Friday 5 April 2013 The Pike and Eel

Last nights mooring proved to be more peaceful than we had hoped for. That was after the cruiser moored at the other end moorings shut his petrol generator of at twenty to midnight. These moorings are provided by St Ives town council and I can fully understand residents wanting moorings closed if that’s what they have to put up with night after night. We only stopped the one night but the cruisers were there when we called in for water earlier in the week and were still there when we left this afternoon.

This morning started off sunny but the cool wind soon freshened which chilled things down again. We spent the morning wandering round town, there was a produce sale in the Corn Exchange which reminded me of our holiday in Bulgaria many years ago. You see what you and a lady serves you with it, she then writes out a chit of paper that you give to another lady sitting at a table by the door and she takes your money, another lady collates all the slips of paper into little piles.

St Ives also has a street market on a Friday but we saw nothing we wanted, we did get some Adnams and Shepherds Neame beer from Budgens at £1 a bottle. 

The bridge in St Ives is interesting for a couple of reasons, one it has a Chapel built in the middle of the river on it and is only one of three in the Country like it and secondly the arches one side of the Chapel are not the same as the other. This is because half the bridge was dismantled and made into a draw bridge to stop invasions of the town.More info HERE

The road from the bridge carries on out of town on a raised causeway to allow the flood waters to flow through it and get away, to me it looks as if the far two arches have subsided a bit.

St Ives lock was against us so while Diana turned the lock I took the opportunity to just go over some of the rust I had treated with a coat of primer/undercoat. hopefully I can put another coat on the the morning.

I had just about finished by the time the lock was ready, but if we stayed all day it is unlikely we would have inconvenienced anyone. Once finished it was down in the lock and a gentle run to planned mooring for the night outside The Pike and Eel again.
The temperature actually managed double figures again but it never felt warm in the stiff breeze.