Saturday 11 July 2009

Selby to above Naburn Lock, River Ouse

Well, we have lived to tell the tale, but for the first 20 minutes today, by comparison, our passage along the Manchester Ship Canal was a walk in the park!

At the appointed time, we went down Selby lock, and turned sharp left and out onto the tidal river Ouse, and it was lambs to the slaughter - we managed to turn OK and go with the flow, but the speed of flow was fast even though the tide had only turned in the last hour. Bob had to quickly adjust to the conditions, including steering round vast amounts of large floating chunks of wood, bobbing gas cylinders, and all sorts of debris in large clusters. Skilfully he managed not to demolish Selby railway bridge - but only just - as the current took us where we didn't want to go. Our speed at this time was about 10mph!! We had 2 hours of this, twisting and turning with the river, reading the navigational notes for shallow bends as we went, and would you believe it - this is also a water ski stretch! Saw a broken down cruiser on the way, just anchored and the crew waiting for help since yesterday, but we don't quite know who you could call on in such circs.

The lock keeper at Selby said he could not remember a busier day, and he's been there for 20+years, there were 10 boats altogeter heading upstream. Naburn Lock eventually came into sight, and with several other narrow boats and some cruisers, ( we all seemed to arrive at the same time despite leaving Selby in pairs at 15 min intervals) we turned eventually turned into the haven of the lock.

We moored for lunch above Naburn Lock and decided to stay here overnight as there is an event in York and moorings there are like hens teeth.