Shortcuts, Tides and Animal Rescues

Approaching the lovely old bridge at Great Barford

I should never have got my legs waxed.  The last few days have been back to winter and I’ve had my thermals back on!!!  On Thursday afternoon we walked to the recycling place and dumped our used oil, then headed over to Priory Marina to see if they had some filters, Mike likes to keep a few spares of various bits and pieces on board, just in case.  They didn’t have them in stock but could have them mid-morning the next day – perfect.  We then headed to Halfords for some more oil and then as it was hot and we’d walked quite far, stopped off at Costa’s on the way back for a Strawberries and Cream frappacino – yum!!  Friday saw a lazy start, heading off for Priory at 11.30 to collect the filters, even though they hadn’t called us to say they were there, we figured we were past ‘mid-morning’, and sure enough they were there – though one of them was the wrong size, which was a bummer.  We then continued on our way back along the Ouse, unfortunately just being beaten out of the marina by another narrowboat, which would mean we’d need to wait for them to go down the lock first, then set it, then go down ourselves.  Normally this is okay, but these locks are the slowest in the world and are automated, so you can’t make them go any quicker…..  However, as we approached the lock landing behind them, the chap waved us on, “We’ve got a desperate dog we need to let out for a bit, you go ahead.”  By the time we’d got roped up in the lock, the dog was done and the chap was all for coming in with us, but it was a narrow lock and too short for the two of us.  So we continued on to our mooring for the evening at Great Barford.

Pretty river cruising to Great Barford

Moored on the other side of the Bridge

Pretty brickwork at Great Barford

The sun was out and it was a great day for cruising – shorts weather – and when we got to Great Barford we got the deck chairs out and soaked it up, which was just as well, given that it didn’t last!  Around 5pm we shut up shop and were picked up by Enterprise to go and collect our hire car for the Saturday to take us to Crick.  Jim was showing Betty so we went along for moral support and also to pick up some bits and pieces we need for taking the boat over to France.

 

One of the necessities for France is a self-pumpout machine.....

 The boat show was heaving and my tolerance level for crowds is not what it used to be so after about an hour and a few important purchases I headed back to Betty for a coffee and roast pork roll.  Thankfully getting out of Crick proved easier than getting in; the journey there took 1 hour 45 minutes – an hour on the motorway then 45 minutes to get into Crick.  The journey home just took the hour…….  Back on board, we donned on our shorts and set off.  We now had a deadline to meet and no time to be wasted.  We had decided to come back off the Nene and Middle Levels via The Wash, a bit of open sea that would take us from Wisbech to Boston.  As it’s open sea, you have to book a pilot and after liaising with Daryl Hill for a couple of weeks, he had confirmed a good tide on 2 June.  There was no way we could get to Wisbech for then so we booked in for Friday 3^rd which was still going to be tight, so we decided to take another short cut up the 100 Foot Drain, from Earith to Denver, which would take us four hours instead of two days back the winding way through Ely.  The price to be paid was the most boring bit of navigation in the world…. 

However, after Crick on Saturday we pootled up to St Neots, topped up our shopping and spent the night there.  We set off in a cold wind the next morning at 10am and finally stopped cruising in the early evening at Earith.  It was quite an eventful journey in a way.  With it being the bank holiday weekend, there were a lot of boats around so at each lock we would try to fit in as many as possible.  Unfortunately we were overambitious at Godmanchester and one of the narrow boats was catching on the side as we went down.  So we had to stop, come back up, let the cruiser at the back out and then start again.  As these locks are not the quickest, this added a good 45 minutes to our journey .  As we all left the lock the cruiser driver shouted forlornly,”Wait for me……” he took it very good naturedly.  After St Ives the cruisers had all parked up for the night and there were just us three hardcore narrowboaters left.  The others peeled off at pubs along the way and we reached Earith alone.   

