Category Archives: Blogging Boats

Chop Chopping. 3rd September

Peartree Farm FOTRN mooring to Oundle Cruising Club

Just gone 9:30 it was push back time, the covers were rolled up and mooring spikes soon to be released from the hard ground. The chap who’d been cutting grass yesterday came for a chat. He and his wife arrive on a Friday evening about once a month and over the weekend he strims and trims the grass to keep the mooring looking nice. We chatted all things FOTRN, how rubbish some boaters literally were and how much we certainly appreciated all that the volunteers do with the moorings.

**Goodbye Peartree see you in a few days**

Then we were off backing our way the short distance to the junction with the river, we winded and headed off downstream. Soon followed by NB Sakuma (?) who reversed to the junction and winded to follow us, we’d be sharing the locks back to Oundle today.

Mick soon spotted that we’d got a stow away! A large caterpillar was crawling along our pram hood. I popped it into a tub so that we could release it on dry land at the water point at Wadenhoe. I think it was a Buff Tip Caterpillar at about 70mm long, this will turn into a moth that has fantastic camouflage looking like a twig of a birch tree.

This stretch of river was certainly popular this morning. We counted nine ladies swimming in batches of three, another about to set off from by the Kings Head, throw in a couple of canoes for good measure, it was busy. Fortunately the water point wasn’t so busy, in fact the pub moorings this morning were empty apart from one cruiser. We pulled in and topped up on water and released our stow away into a hedge.

Our locking partners soon arrived and once we were full we swapped with them, we headed for the lock landing to wait. Here the hedgerow was filled with sloes and blackberries. Two tuperwares came out and we started picking. Not being fans of gin the sloes were left for someone else. I know I could make something else with them, but they’d only go to waste as I haven’t the time. A Kingfisher kept an eye on how many we were picking, we did leave plenty for the birds.

An engine could be heard from below. The lock was in our favour, but we were waiting for the other boat. I went to see if I could assist the boat and explain the delay in coming through the lock. Below was Chop Wales on NB Freya, we’d moored alongside each other at Ferry Meadows a couple of weeks ago. He was quite happy to wait as he was going to do a bit of pruning to the willows at the end of the lock landing below.

Chop by name, Chop by nature he got out his big choppers and from the stern of his boat he lopped away at the tree which was making the lock landing hard to reach. As we came out of the lock we chatted with him. He’ll be waiting in the queue for Islip Lock to reopen too, so we’ll see him again. He informed us that he’d been at Oundle Cruising club last night, we already knew this as we had spies keeping an eye out for vacant spots there. If no-one grabbed the space Chop had just left we’d have a mooring for a few days.

Down through Lilford Lock and then Upper Barnwell Lock, each boat taking it in turns to set the lock and work it. We glanced in to Lilford Marina, the pooh sucky machine backed to a pontoon. Today Saturday is the only day when you can get a pump out on this stretch of the river, no sign of NB Otter, maybe they’d already had their tank emptied.

Below Upper Barnwell Lock we wished our locking partners farewell, they were carrying on further downstream today. We nudged under the low bridge and there was NB Otter, NB Shadow and an Oleanna sized gap that Chop Wales had left this morning. We had a mooring!

A very warm welcome greeted us, credit put onto a hook up for our use. We had to daisy chain a couple of leads together to reach, and only just, picnic benches moved to cover any possible trip hazards.

With there being some friendly cover about Tilly was allowed some shore leave, but warned that there were a lot of woofers about. This kept her on her toes about the place, at least 7 woofers about.

Mick bobbed into town for a Saturday newspaper and bumped into Ken and Sue, an invite was issued for them to join us for an evening drink at ‘our club’.

I did some work, amending the adverts in Piccadilly Circus and trimming things down to be neat. Then at 6pm we headed to the club house for drinks. A couple of hours of convivial conversation, the temperature dropped, it was getting dark and we all needed some food to help soak up the wine and beer. We headed back to our respective boats, sadly it was too dark for Mick to head into town for a takeaway so we made do with a pasta salad. Another very pleasant evening with the Cleddau crew.

3 locks, 4.47 miles, 1 full water tank, 67 blackberries, 1 big chopper, 10 swimmers, 4 longhaired Dachshunds, 3 Jack Russells, 6 glasses wine, 2 Bombardiers.

https://goo.gl/maps/dmMhVxY6JkbypMCL7

Remembering Lillian. 29th August

Oundle Marina

With more than half an egg left from making a Nan bread last night and it being a Bank Holiday I treated myself to some scrambled eggs this morning, adding another egg, a large handful of spinach and a good grating of parmesan. Very tasty indeed.

Time to actually step off Oleanna and have a little wander about the marina. A team of chaps were busy polishing a Merc, I wondered how much it would be for them to give Oleanna a good wash and polish. If only someone would create a cruise through boat wash. At least we’re dong our bit for water conservation in a drought.

