There are a number of simple checks on the boat that need to be done occasionally. It had been a while since I’d lifted the cover off the engine bay to check for bilge water. Getting water inside your boat is generally considered A Bad Thing, but a hole for the propellor shaft is difficult to avoid, and it’s then hard to make a perfect seal. At the end of every day’s cruising we tighten the “grease gland” which injects grease in to the space.
Over time the drips accumulate in to a large puddle – if it ever gets too deep, a float switch turns the bilge pump on. I usually try to catch it before then by manually running the pump. Yesterday I was frustrated to see that even after running the pump there was still quite a lot of water. Clare and I investigated some built in square pipes in the engine bay and concluded they weren’t blocked. I moved the pump a bit and got a slight improvement. I think the real problem is that the pump is not in a dip and the water depth it cannot reach then spreads over a large area. I’ve got some ideas about making some internal dams, but that can wait for another day.
After lunch we set off towards the lock. I’d seen the red and green lights earlier in the day, but now the amber light was showing, so I got off for the self-service operation. This lock was different to any we’d seen so far. It had the usual buttons on pedestals at each end, but nowhere for a key. I eventually read enough of the instructions to realise that my key went in the controls for the bridge in the middle of the lock. With the key turned, I could close both road barriers which then released the swing bridge. Once I had swung the bridge the lock controls would work.
Getting Clare and Bartimaeus through the lock was fairly standard, but to get my key back I had to close the bridge again. I tried to release the bridge but it seemed to be locked. I checked both pedestals had the right lights on (it’s a big lock, so that is a couple of boat lengths walk each way), then tried opening and closing a sluice in case that woke it up. By now two other boats had arrived. I decided to operate the lock for them and hope that things would work after that, or that somebody would know the secret.
The friendly owner of the narrowboat was sympathetic and tried to help, but got no further than I had. He was just suggesting I phoned the number when Clare lifted the release lever. “How did you do that?” I demanded. It turned out that Clare had given the bridge a nudge thereby releasing the mechanism. I was very annoyed with myself for not thinking of that. My excuse is that there were too many other interlocks to check, so just wiggling it hadn’t occurred to me.
The cruiser that we had helped through was long gone, but we leap-frogged through the next two bridges with the narrowboat. Before we parted company he gave us some useful advice on mooring in Goole which we wouldn’t have got if the lock had run smoothly. It’s an ill wind that blows no good.
Just before we reached the junction we went over the Went Aqueduct.
Just beyond the aqueduct we reached the junction with the Aire and Calder Navigation and turned right towards Goole. This canal runs parallel to the tidal stretch of the River Don which is also known here as the Dutch River. The navigation is even wider than the canal we have just left, but it has a few corners and some gentle curves.
We reached Goole in the early evening. The visitor moorings were full though, so we took the advice we’d been given earlier and moored up at the auctioneers nearby. A friendly man charged us a small fee, for which we also got electric hook-up. I took the chance to give the batteries an equalisation charge.
Today we explored Goole itself. There was a lot of dockyard but not very much town. The Waterways Museum had sounded interesting, but it closed in 2019. The town museum was small with an unsurprising emphasis on the town’s nautical connections. By mid-afternoon we cast off again, back towards the junction.
I knew we were very close when I saw the Southfield Reservoir. This body of water is nearly half a mile on each side. Unusually for a reservoir it is at the same height as the canal it feeds. There are a number of openings where a boat might mistakenly be driven in, but they are clearly marked. One row of rocks was overseen by a haughty looking heron.
We stopped at the visitor moorings at the junction. I turned the diesel engine off as we approached as usual, it’s much easier to do slow manoeuvres on electric. A narrowboater moored nearby observed us drifting silently and hurried over to help thinking we had engine trouble. The wind was blowing us the right way, so we’d have reached the bank without an engine, but I love the fact that he immediately wanted to help.
We were very near the Went Aqueduct again, so I went to have a better look. I was surprised by the size of the structure as viewed from the side. I’m used to seeing aqueducts that have a suitable depth, and often width for a narrowboat. This one is much deeper and wider.
