23 March 2012 Ten Mile Bank, Windmill Moorings

Last night I had a bit of a problem winding due to traveling sideways with the flow, this morning I timed the flow over 30 yards and it worked out to 2 mph.

The moorings are right beside the allotments and we didn’t hear any disturbance overnight.

After mooring yesterday we wandered into town for a look round, a quick trip into Aldi to get some dried fruit and what is there biggest display? Fishing tackle, no wonder people fish out of season if they just wander in and buy the stuff with no other knowledge.

This morning we had a wander round by the lock with the dog before setting off, The water at the tail of the lock was thick with small fish about 2” long. Above the lock the water was like a mill pond, not a ripple to be seen. We set off at twenty to eleven heading very gently with the flow down stream, as the river deepened so the flow reduced.
We passed a field of cows with caves and a large bull. When we came to the end of the field there was a calf laying between the barbed wire fence and the river. At first I thought it was dead, but then I saw an ear move, I stopped the boat and backed up, slowly bringing the stern into the shallow water, inching further up stream until the back of the boat was a couple of yards up stream of the calf, I then managed to get the stern in close enough to take a leap with the rope and get ashore. I tied the boat to a fence post and approached the calf, when I was about a yard away, it looked at me, got up, forced its way between the barbed wire strands and went back to its mum. This just left me the problem of leaping back onto the stern of the boat. Why it couldn’t have shown more sign of life while I was trying to get the boat in I don’t know, but all’s well that ends well. 
We continued down stream to the sound of aircraft, we didn’t see them very often due to the haze but every now and again a couple came into view.

Once back on the Great Ouse we headed toward Denver, I rang the lock keeper to book a passage for Sunday morning at 10-30 new time when we will have company of another boat leaving.
A  short time after we joined the Great Ouse I saw a large Grass Snake swimming across the river, this led to two surprises, the first to see it this early in the year, the second, as I got the camera out it just disappeared under water, I have never seen one do that before.

We had considered going down the River Lark and mooring on the GOBA moorings but as it was p.m. we decided to stop on the EA visitor moorings at The Mile Bank, Windmill Moorings, I am not sure where the windmill is.