Signets hitching a lift

Leaving St Ives behind

More pretty river

The highlight of the Earith EA mooring is that there is a pump out machine and it’s free!!!  So we pumped out, then did it again to give the tank a good clean and rinse.  Then it was to bed.  We had to be up and away by 8am the next morning as the drain we would be travelling along is tidal and we had to catch the outgoing tide.  There were a few points of interest along the way, but really the drain is the most boring thing we’ve ever done yet, not helped by a very overcast, dark, dull windy day.  It was towards the end of the drain that we had our first Animal Rescue opportunity….

 

One of the two or three points of interest on our 20 mile cruise along the 100 Foot Long Drain

Having waved at the farmer a couple of times in passing, he came down to the waterside and asked if we'd make a lot of noise and wave to try and scare this cow back onto the bank.

The cow was completely unperturbed by our noise, honking the horn, shouting, waving etc

And in fact, headed even deeper into the river and started heading after us!!  It looked like it was heading back to land further on, then turned back into the river again, so I don't know if it ever came out.

After a battle with the wind and a bit of current off the weir, moored up safely at Denver awaiting passage down to Salter's Lode lock.

Still keen to make time, when we came through Salter’s Lode back onto the Middle Levels we kept going heading for March for the night.  However, we came to a screeching halt in the village of Outwell when I spotted a pigeon in the water – still alive, and just sitting one third above the water and two below, very still, so it must’ve been exhausted.  We managed to get it in our net and put it on the bank, where it sat in the net blinking at us.  As I reached over to move it off the net, I spotted it was ringed, so brought it onto the boat.  He’s a racing pigeon and the ring indicated he was registered with the North England Homing Union – NEHU (thank the lord for the internet!!).  I rang them, but of course they were shut for the bank holiday, so I emailed them and made preparations to keep the pigeon on board until we were instructed what to do. So we popped him on the Heritage to dry out and the next day he continued on our journey with us from March to Peterborough.

Poor Bertie - drying off on the Heritage

Poor Mike's turn to get soaked on the back

The weather the next morning was horrendous – horizontal rain!!  But we had to move as we’d booked the lock to take us off the Middle Levels and back onto the Nene at Peterborough.  We took turns doing half hour stints driving and had our winter thermals on!!

As we travelled along in the rain NEHU rang me and gave me the owners details to get in touch.  It turns out our little feathered friend is from Hartlepool and was on his way back there from a race in Ille, France.  When I spoke with the owner, she said they’d sent 11 birds out and only 5 had come back and lots of other owners seem to have lost birds on this race.  She asked us to keep a hold of him ‘til he was strong enough and then just release him and he would make his way home.  We would have to wait for better weather to release him as well as it remained wet and windy all day Wednesday as well – whilst Mum was basking in the sun in Dalgety Bay!! 

The weather also put paid to our crossing the Wash on Friday, so it is now booked for Sunday and if not, Monday.  To get to Wisbech we have to go through the Dog in a Doublet Lock, which will take us onto a tidal stretch, so Mike phoned the lockie to book us through on Saturday.  “Can’t do Saturday I’m afraid.  Shortage of lock keepers so the lock won’t be operating.  Needs to be Friday or Sunday.”  Well, it would have to be Friday as we might be setting off into the sea on Sunday, which is a nuisance as we will have to wait for our tide at Wisbech Yacht Harbour – which charges £20 a night for the pleasure – and we could be there for three nights!!

It looks like the pigeon will be coming with us as he has deteriorated in the last 24 hours I’m afraid.  He’s very lethargic, weak and puffed up, breathing quite heavily.  We phoned a couple of vets in Peterborough, one which would euthanise if we required that, and the other who said they’d see the bird, but know that racers usually see a bird specialist, which they don’t have, and also they’d really need the owner there to make decisions of treatment.  So I phoned the owner again who reassured me he’ll probably be okay but it can take a few days for them to get over a race, particularly if there’s been bad weather, never mind ending up in a river!  So we’ve just to keep feeding and watering him and she’s sure he’ll come round in a few days.  So the pigeon will be crossing the Wash with us probably.  She said when we release him, he might come back to us!!  Well, hopefully the next time I’m posting we’ll have come across the Wash in one piece and Bertie will be back in Harlepool – watch this space…..