**Someone put their feet up and left them behind!**

This isn’t the first time we’ve been to Oundle Marina. Back in 2014 this is where NB Lillyanne came for her out of water survey. Merve and Elaine her previous owners had cruised her here, I think this was only the second or third time they’d been anywhere on her. They’d thoroughly enjoyed their time and we were relieved that they’d already moved onto a widebeam and really didn’t need a second boat.

We chatted with the surveyor, he’d done an in water survey as we’d been a little concerned at damp marks inside, but the report hadn’t put us off so we’d been willing to spend the extra money to get her out of the water and check her hull. All was good, she got the thumbs up.

That day we watched Lillian being lowered back into the water, then Merve reversed her out of the bay, winded and start to head upstream. We climbed in the car, drove to Upper Barnwell Lock and made the phone call to ABNB to confirm the sale. As we hung up Lillian in her yellow glory arrived and we were able to confirm the deal face to face with Merve and Elaine.

I think we then drove over to Crick so that we could sign the paperwork there and then, saving two lots of postage. On our way we managed, with the help of Lizzie to secure a mooring at Crick for a few months whilst we finished sorting out the house to let and prepare ourselves for a year afloat!

Enough of the nostalgia. I returned to Oleanna and continued with my work. A fresh pair of eyes on the front cloth had been needed, a touch more dark and then maybe a thin wash of green.

By the end of the day I’d made another version of the troublesome scene, half painted it and am left with just a few notes to complete. Mick arrived back from his trip to Scarborough, all is ready and waiting for our next lodger to move in.

News on the towpath drums is that the problem at Islip Lock is due to the gear box. They will see if they have a spare tomorrow , if so then it shouldn’t be too long before the lock is back in operation. Fingers and Paws crossed.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 short walk, 6 men to polish a car, 1 very bored cat, 1 shopping order complete, 1 model nearly there.

Have The Rules Changed? 27th August

Fotheringhay Castle to Oundle Marina

Another earlyish morning with the hope of avoiding people out to enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend, not that we have a problem with them, it’s just easier to avoid them if they’re not already in the water and still at home.

**The wide beam not the first to leave their mark on the bridge**

We got to see how much paint the wide beam had left on the bridge yesterday, just another gouge in the 1722 structure. Last chance for a photo of the church before we turned our back on Fotheringhay.

We’d noted a narrowboat moored up facing the opposite direction to us, could this mean the next lock would be set in our favour? Yes! I was grateful as it was our next manual wheel operated lock and all I’d have to do was lower the guillotine gate once. Having enough hands to lock the wheel once finished is something I’ll need to master as there’s a lock some way ahead that is very hard to do by one person.

Tansor and Cotterstock both look like places to have a good wander around, even if they are only small. On the list for next time, suspect we’ll need to catch a bus or have a lengthy walk from Oundle.

Now the river works it’s way southwards around the east side of Oundle, under several bridges to Ashton Lock. Ahead we could see the buoys that mark shallow water below the lock, a right hand bend immediately below it. The bow of a boat appeared, Mick slammed on the breaks and then reversed back to give them room to manoeuvre. Would we be passing them on the wrong side, did it really matter just so long as neither boat got stuck in the mud.

It took a while and eventually the bow came round followed by the stern. The main thing for us was that the lock, another manual one was sat waiting for us, only one movement required again! As we left the lock another boat appeared heading down stream, they were also very pleased that the lock was in their favour.

**I think someone should look where they are going!**

Two canoes, neither knowing which side to pass us on were avoided. Then a rib with two chaps fishing from it coming under a bridge. Had they clocked us? They were moving, both with lines in the river. One chap seemed to be steering, occasionally as they moved along at speed. Another boat passed on the wrong side. Have the rules changed? Has nobody informed us that the rules have changed?

Then a cruiser came round the next bend. They were facing towards us, straight at us! Their course was corrected slightly, then their bow faced us again, which way would they go, we only had a small distance further to starboard that we could move. In the end, in the nick of time they moved over and we finally passed someone on the right.

**Essential lock equipment for the Nene**

Lower Barnwell Lock was empty, a lady just walking over the bridge to the control panel. The guillotine gate started to lower. I bipped the horn. I beeped the horn. We were just about there! I BEEEEPED the horn! At last she spotted us and raised the gate again, very apologetic she was.

The narrow entrance to the marina, only just noticeable. Plenty of room on the Cruising Club moorings, but today we breathed in and turned into the marina, wide open water. We’d been told to head to the services, these weren’t at first obvious, but there was a bit of a give away, NB Cleddau with Ken and Sue chatting to the lady. Cleddau had almost got to Irthlingborough Lock when they heard it was broken about ten days ago. They’d returned down stream to the marina to await the lock reopening.

We pulled in on the same pontoon, settled in, a very friendly welcome from all. A quick health and safety check revealed a fence with Tilly sized gaps under it right alongside an intermittently busy road. Sadly this means that for the next couple of days I’ll have to cope with a bored cat.

