The day that the rains came down...........Goole

Early rising today as the engineer was  coming to do a small service on Petroc's engine.  We wanted to be sure that the diesel bug was improving  as we had more tidal rivers coming along and had no wish to resort to the anchor!!  He had promised to be there between 7.30 and 8 and he was as good as his word.  By 0845 all was done and he said we still had some small traces of the diesel bug but nothing like previously.  After watering we continued on our trip north.  It was just a mile to the junction where we took the left fork onto the New Junction Canal.  The new Junction Canal is a link between the Aire and calder and the South Yorkshire Navigations and was one of the last canals to be constructed in this country.  It is 5.5 miles long and dead straight.  However there are numerous swing and lift bridges and one lock to negotiate so it took us about 2 1/2 hours.  There are aqueducts at each end and the picture below shows the approach to the southerly one crossing over the River Don.

Aqueduct over the River Don

At the far end is the junction with the Aire & Calder and we have been warned about numerous large oil and grain carriers who ply this section.   However we did not meet any today.  We turned easterly here as we needed fuel and Goole seemed to be the best place, there has been a marked lack of suppliers on the South Yorkshire Navigations.  I had called ahead to Viking Marine in Goole and was told we could declare our own split.  Some boatyards seem to have no problem with this, you just sign a declaration.  I have a spread sheet to back up my declared split in the unlikely event someone comes checking!!  When we reached the yard we could not see anywhere to moor for fuel.   A telephone called assured me that there was a space at he pump......there certainly was as we became closer, in between several large vessels and it must have been the smallest space we have ever crept unto.

We then tried to get onto the visitor moorings opposite but the space was even smaller and we just didn't fit, so back we went for a couple of miles to another set of moorings. 

We had had several heavy showers during the trip up but when we moored it was just starting again and it continued to chuck it down for the rest of the afternoon...we hope for better things tomorrow.