Turning Water into Diesel at Naburn

 

Ocean Lock

Having departed our mooring at Goole Boathouse at 6.36am we penned into Ocean Lock with two other Goole Boathouse boats, Malarkey and T.W Prickett.

 

 

Goole Bridge

We had a nice steady run up the River Ouse to Naburn, with only having a short wait for Goole Bridge to be swung but other than that the other bridges were swung with no delay. 

Moonshine at Naburn.  Photo taken courtesy of Chelle Bodle

We arrived at Naburn Lock at 10.46am, and once penned through we moored on the floating pontoon top side of the weir. The river seems to be up slightly, however there were plenty of moorings available.

 

 

We even spotted my late fathers Seamaster 27. When he owned her she was known as Kriskerry. She has since changed hands several times and was recently owned by some fellow South Yorkshire Boat Club members and returned there under her new name Timeless. She appears to be nameless now, however I did have some really good times on her whilst growing up.

On Saturday morning we departed our mooring at Naburn to fill up with water from the water point. Well you can imagine what's happened...thank goodness I didn't do it or I would never have heard the end of it!

I will calmly state what's done is done, we are not the first and certainly not the last to make this mistake, however I am sure we will be more careful in future. Fortunately the engine was not running, and when we realised the fuel stop cocks were switched off so there was no danger of the fuel pumps being damaged. The diesel heater was still running, but had detected a fuel problem and automatically shut itself down. 

So to remedy the situation required to empty a 600 litre tank with a mixture of diesel and water.  This required the aid of Peters dad who lives in York to take Peter back home to collect 21 empty diesel containers to siphon out all the contents and to filter the water out.  You may be able to see from the above photos how it separates leaving the water clearly at the bottom.  It also appears that the Lock Keeper is more than happy to have diesel polluting his waterways, and does not want it to be disbursed with detergent (unless it is phosphate free detergent), as this is damaging to aquatic life.  Not being a walking Eco warrior or engaging in Greenpeace activities, I bore the brunt of a 'bollocking' for doing what I thought to be the right thing.  Needless to say he was not made privy to our predicament, and was later informed there was muck at the bottom of the tank and this needed cleaning out prior to going back tidal again. He may of suspected, but we think he bought the story as it was a perfectly plausible one.  Never mind, after a lovely shower to eradicate the smell of lingering diesel and being far too tired to check products were phosphate free water off a ducks back springs to mind.

https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/boating/navigating-the-waterways/caring-for-the-environment
Both the heater and the engines are now water free, with a change of primary filters at hand after some further running on the non tidal river.  However to top it all off Peter informed me it's been a good exercise at cleaning the diesel tank ...I am not impressed but its just a good job he didn't put diesel in the water tank, otherwise I would have been going straight back home!

Archbishop's Palace

York Minster

Museum Gardens

Museum Gardens

Moonshine, Museum Gardens

We departed Naburn early on Easter Sunday for the short trip up to York. Thankfully this journey was trouble free after the previous days debacle, and when we arrived there were still plenty of moorings.   However, when we deployed the anchor the anchor winch decided to play up so there won't be that much relaxing done until Tuesday when we plan to leave Naburn on the tidal river bound for Barmby On The Marsh.