Monday 6 May 2013 Jude’s Ferry

Well what a day, 25°C+ wall to wall sunshine from first thing this morning, will we pay the price towards the end of the week?

About 9-30 our Scouting neighbours set off. The river appeared to have no flow at times, but by dropping off their bow rope they very slowly came round and pointed back downstream. The boat is called the Harboro’adventurer II and the bottom of the hull below the rubbing strake dates from the 1930s and is riveted the rest has been added since and last year she had a new engine.

Once they had left we set off upstream, but before I left I took another photo from the same spot as last night. I think last nights was the better shot.

There was even more of the brown scummy lumps floating on the water, it looks disgusting but I am sure its harmless plant matter. 

We were hoping to fill with water at Prickwillow but there were two Narrowboats on the moorings so we would have had to laid outside them to have taken water so we will do it tomorrow. Rounding the corner there were four cruisers where we had been a couple of nights ago.
We continued on towards Isleham Lock, The river between the lock and the Gt Ouse looks as if its had a lot of human intervention over the years as its just a series of long straights connected by half a dozen bends. But when someone said that

East Anglia was the land of never ending sky they were not far wrong.

On the right bank I spotted a small bunch of flowers with a small wooden stake in the shape of a fish. Did a fisherman die here or has someone got their ashes buried at their favourite fishing spot, who knows, but someone looks after it.

As the lock came into view there is a large flash on the right hand flood plain, today it was home to a herd of cows who decided that a paddle was the order of the day.  We had to wait for the lock as a wide beam was just coming down. This lock is fully mechanised with V gates at the bottom and a Guillotine at the top, all hydraulically powered.
We now come to the best part of this river as we continued to our mooring for the night at Judes Ferry. For those that are new to reading my blog I will just point out this memorial stone on the bank to the Rev Spurgeon, as you will see its almost the 163rd anniversary to the day.When we arrived at Judes Ferry there was already one Narrowboat there so we just went passed them and pulled in. This is not the easiest spot to moor as deck of the landing stage protrudes about 500mm over the piling, just making it right to rub a line along the cabin sides. Our method of dealing with this is to use two poles pushed into the mud between the boat and the edge of the landing stage.
We had not been here long when a cruiser came along and moored ahead of us, filling the landing stage.

We walked upstream to the old staunch at worlington, to get to it you have to walk through someone's front garden as the footpath runs between their house and the river, they have a gate at each side of the lawn and right in front of the house is a footbridge across the staunch. There are only a couple of shallow points that would stop you getting a boat up here, but you would be hard pushed to turn anything over 20 foot long.
On our return there were two more cruisers moored up, but they had to moor under the road bridge.

Sunday 5 May 2013 River Lark

This morning we were up early to drive to Bicester as it was my youngest Grand daughters naming ceremony, a civil version of a christening. The was carried out The Garth, Bicester. We followed this by a trip to the pub at Bure Park for a swift one followed by a hog roast in the grounds of the local primary school.

We arrived back at the boat a little after 5-30 PM and by 6 PM we were on our way down Brandon Creek turning left at the Gt. Ouse. We were hoping to moor at Little Port but the moorings were all taken, 3 of the Narrowboats there were also there 3 days ago when we passed as well as yesterday.

We turned up the Lark hoping to get in at the EA moorings at Tom Holes Farm but there were already two boats there, so we joined three other boats on the opposite side moored against a length of piling. By now it was 7-30 but still quite light, the only other option would have been to carry on to Prickwillow but I expect that would also have been full, hence the three boats here.

At about 8 o’clock a Narrowboat came chugging up the river looking for somewhere to moor, so we pulled back a few feet to make room for them on the piling. It was the 3rd Thetford Scout group boat that has a mooring at the top of the Wissey, we often see them about with different bunches of kids onboard, the boaters of tomorrow. Today it was 9 youngsters from the Colchester Area.

The light was good this evening making the reeds look very warm and looking the other way into the sun gave some nice cloud and water effects.I even had a duck and a swan pose for me.

Saturday 4 May 2013 Little Ouse Moorings

The wind died away overnight , but this morning we woke to sun and rain, not much rain but a bit. We spent the morning at Prickwillow Pump Engine museum, unfortunately it was not a running day, but it only cost us a couple of quid each to get in. You will find the engine running dates here. I was pleased to see they have done some work on their old Drag Line, hopefully enough to stop it deteriorating until they can restore it. They also have another engine and pump to rebuild and house somewhere.

By the time we left the museum the wind had freshened and the sun gone on its holiday, to top it all it keeps raining, only short showers but heavy with big rain drops.