Mick had a lift from Ken and Sue into town to do a small food shop whilst I got my model box out. It was time to work my way through the show and make notes. As expected I ended up with two sides of A4! Several scenes just need a touch of a tweak, others need a bit more, but Christmas at the Tower of London looks great, even though I say so myself. The biggest job still to do is the front cloth which due to it’s nature will happen over several days.

At 6pm my model was packed away, time for Pimms on the terrace with Ken and Sue. Very civilised. The setting sun put a limit on the time we were prepared to sit out, Ken’s timer for his tray bake encouraged people into their boats to eat. Mick had found some sad gits sausages at the Co-op so we had sausage and mash.

4 locks, 7.39 miles, 4 boats heading down stream, 1 trolling rib, 8 Kingfishers, 1 marina mooring, 7 trips, 1 load of washing, 1 bored cat, 2 x A4, 1 butterfly net, 1 pair snow shoes, 4 large Pimms, 6 bog standard sausages, 1 supermarket order started.

Levels. 20th August

Ashline Visitor mooring to Peterborough Embankment, River Nene

Alarm set for early o’clock, breakfasted and ready to push off before 8am. NB Per Angusta were ready too, as we were booked to go through Stanground Lock first they backed away and let us lead the way.

Soon we were at the sharp bend by Briggate Bridge. Coming the other way this had been really easy, but today with the increased flow it proved quite a challenge.

Mick swung the stern over to start to turn the 90 degrees. Across the bend Oleanna ground to a halt, silt below was stopping our progress right on the bend. We would need a run up, thankfully NB Per Angusta wasn’t too close behind. We managed to back off a distance and then went for it. Oleanna rose up, listed, the engine given more wellie to counter act the strong flow and try to ride over the silt. She worked hard and gradually worked her way free and around the bend. As we pulled away I kept an eye on the boat behind, the dazzling sun inhibiting the view.

It looked like they had a similar problem, getting so far and then having to back off again to give it another go, we hoped they got round as the bend soon vanished behind us.

A flash of blue, then another. We had an escort, two Kingfishers guiding us across the last few miles of the Middle Level. The pair darted ahead as soon as we got close, resting up to make sure we caught up again before they headed onwards. Then when we reached the end of their territory the braver of the pair sat and watched us go past before dashing back to find their mate.

A field of sunflowers all in bloom, cranes ready to move cranes, the brick chimneys and the aroma of chips, we were getting closer to Stanground. We were early.

We pulled in on the lock landing. Tilly checked the notices, no mention of cats, but woofers were certainly not welcome here. It looked good, could we tie it up for the rest of the day? The answer was no as Tina the Lock Keeper arrived ready to lock us through.

**Tina ready for us, Alley Cat keeping an eye on our bow**

The bottom lock gates were open, the top sluices/slackers/paddles open too producing the flow we’d been pushing against for the last couple of days. Tina walked up to the top gates, closed the slackers then came and waved us in requesting we passed her the centre line on the off side.

Oleanna was tied to a bollard, Mick told to put her in forwards gear and just to keep her there whilst the lock filled. A slacker was raised the level started to rise along with Oleanna. With just a couple of inches to go Tina released the rope. She warned us of a big build up of weed above the top gates, best course of action would be to power on through it, the wind last night had nudged most of it towards the electric sluice but there was still a big patch for us to push through.

We thanked Tina, the gates opened, a distant view of Peterborough Cathedral just visible with a rainbow flag flying high. Time to leave the Middle Level for the River Nene. Yes there was a lot of duck weed, but we’ve been through worse at Selby. We were soon clear of the slightly browning weed, the first of the boats coming the other way just arriving, ready to go straight into the lock.

We passed another couple of boats, one NB Petroc. I knew I knew the name, bloggers, well the previous owners were bloggers.

With need of some shopping we turned left at the junction, pulling in soon where there was a gap before the services. Here it was obvious the level was up, the bottom step covered with an inch of water, but the mooring rings and bollards were still reachable. Mick did the gentlemanly thing and stepped off the back and paddled to pass our ropes through rings and we were soon moored up.

We’d made it to the Embankment before 10am, got ourselves sorted and were in time to join the end of the Saturday morning Geraghty zoom. Then it was time to make shopping lists, Mick would head off to stock up on food whilst I got on with work.

Tilly was given the afternoon for shore leave. Although we got quite loud protests at our mooring skills. They really are a worry leaving a good chunk of watery outside between Oleanna and the proper outside! I had words then did my calculations and leapt to dry land.

Tilly jumped a good 10- 12 ft to the second dry step. The chap on the boat behind put his dog on a lead, owner and woofer watching Tilly’s every move and listening to her complaints. They tied this outside up before, it was rubbish then. Now it’s even more rubbish as it was so far away and a cat should not have to get wet paws, after all I’m told not to fall in! Well at least the trees have got more than a comb over now. Only one thing for it, more cat napping in my escape pod today.

