MV Matilda

Moving by road tomorrow from Westview Marina, Earith to Stowe Hill Marina, Weedon, Northants so from the Great Ouse to the Grand Union Canal. Tuckeys lorry is due at 8.30 am

Which crane will be used?

The river has boat moored for a considerable length with no apparent visitor mooring so we hoped that the visitor mooring at Jesus Lock would have a space long enough for Matilda otherwise it would be turn around and retrace our steps. Luck was on our side and there was one spot left!

An easy walk across Jesus Green to the town centre

We went to choral evensong at Kings College Quite an  experinece sitting in the choir stalls next to the choir of some 16 young men.

Punting and rowers

Boathouses line the river towards Jesus Lock. By looking at the colours on the oars you can identify which college is out practising. The coach is either running or cycling alongside.

An excellent wisteria adorns one of the colleges

We climbed the castle mound for the view

 

  An intriguing clock – the blue flashes indicate the hour minute and second

A little culture at the Fitzwilliam and Museum of Cambridge

My favourite item in the Museum of Cambridge:

Mooring is only allowed for 48 hours with no return for 14 days so our visit came to and end

We came across this novel idea. Instead of a normal pontoon along the bank this one was built out to fit exactly around the stern of the boat making a huge seating area.

 

 

 

An interesting overnight stop at a lovely mooring at the No Hurry Inn Five Miles From Anywhere.

You don’t very often see a boat with a garage!

Guillotine locks are quite common

 

Bridge heights are important!

 

 

Welcome to Ely

Cathedral and Model

Riverside moorings complete with swans nest

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We visited Oliver Cromwells house Note the interesting statistics

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday was the start of the three day Eel Festival (food and drink) with procession through the town and stall on the park

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Frivolous and serious

 

Town crier

Local tuktuk – a bit smarter than those I used in Calcutta!

So, out to sea…

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Consulting the charts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here is the Satnav. It shows a car in the middle of the sea!

Patrol boat and Pilot boat passing by

 

 

 

 

 

Sea spray

 

 

 

 

Seals basking

 

 

 

 Retrieving the anchor

 Channel into Kings LynnChannel marker buoy

Passed by Kings Lynn and arrived at Denver sluice at 5.00pm

Said Goodbye to Daryl at Denver sluice. Contact him on 07909 880071if you want to make this crossing.

After a meal at the Jenyns Arms and a brief sunset stroll it was off to bed for a well earned rest after an exciting and exhausting day!

Thank you John for your welcome muscle and Hilary for the photographs.

A once in a lifetime experience.

 

Left Mooring at 5.55am to sail 1 km to lock gate mooring. Boston Stump at 6.00am

Gates due to open around 6.30am when the level of the sea and River Witham are exactly the same.

There is a window of 3 (yes 3) minutes for this so timing is critical. Miss it and you have to wait until the next day.

Approaching the gate mooring under the rail bridge. Boston to Skegness line. The Pilot Darryl Hill came aboard here. He takes about 15 boats a year across The Wash.

Mike the lovely and informative lock keeper, who is here specially, inspects the levels and then the lock gates start to open

Wider

Going through

Looking back gates pipe and rail bridge.

Traveling downriver

Fishing boats land shrimps and cockles

Customs House

Farewell Boston

First challenge accomplished! Now for the real test of seaworthiness!

 

 

 

We looked back at Lincoln Cathedral illuminated at night, from our first mooring at Washingborough where the disused railway runs alongside the river and is used by many cyclists and walkers.

Washingborough is a pretty commuter village with Church and mosaic

In the afternoon we sailed on through Bardney lock and to Bardney Bridge.

War Memorial The small square stone in the middle of the brickwork is from Norway after the sinking of the Tirpitz by 617 Squadron, the Dam Busters.

This unusual lettering caught my eye. Close by the local Fish and Chip shop (a very smart place with indoor and outdoor seating) provided us with a  most welcome supper!

Moored for the night with cruiser Ocean Tide.  Distant glimpse of Lincoln Cathedral.

We had a leisurely Tuesday morning doing jobs around the boat before a short cruise to Kirkstead Bridge. It was so sunny and warm and we put our laundry outside to dry in the sunshine.

