A full work day for me, the drawing board was brought out early and took over the table. Mick made himself a little office in the cratch with a chair and his tablet, not sure what work he was doing!
Tilly was given nine hours shore leave, she made the most of it along with coming back for Dreamies and the occasional kip when the area got a bit too woofery.
Considering there were quite a few boats at the festival over the weekend the river has been very quiet, a cruiser came past and has moored up at the other end of the GOBA moorings. Everyone must have headed of on Sunday afternoon or on Monday before we came out of the marina.
All the sketch drawings ready for model making
At 2:30pm it was time for my next production zoom meeting. Mick headed off to pick up some things we’d forgotten from Tescos whilst I settled down with Gemma (Production Manager), John (Writer of this years Panto and Artistic Director of Chippy Theatre) and Paul (the new Technical and facilities Director at Chippy). The talk was about all things set. With the lateness of everything we are having to cut some corners, so there simply won’t be time to get quotes for the build, but a slot has already been booked with the builders who have built the last few years. The budget is up on last year, but then so are prices for materials. I’m trying to reuse as much as possible and poor Paul has been rummaging away in the Attic store trying to find things. I now have rough design dead lines to meet.
Last night we started planning our route towards Oxford for me to go to work.
The quick way
As the crow flies Bedford is 44 miles from Oxford from where I’ll get the bus to Chipping Norton to start work.
A look at Canalplan first gave us the quicker route via Braunston, Cropredy and Banbury. 235 miles, 125 locks, taking nearly 106 cruising hours. This route at the moment has been short of water, like many places, and wouldn’t make the most use out of our Gold Licence.
Via Braunston
Another look at Canalplan with a route via Brentford. 339 miles, 198 locks, 157.5 cruising hours. This would make use of our gold licence and hopefully should the drought continue the Thames may have more water than the Oxford Canal.
Via Brentford
We use Canal plan to work out where we’re likely to be on certain dates and roughly how many hours we should be cruising a day. With this latter plan, it works out to be just over 2 hours a day to arrive in Oxford with plenty of time before I go off to work. But with me working every other day (48hr moorings on EA waters), that will mean we need to be doing at least four hours on days when we cruise.
This doesn’t account for any exploration of the Middle Level or taking time on the River Nene.
We’d best get moving!
0 locks, 0 miles, 8 hours drawing, 1 indoor office, 1 cratch office, 9 hours feline exploration, 1 useful meeting, 1 white card date in the diary, 1 cruising plan to try to stick to, 1 annoying fishing family right by our bedroom long after dark, 2 boaters ready with buckets of water in case their fire gets out of control!
Boat chores to start the day, topping up on water, yellow water tank emptied, rubbish and recycling gathered together and disposed of. Whilst all this was happening we were aware that NB Cleddau had returned just a few spaces away. We said our farewells and thanks to Karen the Marina Manager, put a donation in the charity tin to cover our electric and one use of a tumble dryer. We’ve enjoyed our stay in the marina, a very helpful and friendly place to be.
Marina view
Next, time to say goodbye to Ken and Sue until our bows cross again . This may happen at the end of the week with both boats starting to head back towards C&RT waters.
Danish Camp boat returning to base with rib and raft
We reversed and winded, the wind assisting us thankfully and we turned out back onto the river. A right turn and we pootled just as far as the GOBA mooring. The grey widebeam we’ve seen over the last couple of months was moored up, we joined them and had a chat. It turns out that WB Four Seasons was in the parade of boats at the festival and they were Black Pearl, our best in show! Blimey they had gone to more effort than I’d first thought. Sheets had been bought and dyed, the cabin sides covered to make them black, normally grey. Even more impressive, I do hope they got a prize of some sort.
Sketch groundplan
After lunch Mick helped get my drawing board out from it’s slot. Today I’d have an indoor office/studio. With taking over the table and much of the sofa there’s not much space left for Mick, so he headed off on the bike with a shopping list for a reasonable sized shop, but first he headed off to see if he could find a couple of buildings in Cardington, two Airship sheds.
