Littleport Station Road EA mooring to Swan On The River mooring
All packed up
Early morning start for me today, catching the 8:12am train to Kings Cross with my white card model and overnight bag. Due to the heat that was already building my train had speed restrictions on much of the line in towards Ely where there was a backlog of trains, but thankfully we got moving soon enough and I actually arrived in Golders Green for my meeting bang on time.
Abi , Gemma, Suzette, Maryna
Today had originally been a meeting for myself Abi, the Director and Gemma, the Production Manager to look at the white card model and for me to hand over drawings to be priced up. However we were also joined by Suzette, Producer from Chippy, Lily, the Choreographer and Maryna Costume Designer. We had four hours to work our way through the show with the aim of a common direction for the production.
Maryna comes from an Opera and Ballet background, she also has not grown up with all that is panto. So quite a lot of time was taken up looking at her wonderful drawings and then explaining about the audiences expectations for the characters. Thankfully there was just about enough time to also go through my model scene by scene, but sadly a few tricky props got forgotten about which really should have been discussed. There can always be phone calls to sort those out though.
Tube mosaic
Meanwhile back on Oleanna, Mick and Tilly pushed off and headed back upstream to the Swan on the River. Here he managed to get a mooring outside the pub and in the afternoon he met up with Mick and Andy who at one time used to work for Philips and then all three of them worked in the Telecoms Department at Lloyds Bank, most probably in one of those buildings Mick pointed out to us along the Thames on Monday. They had a couple of hours sat in the pub garden reminiscing about old times.
Hot cat Finn
After my meeting I then relived the experience of transporting a model on London transport! It’s amazing how protective you become over a model you’ve spent hours working on. I headed out to Hackney to my brothers.
All that meat for just two people!
It was very nice having a catch up on their latest holiday and seeing how much Josh has grown both height and maturity wise. In the evening we all went out for a Turkish meal at Scoffs, it’s worth a visit if you end up mooring on the River Lee near Hackney Marshes. We shared a platter intended for two between the four of us with a portion of Haloumi and chips extra, there was plenty of food at a reasonable price.
Colour coded softness
0 locks, 0.621371 miles, 1 wind, 1 train, 3 tubes, 1 bus, 1 model approved, 2 hours drinking with old mates, 1 vast platter of kebabs, 1 pleasant evening with family, 33C, 3 pillows to choose from, 0 shore leave!
We caught the B bus, one of the Guided buses that connects Huntingdon, St Ives and Cambridge. The Guided Busway is the longest in the world and follows the course of the former Cambridge and Huntingdon Railway, the bus driver doesn’t need to steer whilst on the guided track. However they do need to take over when the bus runs on normal roads! Heather had told us of the wild flowers bordering the track, but these are all now sadly gone.
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Whilst on the bus I booked us tickets to the Fitzwilliam Museum. This meant we could enter by the main door have our tickets zapped and head off to explore the museum, well the upper floor mainly as this is where the Hockney exhibition was to be found.
Hockney’s Eye , The art and technology of depiction, is a very interesting exhibition. It explores the many ways of seeing and depicting in art and how pictures have been created through his eyes.
Hockney has been known for his use of modern technology, using photographs, iphones and ipads. The exhibition draws together the naturalistic techniques used by the old masters, explains them and collects together artworks made using those techniques and pairs them up with works by Hockney where he has manipulated the rules or gone in the opposite direction from them.
Get out of the way! It doesn’t work from that side!!!
The drawing of perspective was explained with the use of the vanishing point. A piece of Perspex stood with lines drawn on it and a cross marked the spot of where to stand, showing how an artist draws. This needed a little explanation to Mick and others as nowhere on the instructions did it mention that you needed not only to be stood on the cross on the floor but also at the right height! This was not helped by two ladies stood in the way of the picture frame you need to line up with at the other end of the gallery!
