Horseway Lock 28 Feb 2012

Last night after it stopped raining we walked into town to eat. I was all set to go to Weatherspoons but Diana thought the Indian Restaurant opposite  would make a change, so it was the Shah Jahan. I never know what to order so it was the special for two. The only problem is its not licenced so I had to drink J2O. They are very happy for you to take your own drink in with you and don’t charge corkage, it was just we didn’t know. The food was quite mild but very tasty and the portion size just right. When the bill came it was discounted for some reason so effectively the poppadum's and soft drinks were free, I have no idea why.

This morning we were awake early, I don’t remember booking the dawn chorus and ducks so we were on the move before 1000 hrs. We didn’t get far as I spotted a boater we had met at Outwell 4 years ago so we stopped for bit of a chinwag. It was just on 1000 hrs. as we passed the Town Moorings. We carried on along the Old Nene for an hour past the wind farm until we reached Pophams Eau where we turned right to go to Three Holes. We were now cruising down the Norfolk Cambridgeshire boarder. The local IWA branch are negotiating to install some moorings in the area of Three Holes, but I am not sure where. We turned left at the junction along the middle Level Drain` and went a short way towards Mullicourt Aqueduct. It is classed as Not Navagatable so I don’t know how far we could have gone, but we turned after about a quarter of a mile.

We then headed south down the Sixteen Foot Drain, of plan was to moor outside The Golden Lion pub, we new the moorings were hard to spot but their construction made it impossible for us to get close enough for the dog to hop on and off. so we backed up a few yards and got the bow against the bank. The pub was closed during the day and there was nothing to indicate they did food at night, also the bank was quite a scramble even for us and the road was right along the top so again it would have been difficult for the dog, so we decided to give it a miss until we have more information.

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the end of the Sixteen Foot Drain we turned left along Vermuden’s Drain, again it was the first time we had been down here. It started quite clear and open but much narrower, through an arched bridge which makes a change from the flat concrete or steel structures we have become accustom to, through the bridge there were lots of nice fishing platforms and I made a mental note that one of these would suit us if nothing else was available. Shortly after this the right hand bank had been scraped clear to allow a crawler tracked dredger access and this had worked its way right up to Horseway Lock which was helpful. We have moored for the night on the lock landing which like the lock is in first class order. The bottom gats of the lock are chained and padlocked but both end gates are ajar with no level differential. The other side of the lock the cut just disappears into an overgrown mess, so I am sure no one will be wanting to lock through tonight and we wont be in anybody’s way.

February 27 March Park Moorings

We arrived at the boat about 12-30 and I immediately set to refilling the potable water system. This went very well just necessitating opening the main outlet from the tank and turning on the pressurising  pump, after that it was just a matter of waiting for the system to fill, pushing out all the air and pressurising its self. Once that was don’t listen for the pump to keep starting which would have indicated we had a leak somewhere.

The next job now we had water in the system was to light the Dickinson diesel stove, remembering to take the cap off first and putting on the chimney. Things were going well.

Next job fire up the engine, it was November 5 the last time we had her running. When she has stood for any length of time I always operate the diesel lift pump manually before turning over the engine, just to make sure there are no air bubbles just waiting to go into the injector pump and cause problems. Turned the key and it fired up straight away.

We have a pair of solar panels on the roof just to make sure the domestic batteries are kept fully charged. When I switched on the main isolators the domestic batteries were sitting at 27.5 volts. I don’t use the solar panels while we are cruising so I take them off and store them under the tug deck. the are not big enough to put a useful amount of charge in each day so I would rather store them out of harms way.

By 2 PM we were ready to set off, but we wandered down the moorings to have a chat with Anne and Olly before we left at about 1450. We moor noise it the bank and reversing straight out of the finger there is just room to swing the bows round the rudder of the butty moored to the left of us without hitting the far side bank. By doing this we are on our way to March. We met two boats just through the first bridge who both moor at Floods Ferry as we travelled to March where we moored at 1600 on the new park moorings. This is much more convenient for the dog than the town moorings, but are a bit shallow so the bows are in and the stern 3 foot out.

As I write this at 1700 hrs. Diana has walked into town to find the post office and it has just started to spit with rain, needless to say she hasn’t taken a coat with her.

