Waiting for the river to reopen
Saturday 28 July
We were greeted by a bright sunny morning, and walked up to the lock after breakfast to see what the water levels had done overnight. Just as we got there, an EA van pulled up and we had a chat with the guys in it. They said that the river was going down steadily, but that much depended on the amount of rain over the weekend.
After shopping in the village we backed Sanity up to the service point, and pumped out. After that it was a case of lazing in the sun, eating some excellent sandwiches made with bread from the butcher and chatting with the other moorers. In effect it’s turned into a mini rally of its own.
In the afternoon, the people on Blue Belle came back for a few hours, and said they were going home for tonight but would be back tomorrow.
During the afternoon a number of the local kids came and started messing around with the lock, climbing up onto the top of the guillotine gantry and jumping off into the empty lock.
Later on, in the early evening, Fulbourne arrived. Fulbourne is an unconverted Town class motor owned by a group of wrgies (volunteers of the Waterway Recovery Group). In this case she was crewed by David Mack and his family. They too were off again as their daughters are racing in a triathlon near their home tomorrow. We tied Fulbourne outside Carpe Diem and Festina Lente. The Macks will be back on Monday.
Sunday 29 July
There was steady rain overnight, but at no time was it torrential, and the morning was quite sunny. After walking to the village and trying to buy some more beer supplies (frustrated by the remnant of the licensing law that says you can’t buy alcohol before 10 on a Sunday), we took a look at the car boot sale at the football ground. It’s very big, but mainly genuine amateur sellers.
Getting back to the boat, Scooby told us that he’d been on to the EA and the news is good. They plan to unreverse the locks below here tonight, and then take off the SSA last thing tomorrow. We decided to have a BBBBQ (Terry’s term): that is a Bye Bye Barbeque, tomorrow night, to celebrate the end of the closure. The weather continued to improve, so more lazing in the sun was called for. I did make a further foray to the car boot and aquired some workshop towel, and box of 100 latex gloves at very reasonable prices.
Late in the afternoon, a flotilla of four boats appeared, one bearing Pat Barton, the Waterspace Manager for the National. She said there may be problems getting up the 100 foot river to avoid the stoppage at Ely Rail Bridge because of all the fresh coming down it at a time of Spring tides. She’s going to try and negotiate with EA to have a convoy past the Rail Bridge, since work is progressing there apace, it seems.
After some discussion amongst themselves, they decided not to stop here tonight, but to go on to Woodford.
Later in the evening, we had a further excitement in the form of a massive plume of black smoke appearing above the rooftops of Irthlingborough. In a bit, flames could be seen leaping up. A passing dog walker told us that it was a disused factory going up. Appliance after appliance could be seen crossing the A6 bridge under blue lights, and it still seemed to be burning away as we retreated from a cool breeze into the boats for the night.
We were greeted by a bright sunny morning, and walked up to the lock after breakfast to see what the water levels had done overnight. Just as we got there, an EA van pulled up and we had a chat with the guys in it. They said that the river was going down steadily, but that much depended on the amount of rain over the weekend.
After shopping in the village we backed Sanity up to the service point, and pumped out. After that it was a case of lazing in the sun, eating some excellent sandwiches made with bread from the butcher and chatting with the other moorers. In effect it’s turned into a mini rally of its own.
In the afternoon, the people on Blue Belle came back for a few hours, and said they were going home for tonight but would be back tomorrow.
During the afternoon a number of the local kids came and started messing around with the lock, climbing up onto the top of the guillotine gantry and jumping off into the empty lock.
Later on, in the early evening, Fulbourne arrived. Fulbourne is an unconverted Town class motor owned by a group of wrgies (volunteers of the Waterway Recovery Group). In this case she was crewed by David Mack and his family. They too were off again as their daughters are racing in a triathlon near their home tomorrow. We tied Fulbourne outside Carpe Diem and Festina Lente. The Macks will be back on Monday.
Sunday 29 July
There was steady rain overnight, but at no time was it torrential, and the morning was quite sunny. After walking to the village and trying to buy some more beer supplies (frustrated by the remnant of the licensing law that says you can’t buy alcohol before 10 on a Sunday), we took a look at the car boot sale at the football ground. It’s very big, but mainly genuine amateur sellers.
Getting back to the boat, Scooby told us that he’d been on to the EA and the news is good. They plan to unreverse the locks below here tonight, and then take off the SSA last thing tomorrow. We decided to have a BBBBQ (Terry’s term): that is a Bye Bye Barbeque, tomorrow night, to celebrate the end of the closure. The weather continued to improve, so more lazing in the sun was called for. I did make a further foray to the car boot and aquired some workshop towel, and box of 100 latex gloves at very reasonable prices.
Late in the afternoon, a flotilla of four boats appeared, one bearing Pat Barton, the Waterspace Manager for the National. She said there may be problems getting up the 100 foot river to avoid the stoppage at Ely Rail Bridge because of all the fresh coming down it at a time of Spring tides. She’s going to try and negotiate with EA to have a convoy past the Rail Bridge, since work is progressing there apace, it seems.
After some discussion amongst themselves, they decided not to stop here tonight, but to go on to Woodford.
Later in the evening, we had a further excitement in the form of a massive plume of black smoke appearing above the rooftops of Irthlingborough. In a bit, flames could be seen leaping up. A passing dog walker told us that it was a disused factory going up. Appliance after appliance could be seen crossing the A6 bridge under blue lights, and it still seemed to be burning away as we retreated from a cool breeze into the boats for the night.
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