A busy day but we got a lot done. Chilly first thing with blue sky and a prospect of warm day ahead. Lock 1 was as I remembered but much easier with Pat as crew instead of Alfie, however it was her first experience of a "heritage" Leeds and Liverpool lock with its capstains and sliding rack and gate paddles It took ages, but it got better after that. Oddy's staircase took a while then one more lock until Kirkstall. The Forge and Newlay triple staircase locks were manned as promised. 
They are short and I suppose our generous fenders make us more than 60 ft long, so "wiggling" was necessary to get behind the gates. All these locks had various degrees of waterworks coming from the above bottom gates. We escaped harm, but am resolved to put the cratch cloths back up for tomorrow. It would be easy for the well deck to be swamped because as the boat is maximum size for this canal there is no hiding place. After Newlay you get the clutch of swing bridges. Now we had a deal. Pat does the locks and I do the swing bridges, so with crew, no problem I thought. Wrong. Got to Moss Bridge, nipped nimbly over, undid the handcuff key and tried to move it. NO way. It was solid. Got some help, in the end four blokes. Nothing. A call to Yorkshire Water whose bridge it is promised help (when?) but in the meantime, as it is now a hot day with the bridge in full sun, why not try some water to cool it down. This we did using my bucket. Eventually this must have worked because there seemed to be some visible contraction, and using a mooring pin to lever up the gate off its bearing it did open. It would appear that mud and debris is washed down into the gap between the bridge and the road, then the expansion in the heat does the rest. Rodley swing bridge was another hard one but that was because the bridge is unbalanced and bearing down on the metal seat on the handling end. If weight is put on the other end it frees the bridge up and it moves easily. We had originally planned to stop at Rodley, but in spite of our adventures we were ahead of plan so carried on past Millman swing bridge to the bottom of Field Locks. I was worried about dealing with Millman swing bridge. It is on a busy road and the barriers have to be closed by hand. Interestingly, as soon as you put your key in and open the control box lid the neenaws start and traffic obediently comes to a halt. No worries. Weather wise what a contrast. Yesterday full cold weather gear, today shorts and topless (well only the captain). As we were mooring up we learned that an inspector will be having a look at Moss Bridge. Good job we didn't wait!
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