A few shots in Norfolk

When we went to Gt. Yarmouth last week and there were several boats on the move. It looked as if a boat yard were moving several of their hire boat up the Bure

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
As we crossed Breydon Water I spotted a pair of cruisers breasted up heading down stream so we stopped at the Bure to try for a photo or two. It turned out to be a cruiser bringing a brand new shell for fit out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boats can only get from the Yare to the Bure at low water as they have to get under the old Vauxhall railway bridge which use to carry the railway through the town. The tide was still running out as these boats pushed their way up the Bure but even so there was a lot of mud to be seen in the river.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also visited Ranworth where we climbed the church tower, you who follow me on Facebook may have seen the first photo before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The views from the top are quite spectacular and you are free to clime the spiral stone stairs to the bell chamber and then up a ladder to the very top. Although you can do this at any time of the day I would suggest you avoid doing it just on the hour as it can be a bit noisy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see the weather was not the best but we still enjoyed some great views across the broads.

Floods Ferry 6 Nov 2011 Day 9

Sorry this posting is rather late but just to close the trip off.

The moorings in March were very noisy last night with chanting and singing way into the early hours. We think people must have been on there way home from nightclubs.

We left the moorings in bright sun and had a steady journey back to our home moorings at Floods Ferry. This part of our trip takes just over an hour and a quarter. There were lots of fishermen out on the banks today including opposite our moorings, I did feel a bit sorry for those that pulled their gear in only for us to turn into our moorings.

We had planned to drain the boat ready for the winter but as the weather is still so warm and we are only a 2 hour drive from home we decided to leave the boat ready to go.

Until the next time.

March 5 Nov 2011 day 8

As we arrived at Salters Load 2 MLC workmen were removing the wooden handrail beside the steps on the lock landing and replacing it with a steel one. Over the years the wooden one had suffered not only from damp at ground level but also repeated attacks from a powerful strimmer. After dark the house just the other side of the Old Bedford River had a bonfire and fireworks for their kids, us two big kids just sat and watched from the Ouse flood wall.

When we left this morning there were a group of fishermen on the moorings nearer the bridge, I thanked them for drawing their tackle in as we passed, but not a word or a smile from any of them. When we got to Upwell there they were, sitting on the moorings fishing, hoping for better luck.

It was a sort of nothingness day, damp, misty, the odd spot of rain and the sun trying to break through.  For quite a length the north bank of  Well Creak is constructed against a brick wall between Nordelph and Outwell. This bank is a good 2 foot higher than the south bank so it the banks were overtopped the flood water would flow south towards the other drains within the Middle Level.

We crossed the Middle Level Main Drain on the Mullicourt Aqueduct and this has been the only time we have crossed without the pump starting to bring water up from the Main Drain. Just west of the aqueduct there are some angling platforms, these are designed for wheel chair users but I have never seen any disabled people using them, there were no anglers there at all today although we saw lots between Salters Lode and March.

Marmont lock was full ready for us and i had rung Maureen to tell her we were on our way, Diana went over to ring the bell to let her know we had arrived and then opened one gate leaving the offside for Maureen. It wasn’t long before we were on our way down to deeper water. Then past the wind farm and into March. One thing that caught my eye as we approached the town was one of the buildings had a row of seagulls all the way along the ridge. We moored up on the town moorings at 2 30 pm. we will stay here overnight and that will give us an hours run in the morning back to Floods Ferry to top the batteries up after tonight's use.

Salters lode 4 Nov 2011 day 7

There is only one restaurant at this end of Littleport and they do a fixed price 4 course meal for £39-50 but the cheese course is complimentary, I couldn’t quite work that one out. It only opens twice a week other than for private functions, last night was one of the function nights with about a dozen men sitting at two tables.

Overnight it rained almost constantly, stopping just as we pushed off at 9 am but starting again quite soon afterwards. The reason for our early start was that we had to navigate a very silted up Denver Sluice and I wanted to see at low water where the best channel was. Just as we moored at Denver the rain stopped and the sun came back out. The silting is so bad now that the lock is virtually unusable on a neap tide. When we visited 3 years ago 3 boats sailed straight out of Salters Lode on the level, up the Ouse and straight through Denver Sluice on the level. Today nothing bigger than a canoe would get through on the level with only about 4” of water between the sand banks.