**Don’t know why I went to all that effort, it’s rubbish round here!**

Mick headed back into town to pick up a few items for me, just in case things as I doubt there will be many suitable shops along the River Nene for model making supplies. He returned with black card and some silver gift tags, the later will be useful to suggest fairy lights.

During the afternoon I heard back from Abi regarding Petiti, the troublesome scene. One of the versions I’d sent to her yesterday had been based on my original idea and this is the one that came out on top! It still needs a bit more work, but it is the direction we will now be heading in. If only we’d stuck to it in the first place I’d have saved a lot of time, but that’s just how it goes sometimes.

Todays aim was to get Piccadilly Circus painted, by 7pm I’d achieved my goal, well apart from painting a locksmiths barrow. In previous years when painting the sets I’ve managed to draw the scenery out by hand. This year I will be seeking the assistance of a projector, overhead or digital, which will speed the drawing process up no end.

1 lock, 5.19 miles, 1 lumpy bend, 1 engine at full tilt, 2 Kingfishers, 1st through, 1 keeper cat, 1 left, 1 inch above, 9 inches higher than last time, 28 shaggy trees, 4-0, 1 pride city, 1 disappointed cat, 1st solution approved, 1 designers assistant, 1st scene painted.

https://goo.gl/maps/Fn1dMa6viHB5VhEQ8

Moor And Moor Again. 1st August

Houghton EA mooring to Nobles Field GOBA mooring

Boats were already on the move this morning before we’d got ourselves ready. By just gone 9 we pushed off fairly sure that Hemingford Lock ahead of us wouldn’t be in our favour.

Passing Hemingford Grey there was plenty of room, but most likely due to boats already having moved off this morning. We paused to dispose of our rubbish at the first bins since Bedford. The bin was only a third full, but surrounded by lots of red rubbish bags. Maybe these were from litter pickers.

Tallis House sits on the bend of the river, followed by St James’ Church with it’s odd steeple. Next time we’ll have to spend a bit of time walking round more of the Hemingfords.

At the lock, we’d caught up with a widebeam who was just starting to lift the guillotine gate. We’d both fit in the D shaped lock so Mick brought Oleanna in first and pulled her in to the side. Both boats were soon dropping down to the St Ives (not the one in Cornwall) reach of the river.

Not quite a mile on we pulled in to the next GOBA mooring on the outskirts of St Ives. Our first bit if bank turned out to have a wasps nest which would have ended up right by the hatch. So we pulled along a bit further, aligning the solar panels with gaps in the trees.

**Mum fishing for her not so small babies**

All tied up and I opened the side hatch to the sight of a four inch hole in the bank which had wasps coming and going! Another nest. We unpinned ourselves and carried on past the long landing to the far end. No sign of nests here, or so we thought until the bow spike was being hammered in. Oh blimey!

It was decided that the nest was far enough away from Oleanna and our neighbours soon calmed down as peace returned to their world.

NB Cleddau appeared an hour or so later, they headed into town hoping there would be some space left. I suspect this may be the last time our bows cross this summer as our cruising speeds and distances will differ from here.

During the day Mick had a walk into Waitrose, he then returned for the bicycle as there was wooden cat litter on the shelves, the first we’ve seen in months. I got on with work and Tilly explored the new outside.

**One of the noisy twonk heads next door**

This outside got very noisy when a hire boat came in to moor, a crew member threw a fat fender over board so someone had to dive in to retrieve it. This ended up with several of them in the river, discussing how much sewage there must be in it! All banter, but very loud. I turned on a podcast about Victorian Female Murderers, keeping in the correct period for panto, it also did the job of blocking out the noise from next door.

Not the best day designing. I’d got carried away with model making, some pieces as they went into the model box required trimming, shapes altering, so quite a few bits to remake. There are still two scenes to make, one will be fiddly so needs a really good karma day, which certainly wasn’t today.

Too hot inside for the planned moussaka this evening, so the mince I’d defrosted got made into some burgers instead and were cooked outside on the barbeque. A very pleasant evening sat on the bank of Nobles Field. The field was bought in 1970 and is held in trust as a recreation ground for the residents of St Ives, hence the landings where canoes can be launched, the moorings and plenty of people coming down to the river to enjoy the evening.

**Beef and whole grain mustard burgers**

1 lock, 2.08 miles, 3 attempts at mooring, 1 final wave, 7 hours of problem finding, some solved, others created, 1 cat fight averted, 10 litres cat litter, 2 trips to town, 4 burgers, 4 kebabs, 1 day off work required.

https://goo.gl/maps/TB93JpeAeiqN6voEA

Autumn Before August. 31st July

Brampton GOBA mooring to Houghton EA mooring

Rain. Rain! We had some rain!!! Not a lot, but some! At least it’s a start, it just needs to carry on.

Tea with breakfast this morning and we pushed off just before 9am.

