St Ives to Huntingdon

This is now to be the last posting of the first part of our cruise.

We had planned to moor the boat in a marina near Bedford for a month but, due to the recent heavy rainfall, we were told by the local river inspector that they may have to close some locks to enable drainage of flood waters. They recommended that we find a safe mooring as soon as possible.  We took their advice and managed to get the boat into a nearby marina in Wyton, Huntingdon on Thursday (29 May), where it will stay until we return there to continue our journey in about a month's time.

It was the right decision as we were sent this message yesterday (30 May):

The Strong Stream Advice has been issued for the River Great Ouse between Bedford and Earith. Several locks on this section of the river are closed to navigation and are being used to discharge flood waters. 

The Environment Agency strongly advises against attempting to navigate on the River Great Ouse. River flows are above normal, too fast for safe manoeuvring and headroom at some sites will be restricted.

This will do...

I'm getting there!

Hartford Marina, Wyton Huntingdon

We hope you have enjoyed the blog of our trip.

We will post more pictures when we continue our cruise in July

The River Great Ouse to St Ives

We arrive at Ely

The Magnificent Cathedral

Traffic Lights at a lock!

We arrive at Earith

We had planned to moor up at this floating pontoon but unfortunately, due to high water levels from the recent rain, the walkway from it was not long enough!

We cruise a little further and find space at this good mooring

Our fiends John & Carol join us and we enjoyed a lovely meal in this pub

John and Carol stayed overnight in this nearby Bed & Breakfast....

....and we walked back to the boat in the rain!

Mobile Home!?!

A double guillotine lock

We moor up in St Ives

Cheers!

Peterborough to Downham Market

At Peterborough we join the Middle Level Navigations.

Comprising of 70 miles of rivers, canals and dykes in the Cambridgeshire and Norfolk Fens, maintained by the Middle Level Commissioners primarily for drainage purposes.

They give us a cruising link from the Nene to the Great Ouse.

We enter the Mid Level Navigations via this manned lock

This one is do it yourself....

.... where you need a different type of windlass!

We moor overnight at March and  pop into the Hippodrome, which  is now a Wetherspoons pub!

We arrive at the manned Salters Lode Lock.
Going through here will take us to a short tidal stretch of the Great Ouse to Denver Sluice Lock

We wait at the lock landing until the tide has increased the water level

Going out of the lock we have to negotiate this sand bank, which can be under water when the tide rises

Peter takes us out

We avoid getting stuck on the sandbank!

We arrive at Denver Sluice Lock

We go through this lock onto....

....the Relief Channel Navigation, which runs from Denver Sluice to near Kings Lynn

We planned to moor up overnight at Downham Market but the moorings were full...

....so we carried on to Stowbridge....

....which had this pub right next to the mooring!

The next morning we cruise back to the lock to rejoin the Great Ouse