Leisurely start at 8.35am, having watched Humber Princess and then a push tug/ sand barge combination pass our mooring. The Pollington lockie has to drive to the next lock at Whitley and see them through. The self operation of Pollington lock is not available owing to a top gate not sealing properly; it has been broken for months. Fortunately for us, there was a relief lockie able to see us up the lock before he got on with his day’s work. We have found that the BW men on the ground are pleasant and helpful, let down by insufficient resources and poor management. Travelling in bright sunshine, on an empty canal. We stopped at Whitley lock to have a shower, which is shown in Nicholson’s book. Another typing error – no shower; I was filling up the water tank with a dribbling hose and after 30 minutes, the tank was still not full, so we moved on through the lock and away. Approaching the Jolly Miller moorings, a narrowboat pushed the bow off and seemed to hang across our path for ages before putting on a few revs and moving out of the way. The boat behind did exactly the same! Why don’t they just look before pushing off, the second one had to put a lot of revs on as by now we were almost on top of him, they were the first boats we had seen since leaving Pollington. Passing Kellingley colliery it was nice to see one that is still working: nothing moving by canal of course, but by lorry and a good amount by rail. Onwards to Bank Dole lock and the drop to the river Aire. We met Nigel who was just leaving the lock, boating on his own; he set up and waited at Beal lock for us. We returned the compliment at West Haddesley, where we both moored up. He had kindly donated a spare Calder and Hebble handspike and in the evening, we shared some Sloe gin and exchanged information about our trips: Nigel to Ripon and ours to Sowerby Bridge. It was a pleasure chatting to a proper boater.
Weather today – very warm and sunny.
The 2008 journey thus far: 83 Locks & 211 Miles & 17 Swing Bridges