Model
A wooden box sits in front of Extreme Unction by Poussin. Through a spy hole in the box you can observe the scene seen in the painting. 3D wax figures take up positions around a bed, a strong light coming in from the left. The model in a box is used to help get the lighting right for the painting. At college, one of our first projects was to make a scene in a shoe box and to see how different angles and colours of light affected the mood within. High up on a wall opposite hangs a painting by one of my favourite artists, Caravaggio a master chiaroscuro (the effect of contrasted light and shade in a painting).
Amazing architectural detail
Use of a Camera Obscura is shown exceptionally well in the paintings of Canaletto. His perspective landscapes of Venice so intricate in detail and perspective, the box with mirrors a tool to assist in their creation.
Images reflected down from the roof
Outside the museum is a much larger camera obscura in a hut. The image reflected onto a table of the passing scenes along the road outside. If you had a piece of paper and a pencil these could so easily be traced for the foundation of a picture.
A collection of small drawings by Ingres of travellers amuse and astound with their detail. Hockney after enlarging one of these found evidence that it was possibly traced, marks on the paper suggested the use of a Camera Lucida. Here the apparatus allows the artist to see both subject and paper at the same time. With this points of reference can be marked on the paper, distances between eyes, the relationship to the mouth enabling an accurate dot to dot as it were. Hockney has used the technique himself producing a fantastic portrait of Sir Ian McKellen.
A group of drawings/paintings made using a Camera Lucida and free hand drawing portray a group of gallery staff from the National Gallery who sit and watch the public. They are uniform in both style and clothes, yet unique in the accuracy of their portraiture.
Green a coloured used a lot by Hockney as a base
Hockney would send ipad paintings of bowls of flowers to his friends on a daily basis. Flowers that would last and not wilt in a vase. We saw his filmed footage of landscapes around the Yorkshire Wolds, these used to be painted onto large sections of canvas which were displayed together in a similar way. None of his composite photographs though that show not only a person from one sitting but also everything around them.
Stubbs above, Hockney below
I overheard a young lady looking at a painting of Hockney’s from his college days when abstraction was all the rage. He wanted to go against the formal training he’d received at college depicting a romantic notion from a Blake poem The Tyger, the painting above by Stubbs depicting a similar romantic emotion in a different style. The young lady said ‘that’s rubbish I could do that in ten minutes!’ ‘It’s just all so insulting!’ Art and beauty is in the eye of the beholder, whether that be the artists eye or a young lady in a museum, she did not appreciate the strokes of Hockney’s brush and had tainted the whole exhibition as ‘insulting’
What a glum Mary and Christ
At least it provoked emotion from her. I hope that she and her companion had just arrived and that her attitude would be confronted elsewhere in the exhibition. Another lady looked down glumly at the paintings, not impressed either. But then again she does have a very chubby middle aged man for a baby!
A lovely looking sandwich
We broke up our visit with lunch in the cafe, Mick having an egg sandwich with some tasty chutney whilst I had a slightly drab gluten free Mediterranean vegetable wrap without chutney which would have pepped it up a bit.
We maybe should have walked around the other galleries, taken a look at the objects on the lower floors, but the Hockney exhibition was what had brought us here and was well worth the trip out.
On our way back through town we were astounded that there was no queue at Jack’s Gelato, another reason for a day in Cambridge. A study of the menu and we both fancied trying the roasted banana, but sadly so had everyone else and they had just run out! Instead I had strawberries and elderflower with a second scoop of Mango sorbet, Mick Dark Chocolate with sea salt and a second scoop of Honeycomb, well we won’t be back in Cambridge or quite some time!
Double chilled medication
We called into Heffers for another birthday present, sadly the book in question was not on their shelves so we were directed to Waterstones. We were surprised at this until we found out that Waterstones bought Blackwells bookshops a few years ago. They were right to send us to the other shop, where we found one copy of a rather heavy book.
Books books books
Thank you Cambridge for an interesting tasty arty day out.
0 locks, 0 miles, 2 guided buses, 1 art exhibition, 1 wrap, 1 sandwich, 2 scoops each, 1 heavy tomb, 1 very good day off, 1 blog post over a week late.
