Lyra's Travels

Tuesday 14th May 2013

A much better day today. Once again having seen the forecast we decided to set off early. After a good breakfast we cast off and entered Pollington Lock. The sun was shining, but the wind still blew a bit.

Continuing along the Aire & Calder the wind slowly increased until we were crabbing along noticeably to stay off the edge.

Just after Whitley Lock we met a C&RT workboat coming the other way, for a small craft he certainly made one heck of a wash. Lyra bounced around like a demented dog for the next 5 minutes.

At Ferrybridge we found the flood lock shut, very strange as the gates at both ends opened without any change of level. 

We are now on pure river section of the navigation, but the flow is minimal and doesn't seem to affect our speed at all. Bulholme Lock was manned and responded to our radio call by opening for us. On to the Castleford cut, another fully canal section. Here we intend to spend tomorrow where we hope to meet Chris who will modify the cratch cover he made for us.

A disappointment was that the water pump we ordered from Supreme Marine still wasn't available. I had phoned last week and was told it had arrived, but now they say that on checking it that it wasn't the right spec so it went back. Once again it has been promised for tomorrow. I'm not holding my breath.

Just thought I'd share this photo with people. Is this taking the p*** or what? The boat is unmanned, and has been there for several days at least according to other boaters. Not only on the water point, but tied to it!