Friday 4 May 2012

Last night we walked up to the Five Alls pub hoping for a meal, but we were out of luck. The pub has just won an award and the brewery had taken them all (except the barman) out to receive it, including the chef. O well another night.

This morning we woke to the rain, not heavy but steady so we were in no hurry to get up. We just got back onboard following walking the dog and there was a knock on the side of the boat. I went out and met a chap who was enquiring about the dingy moored behind us, the one the three boys in in. It seems they had pinched it from Floods Ferry and paddled it the 4 miles to Benwick. He was going back to get a trailer and some to help him  retrieve it.

We pushed off at 1030 in light drizzle but it soon cleared out, at one point I saw the sun. As we passed one of the pumping stations the outflow of water went right across the cut moving is sideways as we passed. We followed The River Nene (Old Course)out of it junction with the Forty Foot at Wells Bridge and on to High Load where we turned left down to Ramsay.

As we passed Bill Fen Marina we noticed that the flood gate is closed so that could limit the numbers coming out over the Bank Holiday. When we reached the end of the arm we winded, it was harder than last time we were this way due to the brambles growing on the offside even with the help of the water flow coming from the end.

We had considered mooring in Ramsay, but being Friday Night and a traveling fair ground set up just across the road from the moorings we felt it may well be much quieter further out. We did a bit of shopping in the Coop and ate lunch onboard before moving on to out of town. At Lodes End Lock we dropped down about an inch back on the River Nene (old course) before mooring for the night on the lock landings.

As we haven’t seen another boat I think it unlikely we will be in any ones way overnight.
The MLC have there own way of making sure that the general public are not in danger on the lock side without putting up handrails that get on boaters way.

Once we were moored up I walked to the nearby Lodesend pumping station and looked back down the main dyke that feeds it, as can be seen the level is down by a couple of feet so the MLC have pulled quite a lot of water out of the adjoining fens.