We waited until 3 pm and the rain had stopped, but within seconds of letting go it started again, thankfully not to hard and only lasted about 20 minutes. That was the last rain we had for the rest of the trip. Although it wasn’t raining on us we could see the rain around us.

There were a lot moor boats about including three Fox Narrowboats who had crossed from Salter's lode, they were probably heading to Ely for the night, but being late in the day on a Bank holiday weekend I don’t know what luck they would have. We have probably seen more boats on the move today than we have since last October when we left the canal system. Most of the moorings were full in Little Port and like wise the EA moorings at The ship.

Arriving at the junction with the Little Ouse I spun Harnser round and slowly but steadily reversed back up the Little Ouse to our moorings. Cruisers moored on both banks certainly help the concentration when doing this. We tied up at quarter past five on our home mooring for the night. This is not the end of our travels so watch this space.

3 May 2012 Prickwillow Mile End Road

We woke to a beautiful mooring, bright sun and not a breath of wind. The river was flowing much slower than last night which meant the level had come back up a bit.

We pushed off at our normal 10-30 swinging in a large circle and headed to the lock that would drop us to the relief channel. As we approached the gates there was the sign “Lock Closed” , so it was back out and turn back up stream. I thought The Jenyns Arms looked nice in the sun as we passed. The wooden rails show the shallow water at the end of the peninsular that houses the Denver sailing club.

At Ten Mile Bank by Hilgay Toll Bridge I spotted the first goslings I have seen this year, all yellow and fluffy still. Not a good picture as they were right on the top of the bank.

A short while after this a rather nice cow caught my eye laying in the sun chewing the cud. It was one of a heard but this one was supporting a fine pair of horns. Buy now the breeze was picking up and it wasn’t long before I had gone from Tee Shirt to Tee Shirt, Shirt and Fleece. and by the time we reached the The Ship it was blowing just over 25MPH and gusting 30.

We had noticed this swans nest as we have passed over the last couple of weeks, today both swans were in attendance, it must be getting close to hatching day now. Last time we were out Mrs. Swan was getting very irate with the white plastic drum in the bottom right of the photo.

We did see a few more boats about today, one of them a Narrowboat with a Cratch Cover so big and tall the steerer couldn’t see over the top of it as he made his way down the wrong side of the river. We considered stopping at Little Port but then decided to carry on to the River lark, we have to be back at the moorings tomorrow night.

When we reached the first lot of moorings on the Lark there was a short Narrowboat moored right in the middle leaving 3 mooring posts at each end, so we continued on up to the village. Atone point the banks were covered in this blue flower, I thought it may be Dead Nettle but I am not sure. The water now had lots of brown floating scum which breaks up as you boat through it. It looks like what I would imagine a load of sewage is floating on the water would like, but I think it is decaying plant material floating up from the bottom. It is actually brown in colour.

A pair of Grebes where busy showing off to each other have dived as we approached them and then resurfaced together some way behind us. We finally moored up on the

Mile End Road EA moorings at 2-30pm. It is much more sheltered here than out on the Gt. Ouse but the wind is still taking the edge of a nice day blowing at a steady 15 MPH.

Thursday 2 May 2013 Denver Sluice

We managed to get away from home a bit earlier than planed so were ready to set sail at 1645hrs. The planned destination, the pumpout at Denver. The sun was very pleasant and much warmer than Lowestoft.

About an hour and a half later we were at the services, a couple of boats had moored outside The Ship while we were getting ready to leave, but other than that we didn’t see anything on the move.

We had a bit of hassle with the pumpout, it is a long way from the boat to the pump, but once it was primed up all went well.

We only went a short way from here to the EA visitor mooring by The Jenyns Arms where we enjoyed a hearty meal. If anyone leaves here feeling hungry its there own fault, again we couldn’t manage a pud.

As we sat eating in the conservatory watching the river go by I noticed that the water looked to be moving quite fast towards Denver Sluice, this was reinforced when a duck swam across the river in quite a large ferry glide. Once we had finished eating we wandered up to the sluice and fount that the sluices were draw on all the “little Eyes” and the pointy gates on the tidal side were blowing fully open with the water flow. The river looked quite low with no obvious flow coming down the New Bedford, but I have never seen such a flow coming through the sluices with a very turbulent flow heading for Kings Lynn. We walked round to the Relief Channel and all the gates on the AG Wright sluice were closed.

Returning to the boat the water level has probably dropped the best part of 2” since we moored up.   So the ropes and fenders will require checking before bed.

Fri 19 April 2013 Little Ouse Moorings

The wind kept it up until after we had gone to bed. This morning I received a message from the weather, it said that the wind couldn’t come to play all day today so he would send his mate, Rain to help out. Sure enough we woke to the sound of rain.