New housing alongside thesheds
The first shed produced it’s first airship in 1918. Cardington had the worlds best airship facilities, but due to the depression it closed in 1921 after the construction of the R38. However the station reopened in 1924 following the announcement of the Imperial Airship Service, the site was to build R101s amongst others.
The airships were much bigger than before, so the buildings they were constructed in needed to grow, the original shed expanded both upwards and out sideways and a second shed was brought down from Pulham south of Norwich.
The crash of the R101 in October 1930 led to the decision to dismantle the R100 in shed 2. In 1931 the station nearly closed but was used for aircraft storage. However in 1936 RAF Cardington was formed and by 1937 a balloon training unit was formed, by WW2 barage balloons and aerial defences were developed here.
Interesting buildings
After the war it became a Personnel Dispersal Centre, where RAF personnel passed through to be demobbed. The balloon unit continued to experiment on the site until 1966, then it moved to Wiltshire. The RAF base here finally closed in 2000. The sheds are listed buildings and have been used as filming locations for Star Wars and now one of them houses a film studio.
A lot more information on the sheds can be found HERE
A scene plot
During the afternoon I managed to get a very sketchy ground plan together, rough positions of everything and what is known as a hanging plot. This is a list of what is hanging on which fly bar. I worked out depths of the stage and how things would be brought on and off. In one scene change I’m hoping to enlist the actors in part of the action to strike certain elements of the set, it kind of helps that the ship in sinking at the time!
First drawing to help make the model
Then I started to draw up my downstage portal, the design heavily influenced by Crossness Pumping Station.
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.
Ken, Chris and Sue
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.
Jennie, Mick and Heather
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.
Hope it got best in show
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.
Ahh! Sitting down and a cuppa
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 bowl
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.
Thousands of people!
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.
Over breakfast I worked, putting things into the panto dropbox ready for the first production meeting on Zoom. This was mostly parish notices and how everyone has progressed. The whole thing is a few weeks late. With my first panto for Chippy I was at least a couple of weeks ahead of where I am now and somehow I need to catch up. A number of factors have caused the delay in getting started, but the main thing is there is now a team together, a script and we need to crack on with things. The costume designer, new this year, has not grown up with pantos so there will be a lot of explanations needed. Such as why there are SO many costume changes and especially why everyone gets changed for the final scene into an outfit just for the walkdown, the Dames costume for this tends to be the most outlandish and impractical outfit known to man that they have to put on in a matter of seconds in the wings. Maryna comes from an Opera background so it will be interesting to see what this brings to her costumes.
Just a touch too tall to get under the bridge
Once my meeting was done it was time to do boat chores, the yellow water needed emptying and then we could move off. All morning boats had been coming past, quite a few cruisers with low air draught. Higher ones appeared and tried their luck at getting under the bridge just round the bend, some made it very carefully others winded and pulled up behind us on the moorings to wait for the river to be dropped in the early evening.
Into the marina for a few days
NB Lily May winded and headed to the marina for a pump out and no doubt fill with water. The water point we’d used the other day had now been taken over by a water bottle station for the festival. We winded and headed to Priory Marina ourselves to find our mooring, C31. The pontoons were lettered and quite easy to see, but the numbered spaces, hmm? Mick nudged Oleanna’s bow into a space and I hopped off to see where we should be, there were no markings on the ends of the pontoons. Numbers on the hook up points didn’t reach into the 30’s. Mick called Karen who made her way to help us find the right place just as I looked down to my feet and saw 31 between my toes!
That will be where the number is
Once plugged in we could start the big wash, Mick being a good house wife whilst I got on with doing more panto sketches. There is one scene that is just eluding us at the moment and time is of the essence as peoples availability now gets harder as schools have broken up.
Around about 5pm I got a message to say a parcel had arrived for me at a Parcel Shop a short distance away from Tescos. This would have been a short walk had we stayed on the GOBA mooring, but now it was that bit further away. The Oasis Beach pond had filled up slightly after the rain the other day, I’m not sure it made it look any more attractive!
Dancing at the tiller, ready for the weekend
A few more boats were sat waiting for the level to drop on the river. On my way back several of the boats had managed to limbo under the bridge, the level looking to have dropped by about 6 inches. I wonder if it would get any lower.
