Denver to March Tuesday 11 June 2013

I woke up at 5.00am to bright sunshine and took a stroll to the sluice. What a massive piece of engineering it is. The lock is an integral part of it and our slot for going through at high tide was scheduled for 10.30am. Busied ourselves until 10.00am, in time for our passage through the lock system. It’s not essential to book at this time of year but it helps the lock keepers plan their work. During the summer it must be essential.

 

We let Paul in NB Moon go through first and we waited for the second slot. A delay occurred when the upstream guillotine didn’t work so the Lock Keeper rang Paul, the Denver Supervisor who arrived very quickly to throw the resent button. The Lock Keeper, who I also think was called Paul, admitted to being on his second week, and should have known this I thought – of course it was not his fault for not knowing unless it was covered in his induction training and he had forgot!

As we waited to leave the lock into the higher incoming tide, the Lock Keeper rang ahead to Salter’s Lode Lock keeper, another Paul, to coordinate our passage with a boat coming in the opposite direction. After a few minutes, we went through into the tidal Ouse for about 600 metres.

Salter’s Lode Lock appeared quickly on our left and I had been advised to turn early in order to make the acute left-hander. The entrance was tight and it was difficult to see exactly where to place the bow; a projecting wooden structure confusing the issue! Seen from the landward side, you can se how tight it was!

 

Skylark glided into the narrow opening like she’d been doing it for years. As I slowly edged into the lock, avoiding any scrapes with the various wooden and metal bits that seem to be jutting out, Paul said I should move  forward to the upstream V gates so he could shut the downstream guillotine.

 

When he came back he said I would have got full marks for my entry if I’d not ‘dithered’ a couple of times. Ha! Not wanting to enter into a full-blown steward’s enquiry, I said they were not ‘dithers’ but minor readjustments to my speed and direction to facilitate a faultless entry to his lock chamber.’ Of course he accepted my explanation without further ado and only dropped me one point from full marks!

As the lock filled he said he often saw shiny-boat owners creep in and cause more damage to their pride and joys due to their tentativeness. ‘Boldness and a steady hand is what’s called for!’ I liked all the Pauls for their helpfulness, friendliness and down-to-earthness.

We emerged into the quite narrow and very shallow middle fens and the going got slow with Skylark hauling herself through the  water. We reached Upwell by lunchtime and pulled over for a bite to eat.

Upwell is generally in a sorry state with many rundown houses and a few shops. It looks like half of it is awaiting a heritage reclamation scheme and the other half is awaiting immediate demolition! While there, I rang ahead to the Marmont Priory Lock keeper, a Mrs Norton. Marmont Priory Lock is an attractive place with surrounding trees and a traditional lock keeper's cottage.

Despite her failing hips, Mrs Norton operated the lock for us and we sailed through into a much deeper and wider part of the River Nene. This meant we could put on a bit more power while maintaining the 4mph speed limit.

We reached March by about 6.00pm and found an unsatisfactory mooring too near the central road bridge. We could see by the litter that things were often thrown over the bridge – we didn’t want to be the ones under it! I also noticed a few rat baiting boxes which gave me clue as to one of their on-going problems. I then noticed a vacant mooring on the other side of the bridge so we went there only to find it was under a couple of large trees used by roosting pigeons. As I didn’t want to spend hours washing Skylark in the morning, we decided to move on and find somewhere else. We went 3 miles out of March, past Fox’s Marina, and moored up alongside the Nene in the middle of nowhere and spent a very peaceful night with only the noise of the increasing wind and sloshing of the river as a soundtrack.

Lazy Otter to Denver Monday 10 June 2013

It was an 11.00am start on a grey cloudy day but at least we were moving on our trip to experience the delights of Peterborough via the middle fens. We took an hour or so in Ely to pick up provisions and stretch our legs and then headed north towards the Little Ouse Moorings to take on 200 litres of diesel (at 92ppl + duty this is still the cheapest fuel I have found on the river).

There were not many boats on the water and not much in the way of wildlife but we reached Denver Sluice at about 6.30pm and finding the frozen meal was still frozen, we had a sumptuous fish platter in the Jenyns Arms right next to the sluice. Sounds lovely, doesn’t it? - and it really is.

 

The sluice is quite a monster (more about that later).

In the evening, I fitted the new tv (more about that later too).

