Doncaster....my opinion has changed!

Never really had a high opinion of Doncaster....I dont know why....but this time I discovered that just down the street from the Visitor Moorings is a Tesco, a Frenchgate shopping centre, a high street, a lake, and a lot more. It just shows you...every town has a silver lining if you can find it :)

We've been allowed 72hours mooring here, so we'll be leaving in the morning, and heading on towards Sheffield...via a few stops. Our plan is to find a mooring where I can go fetch the car, and drive our eldest to his exams during the month of May, before leaving the area for more relaxed cruising...all the way retracing our steps....probably heading for Liverpool,Manchester, Birmingham and every canal in between...I could do with some Penine quietness...via Leeds and Skipton....ahhh choices choices :) It's nice mooring in a city, but 3 days is enough for me...I like to be on the move....if I've seen the same duck for 3 days, It's time to find another one :)))

Some pics from today :)

Cruised along the Aire&Calder stretch..near Whitley Village..beautiful stretch of river. The final pic shows some artwork I added to the side of the boat...which is called AreWeThereYet :)

Castleford

We're back in Castleford, and planning on heading along the South Yorkshire Navigation tomorrow :) Here's 2 pics from todays travels down from Leeds.

LEEDS again, but for the last time in a while

Yep, we're back in Leeds... We went all the way back to a previous hunting ground....Stanley Ferry...and ended up having a Sunday roast evening meal in the pub/restaurant. Quite a highlight for the kids, considering we've not eaten out anywhere for a few weeks. I thought I would show the kids something about life, so marched them into the elsan emptying room, and proceeded to explain the facts of life on a boat.....that if they didnt hold it in, then I had to empty the casettes more often.... one of them almost puked, while the other stood by amazed as it all poured down the drain. It was quite an education for them, and I havent had to change the casette as much in the past few days. I told them that whoever made the red (full) light come on in the Thetford toilet, would be the one responsible for emptying it :)

Clarence Dock in Leeds is a haven to rest in. Elec points, a BW office just over the bridge which sells the elec cards, and the option to moor for longer then 48hrs if you pay £6 per day.

Yesterday we had friends visit us on the boat, and for effect we moved the boat up to Granary Wharf, which involved 1 very old lock, with ground paddles which work on a type of butterfly wheel mechanism, unlocked with a special key (which luckily I had stored away for such a moment). The weather was perfect and Leeds was quiet as we chugged down again, past Clarence dock, out onto the river and onward for about an hour or two. We stopped for lunch on the towpath, and just chilled. Relaxing with friends miles from anywhere, is great...occassionally I would hop up and open the automated locks for some oncoming boats as a favour. Couple of hire boats were out and about.

Due to our friends visit, I decided to reconstruct some back stairs to the boat. (I hadnt wanted any before, as it's now a main bedroom and didnt want the traffic). I've used the bed planks which support the bed at night (5 slats), and repositioned them as stairs, giving them a double purpose. Nothing like sitting in Clarence Dock, with the back doors open, watching the world go by :)

The cat has learned that he can go as far as the leash allows. At the moment he's lying on the stern floor, watching for fish. Bliss :)

Boat life can be hard, but it really does have the balance of relaxation at times. Right...time for me to go charge all my boat batteries (individually, as I blew up 2 previous chargers trying to charge the entire bank at the same time). The boat batteries are really low at the moment...so it's time to fix that :)

Stuck in the mud

Well...what a day. We left Castleford , up the river towards LemonRoyd marina...in the direction of Leeds one more time. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I let the kids do some steering, and ended up stuck on a sandbank, in the middle of a wide river....frightening when it's your first time. With lots of wriggling, and stressful moments, we managed to edge the boat back into deeper water, after about an hour. It wasn't fun :) I was seriously worried the river would rise, and the boat would remain stuck on the river bed..which is one way of sinking a boat...After a call to the Brith Waterways local specialist, he said the river wouldnt rise, and that they didnt have anyone to come and rescue us :) I could imagine us staying there the whole night..but after lots of engine manouvres, we managed to free ourselves...what a wonderful feeling...:) We've cruised past the same spot a few times in the past 2 weeks, each time thinking...stay in the middle of the river...but having a 6yr old all excited about the big steering pole, apparently let me have a "lack of concentration..." ...in his words....sheesh...

Castleford for groceries

We've just arrived in Castleford (again) to do some shopping. I bought some boat paint, and hope to get the boat looking a little better in the near future. Going for red, greys, black and white. The webcam has been working well today, so probably set the timing to every 15mins, and leave it out for good...:) I've stuck it up on a pole..:)

Bye Bye Leeds.

We left Leeds at midday, retracing our steps back towards Castleford, because I dont want to stray too far at this stage..need to stay in the area till end of May. It was a gentle cruise down a handful of automated commercial (big) locks today, and eventually drifted into a place we stayed in a week ago on the way to Leeds. This time though, we aren't planning on paying to stay in the marina..we're tying up across the canal on the other side, which is a great place to make lots of noise without disturbing people. I'm hoping to grind off some rust spots and put some paint on the boat...red...bright fire truck red.....I tried some in Leeds...and I think it works rather well :) No one else has got such a red boat, which makes it stick out a bit, which is nice. We're all in bed now...kids in the front..Jac in the middle, and M and I in the back cabin....the coldest part of the boat...but cosy. I sleep like a log in this boat...and waking up is hard...this morning it was really dark, until I pulled out a porthole cover and the sun pierced the darkness. Will upload some pics soon. Nite nite.