We made it!

Thursday 9 August

We made a relaxed start on another sunny morning. Working down Hemingford Lock, we passed the Festival site, where there were definite signs of activity, and moored on the Town Quay. This is a high and awkward mooring, but perfectly usable if the crew is reasonably athletic. There is supposed to be a water point here, in an old village pump, but as always we couldn’t work out how to make it function.

We also magnificently failed to find the Waitrose in town, but did find a Budgens and did our bits of daily shopping there. Needing water, we went back upstream to the Waits mooring. The Waits is a street alongside a backwater, where EA have made a nice set of visitor moorings. The only downside is that there’s no winding hole at the end, so you have to back out.

We had a bit of a wait in the Waits, whilst a big cruiser filled up, but it was an excuse for a chat and a cup of coffee.

Having watered and backed out, we went downstream to St Ives Lock. There was a touch of hassle here, as a little cruiser was moored on half the lock landing, and there was a small day boat on the other half waiting for the lock. I had to hover Sanity in midstream until the lock was ready, not an easy task just up from the weir and with a cross wind blowing.

Through at last, we went down to the Pike and Eel moorings for the night, passing Pat and Sheila on Fair Fa’ coming the other way. It turned into a bit of a fly swat evening – the boat filled up with a mixture of flying beasties, including a couple of mosquitoes, so the electric tennis racquet was kept busy just before bed.

Friday 10 August

It was yet another seriously sunny morning. We didn’t want to get away too soon, as the main task for today is to pump out at Earith pontoon, and we don’t want to be there before ten. The Pike and Eel moorings are very pleasant, under some trees in little bays, and great fun can be had crumbling a slice of bread into the clear water. Almost immediately, shoals of little fish turn up, nibbling at the crumbs, and at times making the water boil in their feeding frenzy.

We set off at nine, worked down Brownshill Lock and got to Earith just on ten. Here we found two boats had taken over the complete length of pontoon for boat washing purposes. Sheila had a serious challenge to her boat handling skill, having gone onto the marina owned pontoon just downstream whilst one of these boats pulled out and tied alongside the other. She then had to reverse past the breasted up boats, and come back onto the short length of pontoon now free at the upstream end.

We had to juggle about to get the pump out point within reach of the hose, but eventually we did it and got a pump out. We then pulled back and topped up the water tank before winding and heading back upstream.

Back up Brownshill and St Ives locks we went, came through St Ives Bridge and moored on the workers’ boat pontoon. We had a great time meeting a lot of old friends from previous Nationals, and in mid afternoon helped sort the boats into their final echelon array, with the sterns to the pontoons and the bows out in the river at about 45°, each bow held by an anchor or mud weight.

Later in the day, I helped move Fulbourne from the Waits where she’d been since she arrived, onto a meadow side mooring. On the way round to get her, I told Bungle and the others of our bafflement with the Town Quay water point.

“Let’s have a look,” says Bungle. Within a couple of minutes he’d found the stop tap under a water meter cover, and had a good flow of water emerging form the pump.

Moving Fulbourne went remarkably smoothly, considering that Bungle, who was steering, had never so much as started her up before, much less reversed her out into flowing water.

A pleasant evening sitting out on the bows exchanging banter with everyone else doing so was slightly spoilt by a couple of local idiots in an inflatable. These seemed to find it funny to speed past the boats at well over the limit, swinging the boat around to create extra wash and stress the moorings. I got a couple of photos of them, after which they moved off downstream to be idiots somewhere else.

As I said last time, this will be the last of the regular cruising posts whilst we are working at St Ives. I'll take a set of photos of the site as it comes together, and post them as and when I can get a fast internert connection. Regular cruising posts will restart in early September.