The Broken Lock re-opens and the Two Boats get together at Last.

 Wednesday 25th May 2022 in Gargrave.

The Big Day!!  It was raining heavily. We sat and waited to see which boat would jostle for first place at the lock. Just after eight in the morning, the wide beam working boat "Kennet" came past and approached the lock, which was manned by a number of waiting C&RT personnel. One of the chaps crewing "Kennet" waved a piece of paper cheerily at M as they went past; we assumed it was a permit of some kind. It turned out that it was a publicity event for the re-opening.

The boat went down through our lock and on to the broken lock, where officials, reporters and photographers were all gathered to record the re-opening of the rebuilt lock after eight months.Unfortunately, the rain rather deterred M from going down to watch - and the fact that she was still in her nightie!!

The three locks had re-opened to normal traffic by 9:30. We decided that we wouldn't move before the afternoon as we anticipated a rush of boats trying to get through at last - and by now the rain was very heavy.

R did walk down to the broken lock to photograph the first two normal narrowboats to go through in the rain.

The new wall looks nice but it was already leaking at the end, as were the top gates! R joked with the C&RT people that there are lots of notices on the canals encouraging boaters to report leaking gates and asked if they would like him to report this one? They took it very well, much to their credit. One thing we have learned is that both the salaried staff and the volunteers don't always approve of the C&RT's approach or the use of funds.

After lunch, when the rain had stopped, we walked down to Richard and Annette, who were moored below the three locks and helped them up through the locks, with M, Annette and the dogs walking alongside. Richard then turned Carleton expertly and moored up behind us.

Our reward was a trip to The Dalesman for tea and cakes, although M ended up having her favourite - egg and chips!

Back at MM it was lovely to see Carleton moored behind us.

Finaly, after five days of travelling by bus to spend the day with Richard and Annette, we had the two boats together at last. Hooray!!

Tomorrow, we will go back down the three locks, five swing bridges and four miles to get back to Skipton in preparation for Richard and Annette to return their boat on Friday morning.