Back at Oleanna I unpacked the biggest parcel. Tilly assisted and then was allowed to do what all cats do and climb inside the empty box. This kept her content for a while. My clothes cupboards were reorganised and the model shelf emptied, the model box I’d received slid in to it’s space. I’ll need to finish packing away long sleeved tops to make room for other bits of model in the next few days, but for now everything has a home. More importantly once the final scene of panto is sorted I can start making a model.
Model box on it’s shelf again
0 locks, 0.26 miles, 1.5 hours shore leave, 1 hour talking panto, 50th Chippy panto, 5 emails, 3 sketches, 1 designer not confident, 1 huge box, 1 model box tucked away, 1 empty yellow water tank, 1 full water tank, 2 showered boaters, 2 loads of washing more to come, C31 found.
Bedford GOBA Mooring to Kempston Mill to Bedford GOBA Mooring
The river festival
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.
Heatwave eggs for breakfast
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.
Our last lock up on the Great Ouse
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.
Duck
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?
Another tree being sawn up
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.
Heading back down stream
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.
Now they look familiar
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.
Down hill for a while now
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!
Very slow progress
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.
Our neighbours for the night
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!
I spy a cat in this outside!
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.
The cool of the morning was lovely, but sadly going to be short lived as the temperature started to rise. Our neighbour of last night moved off as they’d said at 6:30 and not that long after Mick was on the gunnel lowering the white sheets again.
But why?!
Tilly was allowed shore leave first thing, but when she revisited for some ‘Thank you for coming home’ Dreamies the doors were closed behind her, soon followed by the windows and all the curtains, trying to keep the coolness we’d started with trapped inside.
With the sheets on the sunny side it certainly reduced the amount of heat the cabin sides emitted inside. Maybe when Oleanna is due a repaint we’ll use the same colours, but with cream being the predominate colour rather than dark blue. Lets face it this heat wave isn’t going to be a one in a hundred year event, it may not be the last heat wave we get this year! We may also invest in foil blankets and magnets for such days to help reflect the heat away more than the sheets, thank you Adam and Chris for your comments.
Whilst the sun shone down on Oleanna we stayed inside, windows, doors and curtains all closed. The new fan was pointed towards dampened towels that we hung from a string across the boat. The evaporation from the towels helping to cool the air.
I put together my panto story board with notes and emailed it off to Abi. I don’t expect a reply for a few days as she has two young children to look after in this heat as well as herself.
Mick preferred to sit outside in the warm shade
Once shade started to appear on the bank Mick headed out to sit in it. I preferred to stay inside with Tilly. A cold flannel to cool down every now and again for both myself and Tilly. We’d tried a chilled hot water bottle wrapped in a towel for her to lie on, cool matt no good, escape pod in front of the fan, That one was just plain scary! But at least she would allow me, even though begrudgingly to wipe her down with a cool wet flannel. Cats don’t like being wet, she tried her best not to purr as she got used to it.
I even started to read a book
The internet stopped working or a while the server needing rebooting, phones became hot, in the end I turned mine off so that it would have chance to cool down.
I never thought that one day I’d even think of wearing a wet t-shirt, but today it was most certainly the best way of keeping cool. Mick soon followed and felt the benefit quite quickly.
White bits up to reflect the heat away
As the shade took over the bank and had chance to cool the ground I also moved outside. Fan turned off inside the boat and Tilly allowed back outside. A water bowl was put down for her but she seemed to prefer her self catering approach to keeping hydrated. You lead a horse to water, it’s even harder to get a cat to drink!
One of Mick’s sandals had a malfunction, the heel strap breaking. One job that wouldn’t involve too much energy. Some strong cotton and big needle and my leather thimble sewed it back together in no time.
We don’t know what temperature we got up to here on our island, the internet suggested around 38 39C. We just know it was bloomin hot!
Rain!
This morning I’d message our friend David to check up on him in Yorkshire. He’d been offered shelter in a house by some people in the local village if his boat got too hot, which it will have done despite being white.