Aldreth GOBA Mooring to Stretham Ferry GOBA Mooring
Go aWAY wasp!
We allowed ourselves a cuppa in bed this morning and exchanged notes on the depth of the Old West on Facebook with the cruiser that had pulled up yesterday afternoon almost at the other end of the moorings. Wasps still wanted to gain access to Oleanna, so we sat and had breakfast with all the windows closed. That didn’t matter to the wasps as they still found their way in, down the chimney!
Along our way we passed bullocks all heading in the same direction as us, one of them had set a trend, the others had followed, none knowing why. Long maned ponies grazed what green morsels they could find and stared into the depths of the one tree.
A Lapwing blew it’s kazoo and circled round us a few times. Egrets watched our slow progress and Cormorants sat high on the power lines surveying for fish. Two baby Grebes sat on Mums back hitching a ride.
Passing boats slowly
We passed a boat, who exclaimed how shallow it was. Not much different to the Grand Union we thought, but if you are from these parts and used to river cruising then it must feel very shallow round here. The 4mph speed restriction signs don’t help!
Back in the land where water is pumped from the low lying land into the river in less arid times. Today pumps pump water back onto the land, last night I could see four spraying their plumes of water over fields yet to be harvested.
Some friendly cover to keep Tilly occupied today
Passing what used to be the Lazy Otter we soon arrived at the long length of GOBA moorings. We’d come far enough for the day and pulled up at the far end, plenty of space for more boats. Tilly was given 6.5 hours, we had an early lunch and then I started work.
A box of panto
Today I concentrated on pantomime advertising for Piccadilly Circus, Wishee Washie Soap, Buttons, Lions Tea. I still need a couple more to fill the scenery, but there’s enough for now. By the end of the afternoon I’d completed my notes and the shoe box was really quite full. A good couple of days.
Scrub-a-dub-dub
Plenty of boats came and went as the afternoon progressed. Hire boats fresh out from Ely, cruisers heading out for the weekend. A look out of the hatch at the line of boats and I could see people swimming. They then set about giving the offside of their boat a wash. The depth seemed suitable for such a job. Oleanna is in desperate need of a wash, but I’m not prepared to get into the river to give her a spruce up.
The end to another good day
0 locks, 5.85 miles, 6.5 hours, 5 swimmers, 2 washing their boat, 1 box of panto complete, 4mph!
Middle Fen (One Pound) GOBA Mooring to Aldreth GOBA Mooring, Old West
The Middle Fen/ One Pound mooring might just be my favourite from this summer. Once up the bank there is plenty of space to sit out. There is no passing footfall, and your nearest neighbour is a few boat lengths away. On an evening the Kingfishers dart back and forth, several of them. Sadly this morning it was time to move on and leave a space for someone else to enjoy the mooring.
Teaseltastic
Today blue skies had returned, we’ve had a lot of cloud lately.
Blue river at Brownshill
Brownshill Lock needed setting in our favour. When we’d come upstream a chap had been confused about how to open and close the guillotine gates (it has one at each end) he’d not seen the downstream control cabinet, small and identical to the one at the top gate. I had no such problem and filled the lock by pressing buttons whilst Mick managed to keep our cabin sides away from the big overhang of the lock landing.
We were joined for our descent by a small rib, who were out for an adventure. They didn’t have a key to operate the lock, so seeing a narrowboat arriving below they decided to go straight back up with them.
Across the tidal section passing Earith. We kept our eyes peeled for GT, Heathers boat that is now in the water, but we couldn’t spot her. The water point here has been closed by the EA until it has had a thorough clean, the Littleport tap on the Ely Ouse is also closed leaving one tap between us and Denver sluice.
At one time we’d toyed with the idea of returning along the Hundred Foot Drain to Salters Lode, cutting down on our return trip. But with water levels low we’ve abandoned the idea, the thought of getting stuck and having to wait for the next tide not that appealing at the moment, if ever.
Plenty of birds round here
A nose peeked up to our port side, a seal, most probably heading towards Westview Marina where a Mum and her pup can often be seen. It dived before I got chance to take a picture, instead I got three Egrets a Cormorant and a few ducks in one shot.
