Tides again to Naburn

This was the sort of weed that the Selby canal is thick with, same sort of thing we had in our garden pond until we got the eco system right. 

We set of before 7 in case we (Geoff!) had to revisit the weed hatch en route, but all seemed to be OK.  However with the impending tidal river trip he had another inspection just to be on the safe side.   Some weed but not as much as yesterday.

We went down the lock with NB Kennerley.  First there was  short briefing from the lock keeper.......right hand arch of the first two bridges soon after leaving the lock, centre arch of Cawood swing bridge about an hour up river.  He also warned us of a large tree floating somewhere and a lot of debris all along.......he was not wrong!

The excitement started as we left the lock, we had a sharp left turn into the fast flowing river which caused us to heel at an alarming angle.  As soon as I had straightened up I handed over the tiller to Geoff.   I am supposed to be doing this for a quiet peaceful life but Geoff keeps taking me into these situations.................

The tide was running very fast and with the muddy banks showing, no sign of any habitation, it all had quite a forbidding aura.   A large amount of logs and other debris.

First bridge

Floating Logs

Dead Cow

Cawood Swing bridge is approximately half way, luckily it does not have to be opened for us, but does make us realise that there must be big boats for whom it does have to be opened as there was a bridge keeper present who gave us a cheery wave as we swept past.

Cawood Swing Bridge

In addition to the fast flowing river it was quite windy and depending which bend we had just gone round it was right in our faces, in fact at the start it was definitely a wind against tide situation and the water was quite churned up, Geoff was muttering darkly that we would be seeing white horses next!!!   Ever the pessimist......

However after about 1 1/2 hours the flow lessened and the river seemed much more benign and I took the tiller for the last stretch.   After 2 hours we rounded the corner to see Naburn Lock expecting the gates to be open to welcome us, as we had just had a small plastic boat go past us.  However the gates were firmly shut and the lock keeper signalled that it would be 10 minutes.

We had to gill around here with this view of the weir ahead of us

Eventually these gates opened and out popped another little plastic boat and we had a gentle ride up.  The mooring at the top seems quite pleasant.  There is a sani station, a small shop in the nearby camp site and plenty of grass for Barney.  With all those plus factors we have decided to stay for the weekend instead of carrying on to York tomorrow.   The village of naburn is about a mile away but has a church and no doubt a pub for Sunday!