Tonights bbq
This evening we stayed sat out until 10pm, the sheets lifted on Oleanna and windows open or removed to try to replace the air inside and help her cool down. Tilly was allowed an extended shore leave as she’d had wet food for lunch today. After our barbeque she was elusive, most probably being busy. We ended up leaving her to it, she found her own way back just after the news had started.
0 locks, 0 miles, 1 island to ourselves, 1 boat overstaying,2 many lobsters on boats or paddle boards, 1 dark boat, 0 bra day, 2 wet t-shirts, 1 wet cat, 1 story board, 1 book started, 1 mended sandal, 2 rain showers, 2 steaks cooked much better than the one I had in Littleport, 4 veg kebabs, 1 bowl of roasted potato salad, 25 glasses of water each, 1st day survived, 2 glasses of wine each, yes I know it was a Monday but I just couldn’t face any more water!
Our neighbour on NB Atropos had sneaked away in the early hours, making the most of the cool early morning to head upstream. Mick was out on the gunnel putting the sheets back down the cabin side at around 8am, not much of a view through the curtains today!
Not much of a view!
A gentle breeze seemed to be blowing which was lifting the sheets. Time for some adjustments. Mick hunted round for some big magnets that we have and used those to start off with, nowhere near enough of them though. All the fenders and loops of the centre line were draped down the cabin side to help keep the fabric in place.
Ropes and fenders
The tent on the island had gone but there was still the aroma of cooking coming from 50 yards away. We had breakfast, pottered away the morning inside keeping in the shade as there is only about a foot of it outside until mid morning.
As soon as there was enough shade I set up my office outside. I hoped to get much of my drawings done today before things get really sticky tomorrow. I just about achieved this, only one drawing left to do but as yet I haven’t found an alternative solution for that scene.
Maybe otherworldy enough, but maybe not.
My sketches were scanned ready to make into a story board that I can send off tomorrow. It would be good if Abi and myself agree on the way forward before a meeting at the end of the week.
Tilly came and went, although as the afternoon went on she did tend to hang around closer to the boat and sit under chairs for some added shade. She has a water bowl outside as well as inside. I’ve brought out the cool mat with the hope that she may use it, it’s now covered in a t-towel so hopefully the fabric of it won’t put her off. Having said that, she has walked round it this evening to reach her water bowl in the shower!
Lifting the sheets to get some air into the boat
We’ve had trial attempts at putting an ice pack wrapped in a t-towel under the towel in her escape pod, but that made the floor too lumpy and the escape pod was rejected. Hopefully tomorrow she’ll be less active naturally because of the heat and accept some of the measures we’re trying to help her with.
Goodbye neighbours
Mid afternoon the remaining campers on the island brought all their possessions to the mooring behind us, this was followed by two inflatable canoes. Each in turn were lowered into the river and loaded up with bags of things and one person each. We had a good chat as they loaded everything up, they’d been good neighbours as had we. The third chap headed back to their camp and then appeared in a small rib with an electric outboard. We now had the island to ourselves.
Fan in the door
As I worked Mick changed our solids bucket in the toilet and we emptied the yellow water, all jobs that would be a touch too much to do tomorrow. He also rigged up an old computer fan in the vent of the electrics cupboard which will run when the inverter fan is running and then carry on for four hours afterwards. This cupboard can get quite hot, so we’re hoping this will help.
An chap suddenly appeared behind us on the island, he was going for a swim. His boots trailing behind him and his panama hat on to protect his head from the sun. The two ladies he joined thought he was bonkers as he tipped his hat to say hello!
Good evening!
Early evening we were joined by another narrowboat. Reversing in to moor behind us. They were on their way back from Bedford and had wanted to avoid mooring nearer the lock where last week it had been chaotic to say the least. On a schedule they would be off early tomorrow.
The ash under our bbq is from a previous island visitor
Outdoor cooking is required from now on. Well apart from boiling up some potatoes which I then wrapped in foil with some garlic and a drizzle of rapeseed oil. These sat on the grill of our barbecue as the sweetcorn cooked and then the pork chops. Apart from the garlic being a touch dark, everything was very tasty, accompanied by a coleslaw of cabbage and apple.