The river curves around Portholme Meadow, 260 acres of alluvial flood meadow, one of the largest areas of grassland in the country. Dots of people could be seen walking on the paths. In 1918 the meadow was used as a Training Depot Station by the RAF.

As we approached Godmanchester Lock I spotted NB Claddau tucked in down the arm above the lock, we’d not ventured down there, maybe next time. Today had a tinge of ‘next time’ about it. We realised that we’d not had that much of an explore around Bedford, St Neots, or Huntingdon and Godmanchester we’d just cruised on past and it almost certainly deserved a stroll around it’s streets.

The angled approach to the lock and the strong wind caught Mick out, but that was soon rectified for him to drop me off to set the lock. A hire boat arrived below just as we were about to empty the lock, chatting to the lady she was saying they’d hoped to reach Bedford today, but the head wind and going against the flow they thought they’d not make it. According to our maps it would take 12 hours to reach the upper river in Bedford on a kinder day.

**There’s a developer somewhere waiting for this house to fall down**

Onwards under the two bridges in Huntingdon, a rather nice but ramshackled house between them sported Wonder Woman giving advice for the pandemic. We wondered how much it would cost to rescue the house and remove it’s current tenants of pigeons!

Along the banks we spotted Chestnut trees, their lower branches starting to turn orange with bright green conker shells growing plump. Sloes covered the Blackthorn bushes, will they last till the first frost has come to split their skins. Elderberries hung dark dark red. Nature bringing Autumn close before August has even started.

Houghton Lock looked as though there were a couple of volunteers on duty. As I’d not worked this lock on the way upstream I hopped off to lend a hand. The lock tends to be manned at weekends and these two chaps were very jolly. More boats appeared below and even though the lady had come up to see what was happening she got a fright as Oleanna appeared through the bottom gates.

A couple of boats were moored on the island, we tucked in close to a cruiser for the rest of the day. Just so long as there weren’t any woofers about Tilly could explore to her hearts content, which she did, not returning for several hours!

Early afternoon a boat approached the island, NB Cleddau, they’d been aiming for the moorings at Hemingford Grey but been told they were full, so they grabbed a space a little behind us.

Another afternoon of work, which didn’t go according to plan, but I did come up with a design for my portal headers which I was quite pleased with.

Sue invited us round for drinks on the terrace at 5pm and as Pimms was on the menu it would have been very rude not to join them. We had a couple of hours of chat and drinking on the bank as Tilly proceeded to give NB Cleddau a full walk through! They have double glazing!

2 locks, 4.72 miles, 2 volunteers, 1 island mooring, 4 glasses of Pimms, 1 each, 4 glasses of wine, 1 very nosy cat, 1 cat 10 rats, 2-1.

https://goo.gl/maps/CSPrqf4fhcaxTPm76

Floating On By. 30th July

Brampton GOBA mooring

Last night the moorings had filled right up. A group of cruisers breasted up and a narrowboat came along early evening wanting to try to get their stern into the git gap in front of us and lay their bow across ours. We offered them to breast up, but they had a dog and with our cratch cover and filled buckets on the bow it would have been difficult for them to get off. Fortunately for everyone a boat at the far end of the moorings decided to set off before any spikes or ropes had been sorted, so they swapped and a bankside mooring was taken.

This morning we allowed ourselves a cuppa in bed, it turned out that we would be the only boat not to move today. Bacon butties were followed by the Geraghty zoom, house buying before going on the market and Bedford were subjects covered today.

Mick headed off on the bike in the search of a Saturday morning newspaper, our first in quite a while, Tilly got on with enjoying a sausage day and I continued to make barrels and crates for panto. Every year I’ve made at least two barrels for my panto model, maybe I’ll keep these this time, just in case I need some again. They are quite time consuming.

By the time Mick returned we were the only boat left on the moorings. I’d checked Tilly was still about every time someone pulled away, just incase as curiosity of the interiors of other peoples boats seems to be growing despite the rules! I’m just looking to see what boat improvements we might be able to make, so far nothing, but you never know!

Around midday the moorings started to fill up again. It only took an hour for there to be no space left just as Ken and Sue came past in NB Cleddau. A bit of a blustery day and the current made it hard to hover for a quick chat before they floated on by. Five minutes after they left a boat pulled out, only to be replaced by another within two minutes. We may play leapfrog with Cleddau tomorrow, depends on who sets off first.

The remainder of the day consisted of model making for me. Tower of London, St Katherines Dock. By the end of the day my box of model bits was getting quite full and now I need to put everything into the model box to see what needs altering and tie things together.

Mick got the endoscope out. A giant crochet bag I made on the Lancaster canal years ago had gone for a swim yesterday. It wasn’t a very good bag, a try out for others I made, but it had become a very handy bit of padding. You could kneel on it when on a muddy nettle bank. This summer it’s been used under the plank quite often to save what’s left of our paintwork. Yesterday the plank had moved quite a bit and the bag had ended up falling into the river.