The lock keeper was very doubtful that we would get out today as we would need about another 3 Ft. to do it safely. The seagulls could walk across the channel at the moment, but it was almost 4 hours to the top of the tide. One possibility was to go out backwards as far as the sandbank and then forwards between the sandbank on the left and the front of the sluice but he could not recommend it.

To waste a bit of time we walked around the area looking at the relief channel and where you locked down into it. There are 3 lots of moorings on the channel and a possible thing to do if we can’t get out.

At about quarter past two we went back to look at the water level, High Water at Kings Lynn was 1345 hrs. and we had gained about 12” but it was still rising very slowly. Chatting again to the lock keeper he enquired as to whether we had a Bowthruster, if so we could easy out of the lock, swing 100 deg to the left, slide along between the sandbank and the front of the sluice until we hit the New Bedford River and then sharp right downstream to salters Lode, but of course it was up to us and I was game. We  we didn’t do this today we would be stuck here until next Thursday morning as tomorrow is the last daylight tide and its only about 6” more than today, also tomorrow wouldn’t be the resident keeper so the chances of sliding round the back would be less.

The lock keeper got the lock ready and I got Harnser ready and we were soon in the lock, as soon as the bottom gate was up I crept forward, used the bowthruster to pivot the boat round to the left with the stern at the lock entrance, then slowly forward towards the New Bedford River, easy to the right as I approached the channel to miss the sand bank on the point and then off down river to Salters Lode where Paul had the lock ready for us. I thought we were on slack water by now or even starting to run out so I swung hard left to line up with the lock entrance which points downstream, however the tide was still making slightly  which caused me to cut the corner a bit and I had to give it a bit of welly to get her bum round before just drifting into the lock, it was now 3 pm. Paul locked us up and we have Moored for the night on the lock moorings as we wouldn’t get to Outwell before dark.

Littleport 3 Nov 11 day 6

The weather was not so good this morning so we made a slow start at 1040 am. This worked well as we didn’t see any more rain all day.

The rivers are down by a good 4” as can be seen by the bottom of the air draught board below Prickwillow bridge.  Just by this bridge is the Prickwillow pumping museum which houses a large collection of diesel driven fen drainage pumps. The museum runs these pumps on special days through the summer months.

Once back on the Great Ouse we turned left and headed upstream towards Ely. Its a long wide straight run alongside the railway line on the right and a road on the left. As you travel along this straight there is a good view of Ely Cathedral which looks as if it is standing on a high hill, not just the low bump that takes it above sea level.

 

We continued our journey through the town and went as far as Soham Lode which is not navigatable. We turned here and headed back to town, on the way we passed under the railway bridge that had a goods train derailed on it shortly before IWA National festival at St Ives. The result of this was that all visiting boats had to go via The New Bedford River.

We stopped in Ely for lunch, while we were there we decided to do a pump out and also fill the water tank. This unfortunately made us a bit late getting away and made our chosen destination for the night, The Ship at Brandon Creak just out of reach, so we moored for the night at the Station Road, Littleport moorings, these are the other end of town from where we moored to visit The Swan.

On this stretch of rive the Environment Agency have installed a couple of markers so that boaters can check their speed as they hammer down the straight.

Prickwillow 2 Nov 11 Day 5

Last night we ate at The Swan, last time we visited it was called The Black Horse but its changed a lot since then and has been poshed up a bit. The restaurant is closed on both Monday and Tuesday evening this time of the year, but the bar meals we had were first class and at a reasonable price.

This morning we pushed off at quarter to ten following a quiet night on the moorings opposite The Swan. Unlike last night when there wasn’t a ripple to be seen, the wind was now picking up and would continue to do so all day. In spite of the wind the sun was bright and warm, again unlike last night when we had to get the winter duvet out.

We continued upstream for about a mile before turning left up the River Lark. We have done a bit of this river before but only as far as Prickwillow, today we planned to go to the head of navigation. As we were heading towards Mildenhall there were quite a few aircraft about including a refuelling plane from the American Air force, I know it was American because it said so on the side. I think the pilot has his sun glasses on, but that may just be the suns reflection.

