Monday 5 November 2012 Home Moorings

Last night again we had heavy rain, but this morning we woke to a bright blue sky. The other thing we woke to was the Old River Nene, part of The Middle Level that flows through March,

The flow on the Old River Nene

which is normally a mill pond was flowing as fast as the River Cam was a couple of days ago. About a mile further along we could see why the water was moving so fast, they are pumping the drainage dykes on the Middle Level as fast as they can.
The levels were up by several inches and I had to remove the chimney and exhaust to get under a couple of the bridges.

Just over an hour later we were back at our moorings and as I slid into our berth I could see that the next door boat was listing a bit. We moor nose on and there is a small dolphin with mooring rings about 30 foot out so we have to moor using a centre rope and as the water was probably 10” higher than last week his centre line was pulling him over, so I slacked it off for him. The boat on the other side of us is a very old motorised butty with a step mounted on the side of the back cockpit, this had got wedged under the top of a steel mooring bollard. After I pushed it out it bobbed up a good 4” above it.
I moored up with a bit of slack so I expect next time we visit the boat will be all over the show.

Sunday 4 November 2012 March

Last night we had a meal in The Jenyns Arms. I must say the service was very good, a very nice range of sweets and one or two unusual main courses, not forgetting the Adnams bitter and IPA.

This morning we were due to lock out onto the tidal Ouse at 10 am so about quarter past nine, in the rain, we moved over to the lock moorings, I didn’t even have time to go along side the moorings before Daniel was drawing the gate. he said Paul had already started at Salters so we were on our way. As the lock filled the water coming in looked like gravy, a nice dark brown. The tide was still making as we went straight down the river, no going round the back of sand banks and passed nb. Gemini on her way up. We crossed with her last week as we came up and she went down.

I made a real hash of turning into Salters Lode going over far to early getting the bows in slack water while the stern was still out in the flow. I am glad we weren’t much later as the tide was still making and we didn’t have much headroom to spare, if we couldn’t have got under we would have had to stayed outside the lock until after the tide had turned. it was a 21 ft. tide but with all the fresh on it may pushed a bit higher.

Paul had told Maureen at Marmont Priory lock we were on our way but Diana still rang her from Upwell, she only got the answer phone and there was no sign of he at the lock so we worked ourselves through.

We past a medium sized straw stack on the way, I estimate there are between 750 and 800 large bails in it. Some of them are much larger than this, you can also see its still raining.

On one of the small mooring/fishing platforms in Upwell I spotter this traditional woven ell trap. I don’t think trapping for ells is allowed at the moment due to the rapid decline in their numbers in the UK. The trap is basically a bottle shaped basket where the ell swims in through the neck and can’t get out again. You can see these being made in this old film on Fenland Life in 1947 http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/390 
We passed a few fishermen on the way  who seamed quite happy standing out in the rain, pike fishing, or sitting under their brollies float fishing.
We stopped off briefly in March to look at the newly refurbished facility block which has a pump out station, water point and elsan disposal sluice. The doors are unlocked as the keys required are different to the regular Middle Level Key.
Another 300 yards of so and we pulled over to the left to moor for the night, it was quarter to three and still raining.

Saturday 3 November 2012 Denver Sluice

Last night was another clear bright moon and star light night and  I didn’t go out I think there may have been a touch of frost on the grass this morning to check. The air temperature fell to 1°C.

We left The Ship EA moorings at 0950 hrs. and the weather was not that great, but it would get worse.
We headed down the Great Ouse towards Denver Sluice, On the way we noticed they were cutting the grass on the bank, as well as a tractor with an arm mounted flail there was a rather smart forward mounted flail cutter doing the less inclined bits.

 

As we passed the mouth of the River Wissey we decided to go up there for a bit. It was not long after this that it started to rain and turn several degrees cooler. We pushed on up the river a short way past the village of Hilgay until the river widened enough for us to turn, coming back down stream was much faster. Once back on the Gt. Ouse we turned right and continued down to Denver Sluice. By now the rain had stopped and the sun was showing its face again which put a rainbow over the river. Unfortunately they don’t photograph very well unless the sky is quite dark.