It’s quite heavy so Mick hoped it hadn’t gone far, he’d tried fishing it out with the boat hook and now tried to use the endoscope to find it rather than aimlessly fishing in the murky water. But his phone didn’t want to talk to the cameras wi-fi, and then the power pack ended up getting wet! So we apologise now if someone picks the bag up on their prop.

I’ll have to make another, just a shame all my scraps of fabric are back at the house. Maybe it’s time to donate some really worn out t-shirts to be reused.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 sausage day, 1 Saturday newspaper, 1 box full of white bits, 1 exhausted cat.

Bedford River Festival, Day 2. 24th July

Priory Marina

Our sun cream would be working harder today as the sky was blue and the temperature higher than yesterday.

Today we’d explore a bit more, well quite a bit more, but not all of the festival sight. It really is huge! Before arriving we’d imagined the festival to be big, but in our minds big was actually about a fifth the size it actually is.

**That’s what the scaffolding was for**!

We ear marked things we wanted to see during the day, the raft race and the Newfoundland Dog Rescue Team. Then we bimbled round the islands between the upper and lower river.

Plenty to keep old and young busy. How many inflatables?

The bandstand area was by far the coolest place to be.

A craft tent, Psychics.

Anglian Waterways tent where we asked about how to sign up for the stoppage notices via email. This was explained and we were handed over a goody bag with an extra mug so that we wouldn’t fight over one. No-one was manning the Waterways Chaplain part of the stand so we didn’t get chance to say hello to Sallyanne who we’d met in Ely weeks ago.

Then a hunt round for lunch. One stand looked a possible for me, but when I asked if anything was gluten free, they said no! What did they do to their roast potatoes! Thankfully a little further there was a Paella stand with a big sign saying Gluten Free. We took our foil tins to stand and watch the Newfoundland dogs.

With a team of five or six dogs various rescues were displayed to us. Basically the dogs love being in the water, in fact they have webbed paws and an extra joint in their legs which allows them to do breast stroke. They saved the best till last, the dog pulling nine people, a boat and engine back to safety.

Yesterday we’d spotted some chilled medication that wasn’t of the Mr Whippy variety, so we called in for some. The flavours gave away the fact that this wouldn’t be fantastic ice cream but still better than what was on offer elsewhere.

A more comprehensive look around the cars today. A lovely Ford Anglia, more mini’s, a Morris 1000 that must have come from the marina, a Tesla car that did a light and window display to music and Prudence a Triumph Herald!

We then found ourselves a space to watch the raft race heats. On our maps this was meant to take place upstream of Town Bridge, all the teams headed down stream to a muster point. There were to be two heats followed by the final which would be against the flow upstream. But hang on they’d all gone through Town Bridge! The course had been altered an hour earlier and we’d not heard the announcements.

**The pink handbag not really helping them to make headway**

The last raft took it’s time, in the end it had to be towed to the start line, it’s crew really not helping! One with a handbag that was being used to slap the surface of the water. Another lady at the front using her inadequate oar to move water back and forth in front of the raft, maybe this was their steering method, it certainly wasn’t assisting them any down stream!

Most effort had been put in by one team in creating a Truck, if it hadn’t had the annoying airhorn they’d have got top prize from us. But another team stood on top of their raft with a wavy scene between them, at the top was a whale spouting water, very good.

We caught up with Sue and Ken again and made use of their very comfy chairs and another glass of cordial. They had plenty of visitors keeping them busy with tours through Cleddau and I suspect the tally of Monkton Moments and Tudor Rose explanations will have shot up, I’ll have to wait for Sue’s next post to see by how much.

Time to head back to Oleanna. Thank you so much Ken and Sue for your hospitality during the festival and it was lovely to get chance to know you both a touch better. We’ll both be heading the same way this week, so we may even get to share a lock or two.

Back at pontoon C a black cat sat right in the middle. I suspect Tilly and this feline will have had words through the windows over the last few days, we’ve certainly had someone scratching around in one of the troughs of wild strawberries!

At around 8:30pm the music from the festival lowered and then stopped. The end of the festivities for another two years. We’ve enjoyed ourselves and have been impressed at the immense organisation of such a huge event.

Tomorrow it will be time to move on and for me to knuckle down to some serious work. I will endeavour to keep posting every day, but the time to write a post will be much reduced whilst I catch up on Panto.

0 locks, 0 miles, 2nd festival day, 2 paellas, 2 scoops of chilled medication each, 1 handbag, 1 whale, 5 newfies, 2 more loads washing, 1 tank water to top up, 2 boaters ready to move on.

Bedford River Festival, Day 1. 23rd July

Priory Marina

As my phone and I woke up this morning panto emails arrived. A 10:30am meeting was possible with my director and she gave me a new route to head down for the troublesome scene. I sipped my tea in bed whilst looking at pictures of Alice in Wonderland Operas and Ballets. A quick squiggle in my puzzle book and I had a whole new look. This was then redrawn to match my storyboard, photographed and sent to Abi ready for our meeting. Thankfully things just started to click with this version and so long as other things can be made to work we have a solution and I can crack on next week.

