A bird and plane watching run to Tattershall

1 July

It was another quiet night at Anton's Gowt, apart from the cries of the rowers as they hurtled past the mooring. In one case, a pair stopped for what appeared to be the mother of one of them to come onto the pontoon and give him a pair of sunglasses. Not quite the Steve Redgrave touch, somehow.

I took a bit of time on a slow connection to fill in the questionnaire on the Cheshire Locks project site. This is a well worth while campaign to get the locks between Kidsgrove and Middlewich refurbished and repaired, and needs all the support it can get.

The other interesting thing about Anton's Gowt is that it did have a problem with youths swimming off the moorings. Not necessarily troublesome in itself, except that of course it didn't stop there, and there were soon complaints about drinking, bad language and all the rest.

So they've put up a lot of signage, locked the access to the main pontoon, so that you need a BW key, increased the police patrols in the area, and installed a mosquito buzzer on a pole.

This is one of these fiendish devices that emits a high pitched squeal. Older folk can't hear it, but it discourages youngsters from hanging about.

I'm not sure what I feel about that myself – I'd rather use education and relationship building to reduce bad behaviour, but the combination certainly seems to have done the job in this case.

We made an early start this morning, and Sheila boated gently up to Tattershall, watching for unusual birds as she went. We both did a bit of photography on the way, but the results are going to need a bit of work before I can publish them, I fear. We saw an unusual duck, a lot of the usual suspects, and several barn owls, in at least two cases, flying along with prey in their beaks or claws.

I can also report that the Packet Boat at Belle Isle is definitely open for business, and seemed to be well patronised.

As we got near Tattershall Bridge, the wild life was replaced by low flying aircraft. RAF Coningsby is obviously hosting a fair number of participants for next weekend's show. I've spotted any number of Typhoons, some F15s and lots of a delta winged, single tail finned beast I can't quite identify.

We've had a quiet afternoon, working on some more of the Braidbar quiz, alternately basking in the sun and retreating into the cabin, and anxiously refreshing the BBC website to keep track of Andy Murray's performance in the quarter finals.

Tomorrow we go on to Kirkstead Bridge.

Lurking at Anton's Gowt

30th June

We've spent the day lurking here at Anton's Gowt. We took a walk first thing, whilst it was still cool, after we'd both had a broken night, at least partly because of the heat.

Doorengone is still here – apparently she's waiting for a pilot to take her across the North Sea to The Netherlands.

On the walk today we spotted several Reed Warblers singing their little hearts out, to add to the Little Egret we spotted yesterday.

Other bits and pieces:

I've not had a response from Birmingham Midshires to the complaint I sent them yesterday. Obviously I don't expect a complete reply yet, but an acknowledgement would be good. I can't recommend them as an internet bank.

Sheila ordered some crochet cotton three weeks ago, and it hasn't been delivered yet. This is a real pain, as of course once we leave here next week, we won't be near a handy address for a while. Sheila's got an order for port hole doilies she wants to get on with. We've been researching alternative suppliers of Coats Aida cotton, but they are pretty few and far between.

Tomorrow we go on to Tattershall, probably.

Slowly back up river

29th June

Our sleep last night was a bit disturbed by the crew of the boat on the next pontoon, who started having a full volume domestic at half three in the morning, but even that didn't really stop us from getting some quality kip.

After a good trip to Asda, we set off up river for the short run to Anton's Gowt. On arrival, the downstream pontoon was still full, mainly with Doorengone (still), with Canny Annie hanging off the end. The upstream pontoon was empty, though, so we've tied here for the night.

It's very hot again, and we had a brief walk beside one of the Navigable Drains, but to be honest it wasn't very thrilling.

The other events of the day: a stroppy email to Birmingham Midshires about the fact that after three weeks they've still not resurrected my savings account, and we've put together another section of the quiz for the Braidbar Owners' Weekend in September.

We may well stay here tomorrow, as this is a 48 hour mooring, and we are a day ahead of ourselves.