In the dark of Hermitage Lock
Whilst in Brownshill Lock Mick had called ahead to the lock keeper at Hermitage Lock, as we approached the light turned from red to green and we were soon inside the lock under the road and heading down onto the Old West. There have been plenty of tales of how low the Old West is, these started about a month ago. The lock keeper had said we’d only be dropping about 8 inches and the Tidal level was lowest he’d known it. Well he was wrong, we dropped at least 2 foot onto the Old West where the tide mark is visible about 9 inches above the current water level.
It was slow on our way out, today it was slow going on our way back. We kept to the middle, watched weed glide past beneath us and were soon joined by the Terns fishing in our wake.
Tail held high on the flood bank
The GOBA mooring at Aldreth came into view, one cruiser sat at the near end, we headed to the far end and moored up, enough depth so no problem. Tilly was given 6.5 hours, I’d promised to go for a walk with her today, so I walked as she skipped along the top of the flood bank to the next bend and then back again.
It was a bit early for lunch, so I started to prepare a Moussaka for our evening meal. As I added the red wine to the mince, oregano and cinnamon, a wasp came in through the window attracted by something. Then as I stirred the meat sauce another three came in to join it. What was it they were coming in for? Red wine? Cinnamon?
Are you sure this is different?!
We checked outside to see if we’d moored alongside a nest. No sign of one, just a few wasps doing their best to get in through closed windows, some aiming for the mushroom vents. We kept everything closed and hoped they’d get bored and move off. The cruiser moved off, Tilly came in, the doors were shut and we reversed back to the other end of the mooring. I didn’t actually believe that they’d managed to move the outside. But this other outside wasn’t half as good as the first one!
Throne and oven added
I got on with model making, propy bits, a few tweaks, alterations and additions, managing to cross off five hours work.
Another sunset
As I put the moussaka together the wasps came back and hung around until it was baked and eaten. Doors closed again, just as we wanted to have windows open to cool the boat down too!
2 locks, 6.86 miles, 2 miles tidal, 1 seal, 1 rib, 3 egrets, 543 wasps, 1 inside the stove! 2 outsides, 5 hours model making, 2 thrones, 1 wasp magnet, 1 cinnamon stick, 200ml red wine, 1 lovely sunset.
Of late there has been little need of my insulating properties in the morning. Or there has been no tea in bed as the outside needed moving early. But today was different, I got to curl up on toes and keep them nice and warm as tea was drunk and things were read in bed.
The rules were read as soon as they were dressed and She said I had ten hours! It was a sausage day!!! I spent most of the morning sat on the catwalk watching and waiting for friends. Tom had to pull the outside that bit closer as overnight it must have wriggled and made the ropes loose.
Soon Tom joined me, sitting in a chair. He knows that at the moment sausage days mean he has to make the most of the outside too, whilst She takes over the whole of the inside. The printer took over most of the bed. The boxes I’m not allowed to sit in took over the sofa. THE BIG box that I must not even ever think of going near kept being moved from table to sofa to table to sofa. The long thin cupboard where She slots things in has been tantalisingly just open for ages and things were slotted in and out. Then other things were slid in and out and just left everywhere! The dinette, the floor, the sofa! Tom and I knew we were much better off outside.
A different panto world
She says it was a productive day, so productive Tom made kedgeree for their dingding whilst she carried on being productive. She was so productive she only took photos of productive things, well and one of spikey plants that stick in my paws!
Setting sun
Tom did things with buckets and I sat waiting for friends. We had a productive day too!
0 locks, 0 miles, 1 level up, 1 indoor studio, 1 other world created, 1 list still to complete, 2 options, 1 new bucket, 10 hours, 1 long day, 1 sausage making cat, 1 Petiti sausage day.
Nobles Field GOBA mooring to The Waits to Middle Fen GOBA mooring
A chores day to start with. Being moored against one of the landings on Noble Field meant we had easy access to empty the yellow water. Tilly’s pooh box got a wash and change of litter too. Then we were on our way into St Ives before breakfast.