Very tasty
We sat out until quite late this evening, the air only just really cooling off just before we headed inside. Over the next two days we’ll try to remember that feeling of slight chill. It will return, we just have to live through 48 hours of exceptional heat before it does!
Who stole the roof!?!
0 locks, 0 miles, 2 boaty neighbours, 5 campers, 4 boats, 1 swimmer, 1 hire boat too late to moor, 0 depth on the outside, 1 hot cat, 1 escape pod roof removed, 0 feline cooling attempts accepted, 2 pork chops, 2 cobs, 2 packets of potatoes, 1 of them for tomorrow, 2 boaters as prepared as we can be.
Curtains remained closed this morning. Our port side had shade until about 8am, then the sun started creeping around the trees opposite, thankfully today wouldn’t be too hot.
Tilly headed off to explore, we’d not heard the woofer since last night, so we hoped it had left the island. A small tepee tent had sprung up just along the island from us and there was an aroma of sausages cooking on a wood fire.
Shady hunting
The Geragthy zoom included topics such as honesty, choral societies and how we might reuse the sheets we’d bought. One suggestion being that we might make sails to aid our return to Denver, it would certainly save on diesel. We could even use our new fan should there be no wind to help us move, but that would mean running the engine!
Time to work out how to attach our sheets to the cabin side. All the planks and poles would come in handy, I’d often wondered why we had kept three boat hooks on the roof, but today they’d be useful. The sheets were draped over the cabin side, the top foot put over the roof and into the gutter with a pole to weight it down. This was fine until it came to adding the next length. Tape was deemed to be necessary.
No hospital corners here
I still intend to repaint the grab rail so taping things to it wouldn’t be a problem. The big roll of gaffa I’d liberated from a theatre came in handy for this purpose. The sheets stretched from the front of the cabin to part way along the sign writing at the stern. Thought now is required on how to keep the sheets hanging down when there is a breeze never mind the forecast 14mph winds in a few days.
White side
Mid morning a narrowboat appeared and headed to see if it could get in behind us. Being about 50ft there should have been just about enough space if she could get into the side. The depth turns out to not be that great all the way along the mooring here. The lady managed to get off with ropes and Mick helped get her bow rope. In the end she was moored at a touch of a jaunty angle but the bow close enough to get on and off.
Neighbour
As the morning progressed we kept our eyes open for shady places to sit out, only a small patch that was constantly on the move. Mick trimmed back a few nettles to make a slightly larger area. After lunch the area had expanded enough for two chairs to be in the shade.
Todays office
I set up an outside office and continued to work on my sketches for panto. This year I have yet another boat/ship. One line in the script ‘stoke the boilers’ suggests it’s a steam powered ship. Then there are comments of sails, no problem, plenty of such ships to use as reference, just how to incorporate it into the design?
Maybe something like this
I was very fond of last years ship and I can’t replicate that one. A big steam funnel centre stage will use up too much stage space, but maybe I’ve succeeded in a way round it.
I rather like these
Then there is an island called Petiti which we don’t want to be too much of a colonial island to conquer, after all this is Chippy 2022 panto. At the moment I quite like the look of Singapore’s Supertrees, but Abi the director suggested it might have an edible feel to it all. Maybe I can turn the trees into ice cream cones?! Who knows.
During the day the river has been busy. Plenty of people out enjoying the sunshine and warmth. Our neighbours on the island have been joined by others, they’ve been for a paddle in their canoes and by the sounds of the clinking glass consumed a few bottles of beer between them. The lady on the boat next to us (really wish we’d got her name) headed off to try to find the old lock on the island. Not sure if she was successful, maybe we’ll have a look tomorrow.
Blanket to help keep the bedroom cooler
As the sun moved round our port side went into shade. We popped a cream blanket over the bedroom on the starboard side, hoping that might help to keep it cool for later. The sheets on the port side were lifted onto the roof meaning the windows on that side could then help with ventilation.
This evening I had a go at making Quesadillas. I kind of had the ingredients, but it was a version of a recipe by the gfblogger on instagram. They were nice, but maybe some proper chipotle paste would be better than the chilli dressing I had on board. I’ll be giving them another go at some point as they require very little heat.