There is one lock on the Lark at Isleham and unlike the EA locks on the River Nene the guillotine gate is at the head of the lock, not the tail. The lock is fully powered including the V doors and the Slackers, one thing that surprised us was that the controls for the bottom gates were not in a locked enclosure, you only needed a key to get in the control box to raise/lower the guillotine gate.
Just before we arrived at the lock there was a fare sized flock of geese sitting in the river. These were not your commonal  garden Canada geese but real wild ones that took to the sky when we were still a good 200 Mt. from them
As we locked up a survey vessel that had been following us caught up and walked up to the lock. I asked if they were going through as well? It seemed they were, but as they didn’t know there was a lock they didn’t have a key. So we moored up and locked them up. We left them on the lock landing and continued on our way. A short time later we met a very smart EA patrol vessel complete with “go fast” hatching. I think they must have had a chat with the survey vessel and locked down again with them,as we didn’t see ether boat again.

From here the river is much bendier and on one of these bends we passed  a wooden hut with
“Horseferry Lodge” written on the end of it, so maybe once upon a time this was the site of a ferry. The house beside it is “Gravel House” and on the house sign they have a picture of what I take to be their Narrowboat.

We continued on to Judes Ferry which is the end of the Environments jurisdiction, apart from the wind it was quite easy to wind here as there is a cut beside the pub which was probably at one time the ferry landing. We did consider stopping at the pub overnight, but the moorings are not very Narrowboat friendly, being not only a bit to high but also cantilevered out by about 18” so would rub the cabin sides, I don’t think even our barrow wheels would have held us off, so its on the list for next time.

From here we retraced our steps passing the Lee Brook on our left.
At the moorings below the lock there is an elderly boat and on the cabin side he has 4 IWA swords. At one time the sword in a clenched gauntlet was part of the IWA insignia and the sword was awarded to boats that covered the more difficult parts of the system. Many feel that the IWA should not have dropped it as it signified the fighting spirit of the organisation and had been there I think from day one.

On our way up we passed what I thought was a grave stone on the river bank, so on the way back down I watch out for it. It turned out that it is to commemorate the baptism of the Rev. Spurgon in May 1850.

A little further downstream there is an old pumping station  that was built in 1844 on the wall is a plaque in memory of the first pumpman Joseph Flatt who attended the pump from when it opened until he died in 1900.
By now the it was getting cloudy and the wind continued to pick up as we made our way to the EA moorings at Prickwillow.

Littleport 1Nov 2011 Day 4

Last night was not good,  but not as bad as I expected, but the traffic really picked up first thing this morning.

9-30 this morning I pulled the front pin and walked to the stern to take that one as well, it was at that point I saw someone walking towards me, thinking it was someone of authority I walked to meet them only to find it was a friend of mine who moors his Wilderness boat at the caravan site. We discussed the possibilities of doing the river right up to Oxborough Ferry at a later date when there is a bit more water in the river. We finally pushed off at twenty to ten.

In the village of Stoke ferry we passed under a steel road bridge, on the down side there is a plaque saying it was rebuilt by Norfolk Council in 1899 and the surveyors name was a Mr. Heslop.

As we passed Stoke Ferry sluice I spotted Ivan catching us up in his Wilderness, it wouldn’t be long before he was to overtake us. Well with a 10hp outboard engine he has a better power to weight ratio than us.

As you travel along this river it is easy to think you are on the Norfolk Broads except for two things, the lack of other boats and the strong smell of onions you get as you pass the onion fields.

We passed a field of sheep that were doing there best to keep up with a nautical theme by have red and green rub marks on their backs, I am not sure of the significance of the blue ones.

I should add that while we were doing this river this morning it was raining from time to time even though the chap on radio 4 said it was going to be the best day of the week, I think he must have stayed in bed on Sunday when it was lovely.

Once back on the Ouse we turned upstream and the weather did improve a bit, we met 4 boats on this stretch which was bit of a surprise. The Air force were playing again just like yesterday making lots of noise, Quite often you could not see them at all and other times they were quite low but not duck down low.

At Brandon Creak we turned down left down The Little Ouse as I wanted to see where the floating dry dock was, its about half a mile down from the junction on the left hand side at Bank Farm. They also sell diesel at 90p lt at the moment as well as controlling over half a mile of moorings. We just managed to wind where one of the online moorings was vacant, I don’t think you would get a 60 footer round here. We were going to carry on to Brandon but as its 14 miles and it had already turned 2 pm we would not have made it before dark and we don’t know of any recognised moorings on the way.

Back at The Ship we again turned left and carried on to Littleport for the night mooring opposite The Swan, last time we were here it was called The Black Horse and we stopped for Sunday lunch, we will see what it is like this evening.