Bed base improvements

When Mick, the builder, built the double bed, he did a good job designing and building the base. It not only serves well as a solid base but also provides plenty of space for storage, the water pump and shower tray pump. However, I have never been happy with the top. He made four ply sheets and laid them in each of the four quarters supported by a sturdy frame. This meant they were not easy to lift and couldn't be left up unless propped up by the mattress. Of greater concern to me was that they created a potential problem of condensation under the mattress. Even with regular and careful airing of the mattress and bedding, this problem never really goes away. So an improvement was needed. Clear the decks!

Once I had removed the mattress and the ply boards I got underway. Space was in limited supply, so organisation was needed.

 

The ply bases were taken off and will be relegated to the garage at home.

 

 

 

I decided to opt for a slatted base so sourced some 7cm wide timber from B&Q. I did the marking out on the bed base to make sure it fitted exactly. This was not difficult but needed time and careful measuring to make sure the slats would be parallel and evenly spaced. I also had to fit three hinges to enable it to lift up so this had to be factored in.

 

After fitting the outside edges first (like a jigsaw puzzle), I glued and screwed all the slats in place using more screws around the edges and fewer in the middle. I hoped this would give the bed a bit of... well, 'give'.

 

 



I finished around mid afternoon. The work would have taken less time if I had used a power saw to cut the slats and maybe had two power drills (one for drilling, the other for screwing) but I was not bothered. Incidentally, I opted to lay the slats along the length of the bed to reduce the number of cuts to a minimum. Obviously the longer slats have to be supported but there were fewer cuts to be made and fewer screws needed. You can see the waste wood in the bottom right corner of the next photo.

The final piece of work was exactly as planned and I went home feeling satisfied at a good result and completely kn*ckered. I'm really not used to all this hard labour. I didn't even have time to field test the new bed base! That will have to wait for our trip to Peterborough next week.

By the way, Kay hasn't seen it yet but I described it to her like one of those bamboo beds you see in WW2 Japanese Prisoner of War camps. I hope I have reduced her expectations sufficiently.

Open Mic

It's that time of the month again!

I'm playing, with a few other performers, at the Limes Hotel in Needham Market, this coming Sunday afternoon. If you want to come along and listen, please do. If you want to perform in front of a very understanding and appreciative audience, bring whatever instrument you play and have a go. It really is a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Red Kite sighting

I should have mentioned in my last post, as we were leaving Ely yesterday afternoon, we caught a glimpse of a Red Kite twisting and turning to avoid being hassled by a Little Tern.

We have seen lots of them on the Little Ouse near Brandon but this is the first time I've seen them so close to Ely. They are beautiful birds and fill a much needed niche in the food chain, helping keep things in balance, mainly eating carrion. Someone else's photo below...

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This is probably one of my favourite birds and I consider myself lucky whenever I see one.

Ely fab weekend

Kay and I have had three days away in the sunny city of Ely. Moored near the Cutter and in close proximity to a lot of like-minded boaters, it turned out to be a very nice weekend indeed.

We were very fortunate to meet the 'Commander' and his wife, fellow narrowboaters Kevin (the gerbil) and his wife (the virgin) Mary (their descriptions, not mine), Stuart and his wife, and we even bumped into the owners of Beau Jangles who dragged us off a mud bank last year. Apparently they have renamed Skylark, the Mudlark - nice one guys!

We welcomed Emily, Nigel and the two oldest grandchildren on Saturday and spent some time at the annual St Ethelreada's fair near the Cathedral in between ice creams, chocolate cookies and more ice creams. Where do they put it all?

We're keeping our fingers crossed that this fantastic weather will continue for the next few weeks, right through our forthcoming trip to Peterborough over the fens. I know, it sounds really exotic but you can do this sort of thing when you're retired.

Prep for the summer

With an improvement in the weather, I spent a few hours on the boat today. The weekend looks like it will be even better.

Preparing for the summer, I have been concerned the front doors don't close very neatly. There's a bit of grinding and graunching as the two metal doors come together. The new high security padlock has added a bit of tightness too so I looked at ways of easing things. It was a small task for the new JCB angle grinder. Job done!

I also created a small wooden door (more like a flap) to hide the battery isolation switches. Is there no limit to this man's skills?

Anyway, I know you'd like to see a shot of it  - open...

 

And shut...

 

 

Lastly, a few days ago I came across a rechargeable Black and Decker Dusterbuster thingy in B&Q. It's not very powerful but is great for hoovering up the dust and fluff that gathers around the edges of the floor and in the corners of each room. It beats a traditional broom or the old Hoover Dustette hands down! And it looks a bit like a kettle so it sits on a worktop when its being topped up. Just thought you would like to share in my delight - oh the joys of spring!