0 locks, 0 miles, 3 sheets cut in half, 14m of white cabin side, 1 white blanket for the bedroom, 1 small patch of shade turns into 1 huge area by mid afternoon, 1 wasps nest, 1 weekend long party (must have a boat to access it), 3 canoes, 1 rib, 10 hours shore leave, 1 very pooped cat who really needs to start drinking water!
A slightly cooler day again. Looks like we need to make the most of such days before the temperature totally soars.
Not much blue there!
Time to print out my references and get cracking on a story board for panto. The printer came out of the office cupboard. A calm attitude is required with our printer as it tends to be a touch annoying at the best of times, preferring to be fed paper one way, then the other, the paper drawer on the bottom has a major design flaw too! My demeanour was good this morning until I printed out the pages. Loads of lines, everything a touch too pink and yellow!
They are only for ease of reference so not too important, but it would be handy for me to be able to see what the pictures include. I tried again, worse! I could see the blue was just about gone but the printer knew better than me! Maybe changing all the ink cartridges would help?
The spare cartridges I thought we had were ones from the last time this happened, I’d kept them because none of them were showing as being empty, but that was at least a year ago and they were all now long dried out! So until I can get replacements I’ll have to make do.
A few boats came past during the day. One cruiser loitering with intent to pull alongside us, but they decided against it in the end.
Washing and a neighbour
I was just about to set up an outside office as Mick was adjusting a load of washing on the whirligig, then he started to talk to a narrowboat. ‘Are you looking for somewhere to moor?’ The answer was yes. So we offered our port side to them. As the boat approached I realised it might be some time before I’d get to start work as we knew the boat.
Back in November 2014, NB Still-Waters was one of the shells we’d seen sat outside the workshop of Stillwater Narrowboats. We’d been on a day trip to see how our new build narrowboat was going, we’d been a touch concerned to have heard nothing for quite sometime from the builders. The place was deserted apart from a few shells, none of which looked to be ours. If you don’t know the story here’s a link to the first blog post.
Their surname is Waters
Thankfully now enough time has passed since the CPS took the builders to court, so we no longer tell tales of wo to each other, but have conversations about cruising plans and where we’ve both been. We passed ropes over our t-studs and I apologised in advance if Tilly happened to go on their boat.
I managed a few hours of putting sketches together under the shade of a nearby tree. Tilly exhausted from another full days exploration returned and did a double take.
My paws are all clean!
You said nothing about catching another boat! When did we get an extension? You’ll have difficulty moving the outside up and down with that alongside us! As she walked along our roof she shouted! She even hopped onto their roof to take a look and have a sniff around. This behaviour is discouraged and she soon came back onto Oleanna.
However later in the afternoon she wanted to check out the sleeping arrangements on Still-Water! There was no stopping her going inside and having a jolly good nosy. Why haven’t we got one of those things?! What things?! Those things?!
Not a bad view out of the cratch this evening
Today also marks the seventh anniversary of an unexpected visit to the QMC in Nottingham. A day for memories, and not good ones.
0 locks, 0 miles, 8 pages of pink/yellow references, 4 sketches, 1 needing redoing, 2 loads of washing, 1 Still Water neighbour, 6 fritters, 1 noisy nosy parker! ! grounded cat.
Brampton Park GOBA Moorings to Paxton Pits GOBA Mooring
Time for us to move on and hopefully find another shady mooring. Once we’d had our cup of tea in bed we postponed breakfast and pushed off, NB Eleanor Rugby had long since gone!
Is this an Aquavista 60/40 split price?!
First things first. Water! We’d last filled up in St Ives and have been frugal with our usage. A water point was shown on our maps at Buckden Marina, we pulled up on their service mooring. Maybe we’d top up on diesel too whilst we were here. The petrol pump had a sign on it saying they were out and more was on order. The diesel pump just boasted the price £2.25. HOW MUCH!!! Yes this might be the price of a 60/40 split, but still!