We were hoping the small cruiser ahead would set off first at half ten as they would be travelling faster than us, but it wasn’t to be and at 11AM we said good by only to find out that we would see them later, as they also moor at Little Ouse Moorings

The first thing to catch our eye after leaving our moor was two people that looked as if they were collecting reed plants in one of the meres. They had some kind of floating container to put them in. I think 1 was male and 1 female but with the waders, dry suits, life jackets etc it was hard to say. The buzzards put on a good display, some doing battle with the crows as the soared high in the sky. We also me a couple of Narrowboats heading upstream, the first enquiring if the Brandon moorings were free, which was probably the case as they were the first boat we had seen going that way.

A pair of swans we met took a short interest in us, I am not sure if we were seen as a threat of a source of food, which ever it was they soon left us to travel on alone. There is still the remains of some ancient stanches along this waterway, this is probably the most intact remains with both walls and the chamber, further upstream there are some more remains but they are only a small amount of brick against the bank.

There is an old BCN work boat just waiting for restoration moored a short way down the river, I have been told the owner is going to do it but every time we pass it looks even more rundown.

 

 

 

 

Soon after this we arrived back at Little Ouse moorings and pulled up at the diesel pump ready to top up the tank. Rather than disturb the owners during their lunch, we had our own dinner. It was then that the little cruiser we had been sharing moorings with came by.

We put 265 litres of diesel in the tank before returning to our moorings and driving home.

Thur 18 April 2013 GOBA Moorings Lt Ouse

Last night was lively with the wind gusting up to 30MPH and we were partly sheltered by the banks.

This morning it was bright sunshine but still a stiff breeze. There is a fishing lake by the lock and weir and since we were last here it has seen some serious landscaping.We waited until the cruiser moored ahead of us had departed before attempting to wind, I needed all the space available in these weather conditions. At 10-30 AM we set off forward towards the weir, the plan was to put the stern in the entrance channel to the lock so the flow from the weir took the bow round. The wind was blowing in the opposite direction to the water flow.
At the first attempt the bows shot round quite fast in the flow and I was unable to get the stern into the lock chamber, everything went well until we were almost 90° round and then the wind was stronger than the flow and I couldn’t get her round. On the second attempt I got much closer to the lock channel before starting the turn and loads of reverse pulled us into the channel, I was then to work the stern towards the lock and then drive out , down stream but into the wind. You can see the layout of the lock and weir on Google Earth 

As we carried on downstream the wind continued to freshen gusting 45 MPHIt wasn’t long before we reached the sluice that drops the excess flow into the Cut Off channel at times of flood and then it was on to the aqueduct to cross the Cut Off channel its self. This is quite a wide structure, probably about 60 feet. We were then heading out into more open country and I could see dust storms all around us, luckily they didn’t have to much effect, just dusty eyes as the surrounding land close to the rive is mainly lakes, woods and grazing marsh.  Although we were protected from the dust we were not protected from the wind and this made the waves even larger. I have a short video but the upload connection is too slow to add it here.

By now we were approaching the GOBA moorings where we had stopped on Tuesday night and there at the end was the cruiser we had moored behind both last night and the night before, so we decided to call it a day and pull in behind them. The next moorings we would be coming to were our moorings at the end of the river where it joins the Gt. Ouse.

Wednesday 17 April 2013 Brandon Staunch

Last night I sat listening to the birds and realised that the last time I heard a Bittern call was 1963 when I lived at Fleggburgh and was still at school. If you have never heard or seen one there is a BBC video HERE .

As we went to bed there was not a breath of wind and the river was like a mill pond. Something disturbed the geese over on the mere and they made a horrendous din for a couple on minutes but then it all went quiet again and stayed that way all night.

This morning was overcast with a light breeze, however this was soon to freshen again with gusts up to 28MPH. The cruiser that was moored behind us set off first and we followed at 1030 AM. There has been some repair work on the opposite flood bank this year year the top being levelled up. As we travelled upstream we met a Black Prince Narrowboat coming down, we had seen the same boat and crew at the head of the River Wissey.

It wasn’t long before we crossed the Cut Off Channel on the aqueduct and then under the sluice, this one is twice as big as the one on the Wissey with two gates for the river flow, also this one doesn’t have a bracket to prevent the gate being lowered. The gate on the left is used for navigation as the aperture has more head room, the one on the right is just for water flow.

We have seen lots of birds about including all sorts of geese, they  have been mainly Canada Geese but we have seen a few Egyptian ones.  The next point of interest was the railway bridge, for some reason they have gone to the trouble of erecting a sign saying you can navigate ether arch, why they didn’t just put the normal “keep right” ones in I don’t know. I went through the right arch, but the hire boat following went through the left arch. When the hire boat finally caught up I eased right off to let him pass, hoping he wouldn’t take the last mooring space at Brandon.