What ever those floating wire basket things are that I have photo'd in the past this one has made a good bid for freedom and I expect he will soon be down by the sluice to join the Floating Pennywort.

We stopped at the services at Denver Sluice to empty the toilet tank and fill the fresh water tank before going back upstream about a half a mile to see Graham on Matilda Rose for a cup of tea and a chat. About half three we said goodbye and moved to the EA moorings by the Jenyns Arms for the night, from here its only a short hop to the lock moorings to lock back down to the tidal Gt. Ouse in the morning and back in to the Middle Level at Salters Lode.

Friday 2 November 2012 The Ship

Last night was just magical with a bright moon and loads of stars. The moon and Jupiter were very close and right in the middle of Taurus, if its clear tonight go and have a look. This morning was bright sunshine and at 9 am the moon was still visible in the pale blue sky.

We set off at 1025 hrs. heading down towards Reach Lode. They have been re-profiling the bank along side Wicken Lode and sowing it with grass seed, but it will be some time before its fit to walk on. at the moment its like soggy bulb fibre.

At the end of the Lode we passed under the wooden bridge and onto Reach Lode, turning hard right down to Reach Lock. We were slightly delayed at the lock as we both had problems trying to unlock the control boxes. The EA Ably keys look good but the locks on the panels and water point boxes are rubbish.

Once through the lock it was another right turn round the gardens of the Five Miles from Anywhere pub and down the River Cam to Popes Corner. Imray Guide goes on about the Fish and Duck pub being recently refurbished and under new ownership. Today there is no trace of it, just a small marine that is about to be refurbished its self. The Cam is a meandering river with very wide flood plains on the inside of most of the bends.

We were now back on the Gt Ouse, I rang the lock keeper at Denver to check the lock times for the next few days. Sunday gives us a 21 ft. tide at about 10 in the morning, after this they get progressively smaller, so we are planning to catch the Sunday morning locking. We saw one or two boats around the Ely area but not much after that.
We didn’t have any rain today but we did see a rainbow ahead of us at Littleport.

At the Little Ouse we turned right yet again to go down to The Little Ouse moorings to fill with £180 worth of diesel. We last filled up on the Grand Union and the heating has been on 24/7 since then. No sooner were we tied up and read to take diesel than Danny jumped aboard and started examining our paint work with his microscope like this one. It was amazing looking at the micro blisters in my paint work through this and also to see how the paint surface was cracked and crazed. Next came the electronic coating thickness gauge which showed that my paintwork was applied to a good thickness.
By the time we were finished it was nearly 4 pm. so we winded using just the flow of the river to take the bows round 180° while Danny held our stern steady with a rope, we fairly flew down to the junction with the Gt Ouse again where we moored at the EA moorings by The Ship.

Thursday 1 November 2012 Wicken Lode

Last night we ate at The Bridge Clayhithe. The pub fronts right onto the river but we moored just the other side of the bridge at the Cam Conservancy 48 hr. moorings. Over night we had heavy rain again, a little over 11 mm.

This morning we set off at 10 am. winding and heading back up river to Baits Bite  lock to hand over some photos we took to Camcon who are looking for illustrations for their new guide to the Backs. We then turned below the weir and lock to head off back down stream.

We have often considered visiting Horningsea as we have passed but there are only two public staithes, both forbid overnight mooring and both are only about 25-30 foot long, so it would mean mooring the bows with the stern sitting out in the river on a mud weight.
Work is still continuing on the upper landing stage at Bottisham Lock, it is a great improvement. They are also working on one of the three sluice gates beside the lock. Following last nights 11 mm of rain the river above the lock was up a bit. Below the lock was more like a circus act with four chaps in dry suits trying to attach lines to the scaffolding above. I think this was to install another coffer dam behind the gate.

The work at Bottisham Lode is completed and the coffer dam in front of the slam gates is removed along with all the pumps. Maybe the same team working below Bottisham Lock removed it.

We had planned to take a look up Swaffham Bullbeck Lode on our way down stream. Our Imray guide says it navigable to Slade Farm and the EA map says restricted access.
Both appear to be wrong as there is a “No Entry” sign at the mouth of the lock. Both sets of V doors have been removed from the river end, so you would only be able to pass on the level. These gates use to be back to back as it was possible for the river to be higher or lower than the Lode.
The lock is in good condition and even has “Safety Chains” hung along its length. The notice at the mouth of the lock dates back to the  Anglian Water days.

