Into the Centre of Leeds.

Sunday 16th August, 2015 in Leeds.
One of those magical early mornings when the mist lingers. As agreed last night, all three boats set off together promptly at 8:00am.

With MM, Tacet and The Great Escape travelling together, we made short work of the four swing bridges, which came one after the other as we left Rodley.
When we arrived at Newlay Locks, the first staircase of three locks, we found two C&RT staff already there for security and to help us through. A single boat had just gone down, so Tacet and The Great Escape went through together first with Sharon and Honor steering and Clinton and Gerry helping the C&RT chaps.

When they had gone through, we went through with MM on our own. As MM is 60ft long and so are the locks, R needed to back MM up aginst the cill (behind) and then push the bow across so that the bottom gate would miss MM's bow as it opened.

A few hundred yards further on, we came to Forge locks, the second staircase of three locks. Here Tacet had teamed up with the other boat that had gone down alone earlier and we teamed up with The Great Escape. There was one C&RT chap to help and keep an eye on security. We didn't see any hooligans (they were probably still in bed after a tough Saturday night) but it was very clear that the C&RT chaps were constantly on full alert. R and Honor steered the boats and M and Gerry helped the C&RT chap with the gates and paddles. The gate paddle mechanisms were unusual, as they slid sideways rather than going up and down.

MM and The Great Escape stayed together as a pair all the way down into Leeds through three single locks and a staircase of two locks. All the paddles had anti-vandal locks that were fixed with a bolt which requires a special key to undo. At the middle of the staircase two, someone had done one bolt up so tight that even with all three of us, we couldn't get it undone - even using a windlass as a lever! Luckily we were able to go through on just one paddle.

Finally we arrived at the "Office Lock", number 2 on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. We had joined the L&L at lock number 87 sixteen days ago! Tomorrow we will do Lock number 1 and leave the L&L to join the Aire & Calder Navigation.

So, we arrived in the centre of Leeds where Clinton from Tacet had gone ahead and found two moorings for us next to them in a little arm off the main canal. It is blocked off now but used to go under the railway lines (on the left in the photo) and down through a lock to the River Aire where there were industries in need of coal. R backed MM into the moorings.

We moored up under the "DoubleTree by Hilton" Hotel. Very Posh!

This whole area has been redeveloped and is known as Granary Wharf; it abounds with hotels, restaurants and bars. There is also a small convenience store where R found some much needed milk. M was amused to see that it was Cravendale ("Cats with thumbs" - if you haven't seen it on YouTube, make a point of watching it).

Clinton and Sharon on Tacet have a gorgeous ginger cat called Eddie, by the way.
We found ourselves moored up next to nb "Yes Dear", last seen in Skipton - Dave and Jan, based on the Caldon Canal. Nice couple. Love the name of  their boat - it speaks volumes!
Our fridge was starting to resemble Mother Hubbard's Cupboard, so we walked into the centre of Leeds for a "Few Bits". There is an underpass with a pedestrian walkway to go under the railway station and the underground walkway crosses a bridge over four massive tunnels, each about 20ft wide, that carry the River Aire under the station. This was just one of them!  It felt very weird!

In the centre of town, we found an M&S and stocked up for the next few days. As we walked out from M&S, there was a familiar store right in front of us - so we rewarded ourselves with a Costa each!

We arrived back at the mooring to find Sharon and Clinton on Tacet bottling their first batch of home made red wine - it certainly had an enticing aroma and we have heard that Sunday is a very good vintage!

It's an odd feeling to be in a big, bustling city after the rural tranquillity of the last few days. It's very noisy! We are under the flightpath of Leeds Bradford Airport and literally beside the main railway station.
Today: 7 miles, 11 locks and 5.3 hours.
Trip: 239 miles, 142 locks and 154.0 hours.