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Pocklington Canal - Jungle Boating


Mac of Cygnet

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Well done! We went up the Derwent and Pocklington several years ago on copperkins but we could go no further than Melbourne basin as although the locks looked ok there was an embargo because of wildlife I think. I remember mooring on the Derwent on the way up and back down with about four feet of boat on a very rickety pontoon and the other end in the  river anchored to a tree. One swing bridge needed three of us jumping up and down on the end to get it to move.

It was an interesting trip which included a trip to Ripon (as you did )

 

Haggis.

Edited by haggis
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My little dyslexic self read that as Plockton Canal, which caused a sharp double take - you can tell it's nearly Friday.... it is nearly Friday, isn't it. 

 

That's a nice photo of Cygnet, and that looks like a lovely quiet place to get away from it all. 

Edited by Tumshie
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1 hour ago, Tumshie said:

My little dyslexic self read that as Plockton Canal, which caused a sharp double take - you can tell it's nearly Friday.... it is nearly Friday, isn't it. 

 

That's a nice photo of Cygnet, and that looks like a lovely quiet place to get away from it all. 

Anyone who has been to Plockton will have lots o photos, but none of their canal!

I thik there is an Open Day fr Plockton in September, I might go, but I don;t think it is ready for Caledonia at 57ft. 

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2 minutes ago, LadyG said:

Anyone who has been to Plockton will have lots o photos, but none of their canal!

I thik there is an Open Day fr Plockton in September, I might go, but I don;t think it is ready for Caledonia at 57ft. 

Lovely palm trees though. :D

 

 

Edited by Tumshie
To add an S cos there is more than one of them
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3 minutes ago, Tumshie said:

Lovely palm tree though. :D

Sorry had a senior moment, edited it , but it refused to save, all sorted.

Plockton btw, is the most beautiful little village in Scotland.

Edited by LadyG
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10 minutes ago, LadyG said:

Sorry had a senior moment, edited it , but it refused to save, all sorted.

Plockton btw, is the most beautiful little village in Scotland.

I can believe it, that area is one of my favourite places there and round to Kyke and round again to Loch Duich and Glenshiel.

 

 

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1 hour ago, LadyG said:

Sorry had a senior moment, edited it , but it refused to save, all sorted.

Plockton btw, is the most beautiful little village in Scotland.

It's certainly up there with the best, but there are so many superb villages on the coast that it is hard to be dogmatic. It certainly has one of my favourite anchorages.

 

Howard

Edited by howardang
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There is a tree across the Derwent just downstream of the Wheldrake ings footpath so there is no access to Elvington / Sutton on Derwent at the moment. I have reported it to Barmby barage yesterday but need to call the EA national number. I saw Cygnet at Selby basin the other morning when cycling home. The weed at that end of the Selby canal looks really thick at the moment.

Edited by Fitter kieron
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6 hours ago, Fitter kieron said:

There is a tree across the Derwent just downstream of the Wheldrake ings footpath so there is no access to Elvington / Sutton on Derwent at the moment. I have reported it to Barmby barage yesterday but need to call the EA national number. I saw Cygnet at Selby basin the other morning when cycling home. The weed at that end of the Selby canal looks really thick at the moment.

 

Yes, but it's a new kind of weed, for round here at least - a water fern called Azolla.  (if you look closely you can see that it is indeed a fern). It seems to have completely inundated the Selby canal, several inches thick in the basin.  I was surprised to see that the weedcutter which was clearing it at Selby has now migrated to the Pocklington.  If it's carried any Azolla with it (and I don't see how it could be avoided), then it could be a disaster for the much vaunted SSSI which is the Pocklington.

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On 22/08/2019 at 21:40, howardang said:

It's certainly up there with the best, but there are so many superb villages on the coast that it is hard to be dogmatic. It certainly has one of my favourite anchorages.

 

Howard

Yes, of course, that was part of the village thing, when last there the Post Office was the smallest in Scotland, a tiny wooden hut.

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The Pocklington is always an adventure. Going up there again for the gathering on September 14th. The canal society should make the Guinness book of records for the number of boats they can squeeze into the small basin.

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On 23/08/2019 at 15:58, Mac of Cygnet said:

 

Yes, but it's a new kind of weed, for round here at least - a water fern called Azolla.  (if you look closely you can see that it is indeed a fern). It seems to have completely inundated the Selby canal, several inches thick in the basin.  I was surprised to see that the weedcutter which was clearing it at Selby has now migrated to the Pocklington.  If it's carried any Azolla with it (and I don't see how it could be avoided), then it could be a disaster for the much vaunted SSSI which is the Pocklington.