Thank you for the water
We connected up our hose, it was still too early for the office to be open. Water came forth and we started to fill our tank, we’d see if anyone had a problem as we weren’t inclined to top up on diesel. Nobody came to see if they could help us even once the office was open, so we coiled up our hose once full and pushed away.
Offord Lock came next. The top guillotine gate open. As I pressed the close gate button I looked at the lock, blimey it was narrow! Having got used to the D shaped locks which fit three narrowboats side by side this was narrow. Not in the sense of a narrow canal lock but you’d never get two narrowboats in side by side and at 11ft 2″ wide some wide beams would have difficulty.
Narrow and Gongoozlers
By the time Oleanna was in the lock coming up we had four gongoozlers. One wondering if the crocodiles would get us on the river, another two not realising that the river continued on up ahead of us for quite some miles.
Harry
Onwards now for a couple more miles. We passed a couple of narrowboats including NB Jolly Lamb whom we’ve come across a couple of times in the past. Did this mean that the next mooring would have space for us, we hoped so.
Is that a space?
Yes! Just enough room for us beside a shady tree at Paxton Pits. We pulled in, I hopped off the bow with Mick staying on board as the mooring meant we’d need a plank once tied up.
Brunch
Time for breakfast, well brunch and with it being a touch cooler we risked a cooked breakfast, not quite the full works but certainly a good effort and very tasty.
Covered in cobwebs
I continued hunting out panto references. Mick sat outside listening to cricket. Our route northwards at the end of the year was looked at in more detail. Tilly headed off to find friends, breaking the first rule within half an hour! She was speedily reminded of that rule whilst being forcibly removed from the boat along with her friend!
During the afternoon we got some rain showers, the sort that just seemed to add to the general mugginess of the day. Despite this I decided to go for a walk. Solutions to be found for panto are best done whilst walking . I filled a water bottle, showed Mick the route I planned on taking and headed off.
Paxton Aggregates
Paxton Pits were gravel pits, in the 1930’s the gravel was mostly used in building airfields around the country. Today gravel is still dug here but the old pits are now filled with water and have become a nature reserve.
Heron Trail
In the early 20thC the Trimmings family grew plantations of Cricket Bat Willow on islands at Little Paxton. The trees produce a wood that is light, tough and doesn’t splinter. The firm now called Hunts County Bats still continues today, producing 20,000 bats worldwide every year.
To the Kingfisher hide
There were also paper mills at Little Paxton, 184 years of production. A raised causeway gave access to the mills in times of flood. Now the area is a modern housing estate.
Viper’s Bugloss?
Much of the land in the nature reserve is gravelly as you would imagine. Plants vie for enough moisture to be able to grow. Purple flowering plants had pushed their way up, possibly Viper’s Bugloss?
No Kingfishers to be seen today
I followed the Heron trail handy hides every now and then giving me shelter from the now almost constant showers of rain. One facing towards a bank which may or may not have been Kingfisher nests. I listened out for them but sadly none were to be seen or heard. I did spot 2 Egrets , 2 Cormorants and a Heron all sitting together on a bit of mud.
Not the best photo
The nature reserve is a Dragonfly Hotspot with 26 varieties of dragonflies and damselflies. Today however there were none to be seen here, they must all have been out on the river.
I soon had walked past the active gravel pit with all it’s machinery. Wondered if quicksand is still as treacherous in a drought as it seems in the movies. The path turned again to be alongside the river. A home made banner attached to a gate. Was this advertising Matt Walsh’s film examining changing concepts of gender in the digital age? This is what Google suggested it might be.
Hello!
Tilly’s white tipped tail sprung into the air to greet me back at the boat. A pleasant walk even if a touch warm, I did manage to come up with a few more ideas for work too.
With the beginning of next week likely to be too hot to do much other than breath, we spent some of the evening trying to work out a plan to try to be on the shadiest mooring on the hottest days. Will we succeed? Will we be beaten to the mooringOr will we just cook?
1 lock, 3.27 miles, 0 bins, 1 full water tank, £2.25! 0 crocodiles, 11am mooring, 2 plates of brunch, 32 more images, 3 mile walk, 0 Kingfishers, 2 solutions, 3 possibilities, 30C, 3 hours of gentle showers.