Wednesday we did a few more boat related jobs before setting off to walk to Woodhall Spa. This is a lovely place to visit and we last came in the mid nineties with my Mother. Its attractions include the Cottage Museum, War Memorial, the Tea Room in the Woods (excellent) and the Kinema in the Woods. The Kinema has film programme second to none and even has a OAP morning with free tea & biscuits. Sadly it wasn’t on Wednesday  The village has some lovely tea shops and eating places, hotels and golf. We discovered a local cake shop that has a replica of the wedding cake it made for Charles and Camilla. It has woods and walks too.

Woodhall Spa was also in the middle of RAF country in World War Two and the Dam Busters were stationed close by. Today RAF Coningsby is close.

Thursday we left Kirkstead Bridge and cruised down to Boston.  The runway at RAF Coningsby is quite close to the river Witham so we saw a lot of Typhoons taking to the skies. It is also base for the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, but unfortunately we didn’t see any of those flying.The Museum is only a short walk from Dogdyke but we had been warned not to moor there,

We met one boat, narrowboat Fox,  travelling upstream and that was the total river traffic for the day, We passed an odd sign “Fish Shelter do not moor” and we are not quite sure what a fish shelter is!

It took four hours nine minutes to complete our journey and we are now moored in Boston facing the famous Stump. The Witham Pub does a steak (large portions!) night on Thursdays so we took advantage of that.

We have stocked up with provisions from M&S and Asda and now await friends John & Hilary who are joining us later today.

Below are images of Boston.

Approaching moorings with St Botolphs otherwise known as Boston Stump. It’s the largest parish church in England.

Daffodil Festival

Stained glass window

Mayflower passenger list displayed in the Guildhall Museum

Boston Marina on right, yacht club on left

Morning view

Sunset from Matilda

The lock keepers and the pilot are prepared for our next exciting, once in a lifetime journey on Sunday.

Boston Sluice the first challenge on Sunday 23 April

More adventures to follow…..

The canal bank approaching Lincoln is lined with old boats, sheds and cars before the visitor moorings alongside the university, which has more development under way.

Brayford Pool is lined with restaurant chains – not particularly appealing but you encounter some odd happenings like this Mini meeting outside the Holiday Inn at Brayford Pool:

The Glory Hole is designed to strike terror into the hearts of boaters! It is a very old, small and low bridge preceded by a low road bridge and betwen the two is a slight angle, so tricky for a long and wide boat.  Tonys boat handling was superb and we sailed through without touching the walls, or ceiling!  What was all the fuss about!!!!

Through the Glory Hole between the main shops towards the impressive statues, and below looking back

Approaching a very low bridge, at an angle to the canal

Last glimpse of the Glory Hole and the canal featured between modern developments. A good example of how other town developments could take advantage of their canals. A lot of mooring opportunities, but threatened heavy rain was causing us to press on.

The stamp End Guillotine Lock leads out of Lincoln. The rain began as we were in this lock

An uneventful passage through Nether Lock at Newark followed by a flotilla of cruisers all keen to overtake on our way towards the renowned Cromwell Lock. We had to moor up and wait for the tide so we filled up with water and chatted to other boats waiting with us.Cromwell lock sees the beginning of the tidal Trent and is huge.

Cormorants on Cromwell weir barrier

We left Cromwell at 12.07 following a cruiser and two narrow boats that were aiming to moor overnight at Torksey floating pontoon on their way downstream. Charts are needed in order to follow the deepest channel and avoid sunken islands, sandbanks and other hazards!

We radioed ahead to Torksey and as we tuned into the channel approaching this lock, one of the narrow boats was trying to turn around. This was quite a tricky situation as the pontoon was filled for the most part with delicate cruisers and we, a large steel boat able to inflict a considerable amount of damage, were trying to remain stationary whilst all this manoeuvring was taking place.  (When the boat loses speed it loses steering).  At one point the narrow boat even appeared to go aground!  Finally after a lot of nail biting on our part they pulled in and the lock keeper was able to open the gates for us at 14.59 so we had made excellent progess helped by quite a high tide.

The lock keeper (Anjay?) on duty was the same charming one that we had met last September. He was so helpful taking up the rope for the passage though the lock, indicating where we could moor and lending  us a book on the Fossdyke and Witham with very useful notes pencilled in. Torksey Lock always draws onlookers and has very historic lock mechanisms and the lock keeper invites a large person to help him operate the paddles. He also promotes dinner at The White Swan where portions are generous to say the least!