 

In fact I contacted CRT about this, and have received the following reply:

 

Hello Mr McManmon

 

I am in receipt of your email sent to our Customer Service team.

 

Having spoken to our Heritage and Environment Specialist, we would like to assure you the upmost care is given when it comes to biosecurity. Before the weed cutting boat was transported to the Pocklington Canal it was taken out of the canal at Selby and thoroughly cleaned down ensuring that there were no plant fragments/alien invasive remaining on the boat, it was then transported via land to the Pocklington. We are confident that the weed cutting boat has taken all measures to prevent the spread of Azolla from the Selby canal.

 

As you may be aware there are a lot of recreational and business boats that use our network and it is difficult to police their biosecurity measures, moving from one canal to another. If the Pocklington becomes infested our ecologists will work closely with Natural England to ensure it does not cause any significantly impact to the SSSI.

 

We are doing our best to resolve the Azolla issue on the Selby canal. Our ecologists are working closely with CABI to secure a batch of weevils for the canal. Unfortunately, due to the hot weather and mild winter Azolla has thrived this year and it is upsetting to see the Selby canal infested. Whilst we are awaiting our weevils our operational team are doing their best to minimise disturbance to boaters.

 

I do hope this addresses your concerns, but please let me know if you require any further information.

 

Kind regards

Pauline

 

 

Pauline Coates

Customer Support Administrator

Canal & River Trust

Yorkshire & North East Waterways

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Hi Mac
Heading up the Pocklington next weekend. How was the link between the river and canal and how bad is the weed up to Melbourne? We had a few problems last year and there was a willow hanging at about 45 degrees over the link which I reported it to the Barrage Lockie 

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1 hour ago, Midnight said:

Hi Mac
Heading up the Pocklington next weekend. How was the link between the river and canal and how bad is the weed up to Melbourne? We had a few problems last year and there was a willow hanging at about 45 degrees over the link which I reported it to the Barrage Lockie 

 

I had no problems - the weedcutter had been busy!  The cut between the Derwent and the canal can apparently be shallow.  The CRT weedcutter had been sent because the PCAS one was broken, but I think it was being fixed while I was there.

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3 hours ago, Mac of Cygnet said:

Whilst we are awaiting our weevils...

Now there’s a phrase I never expected to read on CWDF...

 

How did that jingle go... “Weevils wobble but they don’t fall down”

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3 hours ago, WotEver said:

Now there’s a phrase I never expected to read on CWDF...

 

How did that jingle go... “Weevils wobble but they don’t fall down”

 

I thought it was "Hear no weevil, see no weevil, speak no weevil".  Anyhow, you can learn about the little critturs (they are American) here .

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21 minutes ago, Mac of Cygnet said:

 

I thought it was "Hear no weevil, see no weevil, speak no weevil".  Anyhow, you can learn about the little critturs (they are American) here .

You should always bet on the lesser of two weevils... your link doesn’t work btw

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I have been told that the level of the water on the first section of the canal between the Derwent and Cottingwith lock can be maintained at a better level by the guys working the barrage if they know when you are passing that stretch. Martin there increased the level to free a live aboard boater who got stuck i'm guessing in that area a few years ago. With the possibility of cross contamination of weed from Selby to the Pocklington maybe it would be better to access the Derwent from Goole as an alternative to Selby if equipped with VHF and follow the correct route as marked in the boating association guide.  

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On 06/09/2019 at 19:57, Fitter kieron said:

I have been told that the level of the water on the first section of the canal between the Derwent and Cottingwith lock can be maintained at a better level by the guys working the barrage if they know when you are passing that stretch. Martin there increased the level to free a live aboard boater who got stuck i'm guessing in that area a few years ago. With the possibility of cross contamination of weed from Selby to the Pocklington maybe it would be better to access the Derwent from Goole as an alternative to Selby if equipped with VHF and follow the correct route as marked in the boating association guide.  

How much manual override have the guys at Barmby barrage got over the system? When I came from Selby to the lock at Barmby the barrage opened as I was trying to line up for the lock which made getting into the lock a whole lot more 'exciting'. When I sort of 'politely' asked,"What did you open the bl**dy barrage for", once into the lock the lockie said,"It wasn't me, it's all done remotely by computer now".

 

I'm not sure I'd be over bothered about cross contamination of weed from Selby to the Pocklington, partly 'cos its about 6 miles downstream on the Ouse between them, plenty of time/distance to wash any contaminant weed off and partly 'cos the Pocklington has plenty of it's own weed, a bit more from Selby (even if it travelled that far) probably isn't going to make much difference.

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