Judith left us today to compete in The Round The Island Race catching a train from Skipton at 08:26 and arriving back in Poole at 16:25.

Peter and Romy visited SpecSavers, walked up the Springs Branch and bought some pies.

We headed out of Skipton stopping for twenty minutes at the water point.

Then we cruised slowly through Low Snaygill, Low Bradley and Kildwick opening several swing bridges en route.  One had electric barriers and an electric release mechanism but required manual effort to open it.  This caused a little confusion before we realised we were expected to push.

We moored in Silsden in a quiet spot alongside a relatively new housing development.  We were advised that it was better, deeper water near the banks and better TV reception just before bridge 192 but we stayed put.

We had an enjoyable walk through Silsden which is quite an interesting little town with a Beck that runs underground in a few places before running under the canal.

We saw the strange sight of a cat swimming in the canal with the ducks.  Neither the cat nor the ducks enjoyed this.  Two young girls rescued the cat following instruction from Pat and we phoned the owner.  Eventually he turned up but did not appear to offer the girls anything for their efforts – sad.  We did not take any pictures of the cat.  That would have been unfair as it was obviously in distress.  We did not have the same level of sympathy for the monkey that we saw in the water a little later.