Historic lock gear

Moored up at 15.30 and of course went to The White Swan later for dinner!  We thought of last September when we ate here with Louise and Andrew, We even sat at the same table!

Information board at Torksey Lock

We set off on Easter Saturday passing one kilometre of moorings. The Fossdyke is a roman canal and therfore straight for the most part with quite high banks. It was a busy morning -we met two other boats!  At Drinksey Nook (yes, a real name) the A57 runs alongside the canal and Skegness of childhood holidays is 51 miles distant. We were recommended to moor at Saxilby and were not disappointed.

The local history society has done an amazing job promoting the village and has leaflets on the canal bank of the history trail. The trail eventually leads to St Botolphs Church where we met the flower arranging ladies preparing the church for the Easter Sunday service.

One of them was arranging a pedestal and she explained that this arrangement commemorated the death of a local airman in the second world war. His then girlfriend has sent money every year since then for this red white and blue arrangement. A 94 year old local lady, who was involved in our conversation, had known this young airman and rememberd him quite clearly.

The Airmans memorial flower arrangement

Our first cruise of 2017 in fantastic weather. Left Kings Marina with friends John & Hilary aboard for the first leg of our journey. Today was the first day that the volunteer lock keepers were on duty and  once we had radioed to them, they prepared the lock which made going through locks so much easier and quicker.  Overnight mooring at The Ferry Boat at Stoke Bardolph.

John casting off from Kings Marina

An artistic view of the Trent

A view of the River Trent going upstream on day two.

Some very low bridges on the canal on London Road, Nottingham meant we had to take down the awning.

Wilford Road bridge, Nottingham adjacent to Nottingham Archives where I had a behind the scenes tour on our return journey.  Can you spot the heron?

Moored up on Castle Boulevard close to Sainsburys!.

Wednesday morning Tony went off very early by tram to Hucknall to the metal workers for modifications to Matilda’s exhaust extension.

Jeni, Olivia and Joel visiting.

Lovely evening talking canal boating with Mick and Teresa from Midday at The Waters Edge formerly The Baltimore Diner!

Thursday another sunny day, saw us sailing upsteam to Sawley. This is Sawley twin lock and it’s very confusing as there is no indication as to which lock you enter. There is also no lock keeper and it is very difficult for someone to get off, as the walls are high and there is a weir.  We managed it with some difficulty. Once on land the gates are fully mechanised so only a key needed not muscle. Excellent and popular mooring above the lock.

Sunset at Sawley

Moonrise at Sawley

My favourite power station at Radcliffe on Soar

Friday afternoon we decided to venture up to Shardlow, a real canal village, but there were so many boats moored we couldn’t find a space wide enough, nor could we turn,  so we carried on to Weston on Trent where we spent the night, without realising we were under the flightpath of East Midlands Airport. Luckily not too many flights to Majorca!

Saturday we got up very early as we had to continue another couple of miles before there was a winding hole to to turn around. Turning was fine and we returned to Shardlow and then Sawley without meeting too many hire boats. It was Sawley Marinas Spring Fair so we went over to see some of the events and have a late OAP lunch “for the lighter appetite” It was delicious and I came away with a doggy bag as the portions were huge! Later in the evening we were treated to the sounds of folk music drifting down river. We were outside until 8.00pm enjoying the warm weather.

Friends John & Jolanta visited on Sunday and after lunch we paid another visit to the Spring Fair enjoying the sunshine.

Monday friends Hilary & John joined us again for the trip back to Nottingham where we moored up again alongside Castle Boulevard, with a view of the castle itself.

Tuesday I visited the Archives, whilst Tony did jobs on the boat, and Wednesday John  cycled down and helped us back to Newark.

John steering

There was a holdup for about an hour at Hazelford whilst repairs to the paddles were carried out and so we arrived in Newark at 5.00pm. John then had to cycle back home to Nottingham.

Thursday after refuelling etc we said goodbye to Andy at Kings Marina and waved Au revoir to the friends we had made at the Marina and moored on on the floating pontoon to be prepared for an early start on Friday for the next cruising adventure.

Moored on the floating pontoon at Newark