The Lode its self also looks in good condition from what I could see from the lock. I wonder if navigation has ever officially been abandoned  or just abandoned by neglect?

With that bit of exploring abandoned, it was again back down stream to Upware, where we turned a tight right to Reach Lode Lock.
This is an automatic flood control lock, but today there was less than an inch difference in the water levels, but you still can’t sail straight through, the lode end gate wont open until the river end is closed. Once clear of the lock we filled with water on the lock landing and then headed up Reach Lode as far as Wicken Lode, here we turned left under the wooden bridge and continued to the end of navigation in the rain, mooring on the GOBA moorings at the far end.

Wednesday 31 October 2012

0845 this morning I rang Kevin and Debbi to tell them I was making my way to Jesus lock, he said he was just out with the dogs and would be there shortly with his “time Lapse” camera to mount on the bows. I walked over from where we were moored, swung the footbridge and closed the top gates, I then drew one bottom paddle before retuning to Harnser. By the time we had started and crossed the river from our overnight mooring the lock was ready. Just as I was opening the gates Kevin and Debbi arrived and we were soon on our way, It wasn’t long before we saw our first bunch of moored punts, but we didn’t see any on the move.
Some of the bridges are quite low, but not low enough to cause us a problem with our 1.7 Mt air draft. of these St John Kitchen Bridge is the lowest.
The whole town quay  is now taken over by the punt companies with floating pontoons attached to the length of it to moor the punts to. The next large bunch of punts was just through Silver street moored on the left going upstream on the outside of the bend. This is the recommended winding point but we continued  on to wind at Mill Pit where the weir flows in. I messed it up first time as a fisherman on the bend didn’t wind his tackle in to the very last moment which caused me to lose momentum and the bows to start coming round to early, as I backed up the flow took the bows to close to the bank and we were aground. I got it right with the second attempt. We had an uneventful run back down to Jesus lock in the sunshine, we couldn’t have asked for a better day.
We left the lock and headed down stream to the common where Kevin was moored, there was no sign of the circus that was hear last night. On Kevin’s boat we downloaded the 4 cameras, The Time Laps one had almost 3000 images which Kevin is going to make into a video for us. We gave him the ones Di and I took and Debbi gave us the ones she took, so between us we have a good photo record of the trip.

Kevin has done the business with the time laps vidio and you can see our trip up the Backs and down as far as the common.

  
Around lunch time we said goodbye and headed down stream to Clayhithe to moor for the night. We arrived at Baits Bite lock just as a Black Prince hire boat was entering the lock so pulled in beside them. They were also heading for Clayhithe and went off first, when we arrived they had moored in the middle of the moorings, so Diana had to ask them to move up a bit.
Just after we moored the engine started missing badly, I was planning to change the fuel filters next time I filled up with diesel, its easier with a full tank, so doing it now was not too much of a problem. The first filter was a bit mucky but no more than I expected after 2000 hrs. so I changed them both. The engine had given me a warning with the odd cough when running on light load for the passed few days.

Tuesday 30 October 2012 Cambridge

Last night was magical, a clear sky with a full moon. The only sounds we could hear were the calls of the Widgeon, teal and geese as they flew overhead. On the opposite bank a heard of cows were keeping an eye on us. If we had navigation lights I would have continued up to Cambridge in the dark.

This morning we woke to bright sunshine and it accompanied us all the way to Cambridge but the air definitely had a chill to it. As we set off at 9 20 am. I could see across the fields that there was a lot of activity at Upware Lock, maybe its closed for maintenance. The entrance to The river was very quiet and we didn’t see another boat until we were working up through Bottisham Lock.