Straight towards the sun, wind following
Blimey that wind was strong this morning! It took quite a bit of umph to turn us around. Mick changed his mind about backing in to The Waits for water so we headed in forwards. Plenty of space, but not by the water point, our main reason for pulling up the arm. The nice couple on NB Coleen let us pull up alongside and assisted with our hose. After chats we headed inside for breakfast our tummies rumbling by now.
Filling up
Shopping lists were drawn up, one for Waitrose, mostly fruit and veg along with a few bits we had vouchers for. Another for Morrisons, hoping their wine and porridge oats would be cheaper. As soon as the water tank was full we pulled further up the arm and moored right by the steps, ease of access to get the bike off. I headed to Waitrose and Mick to Morrisons, only one item not available at each store, so a quick text between us meant we had everything covered.
The yarn bombed Waits
I was back in time to make a cuppa and be settled in time for a zoom catch up meeting with Amy from Dark Horse regarding #unit21. They are hoping to tour the show early next year but need to wait to see if a funding bid to the Arts Council is successful. We’ve all got our fingers crossed, but have to wait until October before there will be any news.
A quick lunch then it was time to reverse back down the arm and tick off a few miles today.
A cruiser had to turn to let us through, down stream boats have right of way
A cruiser waited for St Ives lock to fill, I hopped off to dispose of our rubbish, the raised wheelie bins with recycling a welcome sight. We were soon joined by another cruiser, all three boats slotting into the lock with plenty of space. I was the only one left up top to press the button for the guillotine gate.
Three in a lock
After warnings from the volunteers at Houghton the other day I was expecting the timer delay not to work, it obliged! You press the button the gate raises a few inches, this is when the delay should start it’s count down. I pressed the button again, it raised a little bit more. I read the long winded notes about to how to overcome the problem which didn’t really make that much sense. A later note concurred with what the volunteers had mentioned. If the timer doesn’t start counting, press the up button again and hold it for a few seconds after the gate has stopped moving. I ended up doing this several times before the counter started to count down more than one second.
Walkers cooling their toes
Everyone below looked up at me. I looked at the counter still counting. I’d finally got it moving when the lock was about two thirds empty. We all just had to wait though.
Last out of the lock we imagined we’d be last to the mooring we were after. But the cruisers had favoured a stop at Honeywell by the pub rather than a field with little access to anywhere else. We pulled in and tied up the outside we’d been moored at a month ago. The steep bank now easier for us after a months more experience of such places.
Trampolining sheep!
As Tilly reacquainted herself with the outside, checking any holes her arms of head would fit down I worked my way through work emails. A long winded email from the producer for panto regarding digs was quickly sorted by a message to Suzanne, the digs I’ve stayed at before are now reserved for me. It’s strange being on the other end of the digs list, it’s normally me receiving enquiries for accommodation in Scarborough.
Who is down here?!
Fabric samples and quotes for panto. Photos of a cloth that we may reuse. An email exchange with the marketing department regarding my programme biog and social media photos. I thankfully have a while longer to get things to them and found out that they are wanting to do a double page spread in the programme on the set design.
Old and new version arches
Then it was back out with the model reworking the sizes of elements for the Tower of London. Much happier with it now, still more details to add, including a few ravens.
1 lock, 4.57 miles, 1 arm reversed down, 2 boxes wine, 1 pot yoghurt, 90 minute catch up, 3 in a lock, 1 flock of trampolining sheep, 3 Kingfisher mooring to ourselves, 1 digs booked, 1 cloth, 2 pages, 3 hours, 1 full water tank, 2 clean boaters, 1 missing blog post still to come.
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.
Hemingford Grey
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.
Tucking in to the side
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.
to make room for a wide one
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 passing by
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.
Plenty of space to explore
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.
A calm evening
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.
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.
Portholme Meadow
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.
Morning!
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.
A touch too wide round the bend
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.
Heading in to go down
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.