Time to head in to see what the Festival was all about. We decided to keep to the south bank of the river, ended up missing a one way bridge onto the islands and had to walk up to the weir, but at least that brought us to NB Cleddau.

Here Ken and Sue has set up gazebos for friends and family to take shelter in, there were plenty of chairs to sit and chat. We joined Jennie and Chris who used to own NB Tentatrice, so lovely to see them again and have chance to chat rather than a quick snippet as our bows crossed.

A while later Heather Bleasdale joined us, she’d come for the day, had already spent time with other friends, had a good walk round and was in need of a sit down just in time for the Motor Boat display. About twenty or so boats processed behind the Harbour Master and Lord Mayors launches. This years theme was pirates.

Some boaters had donned costumes and hung skull and crossbone bunting, others had gone that bit further and decorated their boats. One cruiser going the whole hog with smoking cannons and the white boat hardly visible under the corex pirate disguise.

The Viking Kayak Club had also done a fantastic job creating a small galleon that they paddled along in the procession.

After plenty of chats Heather, Mick and myself headed off to have a look round some of the stalls and vintage car display on the High Street. Blimey the town was heaving! We’d been warned that on some of the bridges we’d be packed in, shuffling to cross them. But being outside we didn’t feel too covid claustrophobic.

At 4pm it was the turn of the Narrowboats and Widebeams to process. NB Cleddau had by far the most bunting and flags of all the boats and plenty of passengers to wave at the crowds.

Two boats had created cannons in their portholes. One had used black buckets, the other black flower pots along with the occasional spurt of smoke which was very effective. An Owl sat on one boat was quite happy with a chick in it’s beak, keeping an eye on everyone.

WB Black Pearl got top marks from us as we stood and waved back to them.

A walk down to the Vegan area where there were some nice things to buy and lots of interesting food items, although we did refrain from buying any Mexican Lollies at £3.50 a go, no idea what made them Mexican, unless you got to cover them with chilli sauce!

We had a brief look at the cars, some lovely specimens. A walk along the Embankment and then we tried to return in time for the Dragon Boat final, but there was simply too many people about to make it in time.

A sit down and a cuppa were required so we headed into The Swan hotel to find space. Heather managed to convince a lady to allow us to sit in an area reserved for afternoon teas, but as it was empty we were sure they’d like to make us a brew, which they did and at a reasonable price too.

Taco bowls of vegan chilli and salsa were very tasty, we don’t know how they smuggled the chill beef nachos into the vegan village, but Mick didn’t care and enjoyed them.

We sauntered along the north bank and into Russell Park where tens of thousands of people were eating, drinking, heading down helter skelters and listening to Oh My God, It’s The Church! singing about shoes! Each to their own.

A dance stage was further up and thumping away. Some people getting a little bit boozy and the aroma in the air didn’t shy away from the police. As we were so close to the boat now, Mick and I decided to head home for a quieter glass of wine on board and to feed Tilly. So we said our goodbyes to Heather as she needed to head towards the station. Hopefully our paths will cross again in a few months time that’s if we can get our boats to London with the lack of water around on the system.

What a busy and lovely day. More tomorrow!

0 locks, 0 miles, 15 baked cookies, 1 new solution, 2 bloggers, 1 guide book author, 2 jet boots, 100 cars, 2 pots of tea each, 2 processions, 1 dragonboat race missed, 2 taco shells, 1 nachos, 1 owl, 178634 people, 1 busy day.

It’s Coming! 21st July

Bedford GOBA Mooring to Kempston Mill to Bedford GOBA Mooring

Today was the day we hoped to reach the end of the navigable River Great Ouse, however there was a stoppage notice regarding ‘unforeseen circumstances during tree removal works, the river is closed near to Queens Park, Bedford.‘ A look on various maps and we concluded that this was upstream of Bedford. Hopefully whatever blockage would be clear by the time we got there, we’d see how far we could get and if needs be we’d reverse.

The stoppage notices seem to get published on the Visit Anglian Waterways EA Facebook page, we haven’t been able to find some means of getting them sent to us by email. So the notice had been published yesterday and facebook had only allowed us to see it this morning!

We headed back upstream, under the low bridges, temporary pontoon bridges still leading to nowhere, more portaloos arrived, areas of wheelie bins cordoned off. Two lads studied plans alongside a load of scaffolding, I wondered how far they’d get in erecting what ever it was by the time we came back. The park between the upper and lower river was very very busy.

As I was wanting to lift the guillotine gate at the top of Bedford Lock two chaps were rigging something from the structure above. A sound cable needed to be sent across the river to connect the PA systems, an 8ft pole was erected then the cable would be taken across the river and attached to a high place on the north bank keeping it high out of the way. I asked how they’d get it across, I’d hoped the reply would be drone or bow and arrow, but it was just by boring boat! We weren’t a problem to them so the gate could be lifted to raise us up onto the final reach of the river.

