Tuesday 22 May 2012

Today was a much better day weather wise, by 9 30 it was pleasantly warm and this afternoon the shirt came off.
WE set off at 10 am, and just before Ely we spotted a marsh Harrier working over by the railway. Unfortunately he refused to come back to have his photo taken as did the second one we spotted just after Ely. We had a good view of the cathedral as we approached the City, probably the best view we have had so far.  We passed a boat with an interesting fender hanging down. I am not sure the relevance of it.
In Ely the dreaded Tesco Magnet came into play and we were drawn against the bank by the railway station, it would not release until we bought things. We left the moorings by the bridge at 12 30 and headed towards St Ives. A short way before the Fish and Duck this sad sight is still on the Little Thetford visitor moorings.

Just after we turned onto the Little Ouse at the Fish and Duck we came upon or friends Hazel and Peter so we had to stop for an hour or more to catch up on boaty things. By now it was getting really warm and when we left t hem the shirt came off.

Pushing off once again we decided to see if we could clear Hermitage lock. I rang the keeper to check the opening hours and he was there until 7 pm so we should make it OK. It was good to see the Dry Dock by the Lazy Otter back in operation, its been out of use for several years.

We arrived at Hermitage Lock at 6 pm, and I rang the lock keeper to tell him we had arrived so that he could set the lock for us.

We entered the lock and I was somewhat surprised how high it filled considering that  it was probably two hours past high water and at Denver Sluice low water had been at normal levels where as here it was still flooding the banks. When we arrived at Brownhills Lock all the sluices were fully open and the water level each side of the lock was level, we still had to close the top gate, wait for the delay and open the bottom gate, followed by closing it, waiting before opening the top to get out. If we could have opened both we could have sailed straight through.

The amount of debris behind and in the sluices was amazing.

 

It was now 7 pm and we intended to moor at the GOBA moorings above the lock but they were well waterlogged. so the next choice was the Pike and Eel, but here we found 2 cruisers spaced out right along the front so no chance, the sun was still out so we headed for The Ferry Boat at Holywell. when we arrived there were 2 narrowboats and a cruiser, so full up. We dropped back to the GOBA moorings just before the Ferry Boat and moored there for the night at 8 pm before walking to the pub for a nice meal and a couple of pints.