Two waiting to go in
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.
Cat and rat iron work
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.
Drinks on the terrace
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!
A stunning evening view
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.
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.
Dried out friendly cover
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.
1:25 barrels and crates
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!
A perfect day for kite flying
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.
Box of bits
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.
Bag dipping
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.
The level came up last night, we had slack ropes this morning. However the flow on the river has just about stopped. Water levels around the whole system are in trouble and it looks like rivers are not going to escape. For several weeks there have been amber boards up along the Great Ouse. We’ve become used to such boards when the levels have been high in the autumn and winter, but right now it is the opposite, we really need some sustained rainfall.
A mardy strop
An early breakfast for us and we were on our way heading down stream, hoping for an early in the day arrival at Brampton to secure a space before the masses arrived.
It was a lovely morning, one where you remove your jumper almost as soon as you’ve put it on. Kingfishers chirped as we went past, zipping and zooming out of view too quickly for a photo.
Turn towards the lock
Offord Lock was around the next few steep bends, the lock cut heading away from the main course of the river. Round the first bend. Hang on, where did he come from?! Ahead of us a narrowboat, we’d not seen him until now.
Gerry can on the back
We caught him up at the lock and I went to lend a hand I asked where he’d come from. He was heading for diesel and as he turned the bend towards the lock he’d run out. So his boat was currently running on what ever he could find below, he’d managed to get about 3 litres together, citronella oil was mentioned, at least he’d be free from mosquitos for a day or two!
NO bins here !
We chatted as the guillotine gate was lowered, Offord Lock only 100ft long so most definitely not shareable. I wound the bottom gate paddle gear for him 59 turns to raise it, then we pushed open a gate each before he headed off to top up on diesel at the marina below.
Goodbye narrow locks
59 turns to close the slacker, hard work. Mick joined and lifted the guillotine gate to refill the lock. As we’d been heading up stream we’d heard that the bins here had been removed, boaters however were still leaving their rubbish! Today this is no longer possible as the fencing around the bin area has been moved, although I bet some boaters still will leave rubbish! Not a case of changing bin contracts, these bins have gone!
The A14 was busy unlike the GOBA moorings beyond it, not one boat moored on them. We still wanted to be that bit further on. Brampton Lock was waiting for us, we dropped down, wound our way around the islands, past the pub and pulled up where we’d been a couple of weeks ago, next to the big tree which would give us shade later on in the day and somewhere to sit out.
The mooring all to ourselves
We arrived just before 11am, just as a cruiser was pulling away. We had the big field to ourselves for an hour or so until NB Ivy May arrived and pulled up a few feet away on the other side of the tree. During the afternoon the moorings filled up, a cruiser leaving not quite enough space in front of us for another boat. Despite having been the first to moor we now looked like we had left git gaps around us. Mick pulled us back as far as we could go, hoping there’d be enough space for a short one in front.
Back on the cat walk
I spent the afternoon working on Piccadilly Circus and on board the ship. Finer details will be done after I’ve put everything into the model box to see if it works. So if anyone has any ideas on panto type Victorian adverts I can add to Piccadilly Circus please pass them on, who knows your idea may just make it onto stage this Christmas. I also spent sometime wading through on line catalogues and requesting samples to be sent out to me, lots of pink and purple fabrics, one with extra sparkles that I know we wont be able to afford, but I hope I get a sample of it!
Later in the day Mick contacted Paul from Waterway Routes regarding the length of St Neots Lock. On Pauls maps he uses the navigation authorities dimensions, after all they should know how big their locks are! A quick measure on google maps confirmed what we already knew. Paul plans to come out to measure the lock to get the correct dimension and then inform the EA. So in a future update Waterway Routes will be even more accurate than the EA.
2 locks, 4.86 miles, 1st boat, 1 extra rule regarding fences, 236 turns at Offord, 1 aching shoulder/neck, 1 hot water bottle, 12 episodes of Sherlock Holmes, 2 scenes, 5 barrels nearly made, 8.5 hours, 2 git gaps not of our making.