It would have been nice to head east on the upper river to have a look at the bridges, but more temporary pontoon bridges stretched across the water, so we turned to the west and started to head up stream.

Mooring numbers reached 81 along the banks. Council chaps were removing duck and blanket weed from ponds, aided by a digger to scoop it up.

Under Town Bridge which will be closed to traffic at the weekend as brass bands will be playing there. From the Swan Hotel to Bedford Borough Council the architecture changed every way you looked. Then modern shopping and restaurants took over the north bank.

More bridges, including two very low ones carrying the railway overhead.

Now the river seems to follow a much more rural route, trees everywhere. Had we reached the stretch where the unforeseen circumstance had occurred? Was this the tree? Was that it?

When we eventually reached the tree there was no denying it would have been a problem. The sawn stump of a tree was very evident and on the opposite bank the undergrowth had been dragged away as the huge tree had been dragged up the bank by machinery. A chap remarked that we’d timed that well, the tree had been moved just thirty minutes earlier. We came across two more chaps with chain saws chopping into more trees upstream too. I wonder if the River Festival stirs the EA into action this far upstream?

We carried on, the river bending in front of us. The further we got the slower we went, a fisherman had warned us of it being very shallow a mile upstream, but on the big bends it seemed to be fine. Mick kept our speed down, if we got stuck we might be there for some time as not many people venture this far upstream.

**Was this as far as we could get? Yes!**

Up ahead the new landing stage for the trip boat came into view beside another low bridge and modern housing, one building mimicking an old mill that once stood here. Our speed slowed right down. Oleanna started to ground, we needed to find the deeper water on the port side. A touch of reverse then Mick changed our course, slowly moving us along. We grounded again, Oleanna being attracted to the lower water.

Maybe if we could wind where it was wider. We only made one attempt at this as it was obvious the depth would not be sufficient for this manoeuvre, this along with the current we could end up in bigger trouble, being pushed further aground. We’d not reached the end of the navigable river as marked on our maps, but we’d reached as far as we could and that was good enough for us, just a shame we couldn’t get to the landing stage and have a little walk round.

This is where one day, in the future, the plan is to connect the Great Ouse with the Grand Union Canal with the Bedford and Milton Keynes Waterway. The new bridge by the landing stage may inhibit some larger boats coming this way, but so would the bridges into Bedford. When it is connected it will make a fantastic ring and we’d now be able to just cruise another 16 miles, climb up 21 locks, drop down another 20 and join the GU in Milton Keynes. Instead we’ll have to retrace ourselves back to Denver, across the Middle Level to Peterborough then back up the River Nene to Northampton and up the locks to the GU.

We made the decision to reverse our way back to where the river was a touch wider to wind. We managed this without too much bother and then carried on back down stream. The tree chaps still moving branches out of our way as we went.

As we approached Bedford a widebeam was winding and then pulling into their mooring or the weekend. Another boat could be seen settling themselves in, NB Cleddau. We pulled over to have a chat with Sue and Ken, we’ll be calling in for a longer chat over the weekend.

I walked up to the lock, a small cruiser was just coming in followed by a short narrowboat and then another cruiser, it all taking time to squash them in. This lock is going to be very busy over the next few days. Mick hung about in the upper river staking our claim to be next down and not another pontoon bridge that had just arrived.

Our first downhill lock until we reach sea level again.

The chaps with the scaffolding hadn’t made much if any progress since we’d passed them two hours earlier, I hope they get it sorted quickly as the Festival is only a day and a half away, It’s coming quickly!

Back at the GOBA mooring we winded and joined NB Lily May, Chris and Chris are friends of Heathers and Chris is also the author of the Imray Guide to the Great Ouse. They have a lovely black cat called Icarus, but sadly Tilly didn’t seem too happy about his presence, so she was grounded until his shore leave was curtailed.

Paul the boatmover came past and in his jolly manner was saying hello to everyone. Good job he stopped for a chat, on his own boat rather than someone else’s. The lady in the marina had said that the river would be lowered on Friday, the reach that we are moored on. Paul said that they lower it by a foot maybe even more so that cruisers can get under the next bridge to us to access the moorings for the festival. If we headed out for the day we’d return to our boat firmly sat on the bottom and needing ropes and crampons to get on and off! This also happens on Sunday to let all the cruisers out again. Good job we’ve booked into the marina!

Time to knuckle down to do some work, with a meeting tomorrow I need to update things and stop being a boater for a bit.

2 locks, the same one there and back, 6.75 miles or there abouts, 2 winds, 2 lefts, 1 landing stage just out of reach, 0.25miles in reverse, 3 known boats, 2 boat cats, 1 war avoided, 2nd story board, 1 boater changing hats, 1 more river ticked of.

Narrowboat Oleanna

Travels of Narrowboat Oleanna