When we arrived at Brandon the cruiser that was behind us was moored right at the end of the jetty and the hire boat was negotiating his way into the lock approach which doglegs off to the left, so we were able to moor behind the cruiser, I expect that was where Black Prince were last night.
Unfortunately we can’t go any further, there is a perfectly serviceable, electrified lock ahead of us that the National Rivers Authority, now the EA rebuild in 1995, the problem is it just 40 foot long. At the time they said the reason for rebuilding it at the same length was that longer boats had never wanted to go through, they couldn't !!!!!!!!!

It took the hire boat some time to get into the lock approach, but then to our surprise they didn’t go through the lock but merely moored to the lock moorings for a couple of hours before turning round in the mouth of the lock and heading off downstream again.

Tue 16 April 2013 GOBA moorings Little Ouse

Last night we ate at The Jenyns Arms and what a meal, Dian had enough pork left over for today’s lunch.

This morning we woke to the sound of rain, but fortunately it didn’t last. We decided not to leave until late hoping that a) the fresh breeze may have abated and b) the pumpout may be back in operation. Having walked round the pumpout and found there was now an emptying hose in the manhole, that one was a none runner, as for a) well the wind has gusted over 40MPH today. While on the moorings we had a little Sandpiper hopping around the boat. 

We finally left after lunch at 1-30pm in bright sun and blue sky, but with freshening wind. The EA have erected a Welcome to Denver sign on the river bank. The wind was brisk to put it mildly as we made our way along 10 Mile Bank to the Little Ouse. We could see dust storms in the area we experienced them on Sunday with the dust cloud going a good 200ft into the air. This EA chap was walking the bank, stopping to dig the odd hole, I think he may have been mole catching.At The Ship we turned down the Little Ouse or Brandon Creek as its sometimes called, we were hoping it may be a bit more sheltered but after the first mile it was just as bad as the rest.   
We only passed through one dust storm and luckily we hit that at a lull, but it picked up behind us. This Kestrel just kept a weather eye on us as we passed down his river. We were to see much larger birds of pray than him, I think they were Harriers but can’t be 100% sure and also lots of Martins and swallows over the meres. As I write this I keep hearing a couple of Bitterns booming at each other, one much fainter than the other. Apart from the birds the only other sounds on this GOBA mooring is the odd plane and a few local trains passing down the line.

A walk along the flood bank reviled this siphon to transfer water from the river to the adjacent dykes.

Monday 15 April 2013Denver Sluice

I had forgotten just how noisy these moorings are with the heavy lorries battling across the bridge just at our bows. Sleep came in very small bit is the best I can say.

We set off at our normal 10AM to a bright day, slightly cooler than yesterday and a bit less wind thank goodness. It only gusted 28 MPH today. The boat is full of black from yesterdays dust storms and its surprising my shower water made it down the plug hole. Every time we moved something on the roof there was a pile of black under it and inside the boat every surface was covered in dust.

As we passed under the guillotine sluice that is designed to stop high flows running down the river it was obvious it couldn’t be used as there are supports bolted under the gate. Just below this sluice the EA have installed a fish siphon to allow the fish access between the river and the Cut Off Channel. I am not sure why they need the buoy so far out into the river.   I managed to find a piece of video on the internet of the Fish Siphon being installed.

Wissey to Cut Off channel fish pass

We carried on downstream hoping to fill with water at Hilgay but the boat that was on the moorings covering the waterpoint was still there today, as its right by a bridge we decided to carry on to Denver.

Just below Hilgay I spotted a sheep in trouble, it was stuck in a wet mud hole between the piling and the bank, where the piling had dropped away. I didn’t think to take a photo first, but backed up to the piling and jumped ashore and proceeded to drag the poor thing out, getting a wet smelly foot in the process. She couldn't have been there that long as she was not exhausted, but she would never have gotten her self out. I did photograph her afterwards. We pulled over onto the GOBA moorings for lunch and a change of clothes and then set off again to Denver for water and a pump out.

Most of Silt Farm 24 hr moorings are closed, it looks as if the bank has subsided, maybe when they drained the river at Christmas time. We carried on to the service point only to find that the pumpout is out of action, good job we are not desperate or it would be a trip to Ely, however we were able to fill up with water before going to the 24 hr moorings by The Jenyns Arms for the night.

Once moored we went to look at some of the interpretation boards around the complex. There is a series of 5 and most of them were pretty illegible due to being dirty, so we did our second good deed fro the day and went round and cleaned them all.