag with showers, some heavy. Despite that we set off, accompanied by another boat we descended Dobsons Locks and through the following swing bridge. Cath stopped to pick me up after the bridge, complaining about a rattling noise from the engine. Sure enough, there was a very scary noise from the engine compartment so we tied up and I dived into the oily bits for a look-see. Huge sigh of relief when I found the cause was only a pan, which I had under the engine to catch any stray oil drips when doing oil changes. Because the locks here leak so much the water pours onto the back deck and hence into the engine compartment. This caused the pan to start to float and it then moved to point where it touched the front pulley, causing a worrying noise. Just after this we stopped to see if fuel was available at the marina we were passing. After mooring up I went to the office to find that they were shut on Mondays. Ah well.
We carried on and it soon started to rain. And rain, and rain. After about an hour of this we decided to stop and hunker down. We had gotten as far as Rodley, which the BW man said was the best place to stop anyway before the final run into Leeds. They don't recommend stopping from here into Leeds because of vandals and ruffians. What a world, there's never a copper when you need one.