I was tempted to take a trip up Swaffham Bulbeck Lode but according to the guides its only navigatable for the first couple of miles to Slades Farm. I may have a look on the way back. Not sure what is happening at Bottisham Lode but there is a dam in front of the sluice and several pumps running.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was also a lot of work going on on the sluice beside Bottisham Lock. It doesn’t really seem the right time of the year to be taking sluices out of service, maybe summer would be better. One good thing is they have repaired the upstream lock landing, this has been very bad for Narrowboats for some years as it was easy to have the hull slide under the pontoon and end up taking the paint off the cabin side.
Just before Baits Bite lock we were hailed by a policeman on the towing path looking for a couple of lads who had legged along the towing path, but we hadn’t seen anyone. While we were in Baits Bite lock more police arrived and also the helicopter was looking for them.
At Baits Bit Lock I went in the lock office to see the river manager as she had a copy of a draft guide to cruising above Jesus Lock for me. By the time we entered the lock there was a Camcon workboat waiting to go up as well so he squeezed in behind us. This lock seems to take ages to fill. Not long after leaving the lock we met a red wide beam boat, it is a local “Play Boat” called Chypps that is normally moored in town for different groups of children to visit, but on occasions they take groups out for a cruise, today it was youngsters with learning difficulties. As we passed the common we noticed that the circus was in town, I don’t think I would fancy mooring alongside that. Our favourite mooring beside The Fort St George was taken, we could have got in behind but then the stern would have been under the footbridge, not a good idea so we carried on up stream and moored opposite the service point, below the weir, I think it will probably be a bit nosier than by the pub and it has no internet hotspot but quieter than the circus. We moored up about 1330hrs and it wasn’t long before Avalon came up river and stopped for a chat before heading off to the common to moor. Just after they had gone Chypps came back and worked up through Jesus Lock, letting the youngsters help with the paddles and gates. We went for a short walk around town and when we returned all the vacant moorings spots around us were taken with one late comer mooring on the service point for the night.

Monday 29 October 2012 Upware

Yesterday evening we were sitting nice and cosy in the lounge, outside it was dark and raining, suddenly “Bang” and the boat rocked. I though someone had come along side in the dark, but no, he just hit me up the bum trying to moor behind us. Anyway we put on coats and boots and  moved Harnser forward to give him more room. They had stopped for lunch and forgotten that it would get dark an hour earlier.

This morning our new neighbour went to see Paul the lock keeper and came back to inform us that the lock keeper at Denver doesn’t start until 9 am in October, but as they had dredged the channel leading straight to the lock we were to go down and wait on the pontoon. I have never been able to get near the pontoon before so that would be a first. After I had finished taking the poly off the prop I walked down to see Paul and he told me the same thing except the tide was running out and we should get a move on.
Harnser’s engine was already running so it didn’t take us many minutes to get into the lock, by quarter past 8 we were out onto the Great Ouse and slowly making the 110° turn upstream against the ebbing tide. The water level only looked to be about 2 foot higher than when I looked at low tide, this is due to the fresh coming down the New Bedford from Erith.

It wasn’t long before we were approaching the Denver Sluice lock landing. This is a floating pontoon inline with the mouth of the lock. Because the whole complex opens out like a funnel onto the river as the tide flows out it sweeps round in a large circle, so as you approach the landing stage you now have the flow coming from behind you, considering up till now you had been pushing against the stream it makes stopping interesting. For this reason I waited at the end of the pontoon to take a rope from the boat following so as not to get another smack up the bum, and its a good job I did. We were at the lock before half 8, Dan the lock keeper arrived a few minutes to 9 and as soon as the gate was up we were on our way in.

The next stop was Hilgay bridge where we stopped to fill with water. While we were there I rang the river manager at the Cam Conservancy to tell her that we were planning to go above Jesus Lock on Wednesday morning, she has since emailed my with extra information for our journey. 
At  Littleport I saw two ladies waving madly surrounded by dogs, it was Leslie and Jill, but there was no sign of Graham and Joe, wise chaps. There were a lot of Black Headed Gulls about, but at this time of the year their heads are not black, just a spot behind the eye, there heads only turn black in the spring time.
We continued on our way, The marina at Ely was busy lifting boats out and I expect this one was on its way to a new home somewhere. Just after this we passed our neighbours of last night, he was hoping to get his stern gland repacked as it was leaking badly.
We continued on to Popes Corner where we joined the River Cam and headed to where we planned to moor for the night, the EA 48hr. moorings at Upware. We hadn’t been moored long when James on Lucky Duck came by, we noticed her moored in Ely as we came through.