A Perfect Day for Messing About on the River - 24June2018

Sunday 24th June 2018
Hemmingford Grey to Godmanchester
4.75 miles, 2 locks

The day started with a visit from a new little friend for Monty - 15 week old Flo.  Who can resist anything as adorable as this?  She was very good and behaved exactly how a puppy should to an older dog and I have to say Monty was very gentle with her.

 

Today was a day for visitors - Nan, Dick and Lizzie arrived around midday.  A cold lunch was eaten on board before we set off upstream back to Godmanchester where they all live.  The weather was just perfect.

 

 How elegant is that parasol?  Two men, a woman and dog in a boat!

 The small lad in the middle seemed to be enjoying himself.

Houghton lock is where the fun began.  First there was a cruiser on the lock landing with the two lady crew members enjoying their lunch and glass of wine!  One did hop out and ask if I needed any help, but did not get the message when I said I needed to get off and getting me to the side without damaging their boat was going to be very difficult.  We did, of course, succeed and Chris then managed another pass for Dick to alight, still leaving the cruiser in one piece.  Being Houghton and a lovely Sunday there were many gongoozlers and then horror of horrors just as Dick and I raised the slackers to empty the lock two young men jumped off the bridge!  I tried to explain the dangers of jumping off bridges, particularly near a lock, but it fell on deaf ears.  As we were leaving the lock they were talking about jumping into the lock, but decided to use the ladder instead.  Dick and I tried to deter them, but failed miserably.  May be someone else will have more luck one day.

We made it into the lock

and were going up when a man and a teenage girl came through the gate to the lock area to ask if we could tow them and their inflatable boat back to Hartford Marina a short distance along the river.  They had managed to scrape it all along one side and had punctured it.  They had made a good job of it.  They tried to carry it round to be attached to us whilst we were in the lock, but it was too big, so in the end they had to go through the lock with the next boat (there were boats coming and going all the time) and they were going to tow them.  I never spoke to him, but others on our crew who did suspected he might have had a liquid Sunday which was confirmed when someone saw inside the boat which was littered with empty cans!

There were two boats waiting as we left

 
It was a very scenic route which I think our visitors enjoyed.

A different aspect for them of the Old Bridge in Huntingdon and I am sure much more scenic than driving over it.

People were still out enjoying the day

Godmanchester lock and two cruisers went in before us - the one in the rear had not entered a lock before and nearly got it wrong and nearly crashed into the first one, but disaster was averted

they tied up and we moved in

It was getting near to 4pm when we got to Godmanchester and the question always is 'would we get a mooring?'

No chance on the EA moorings by the lock - we have managed two of us in the past, so three really was a squash.

We knew we had a back stop as Nan and Dick have local friends with a private mooring and they are away, but that would mean going back down the lock.  We decided to go down the backwater alongside the recreation ground and luck was with us

- a bit of a lumpy edge, but good enough for one night.

It turned out to be a perfect spot with a large tree affording much needed shade for us to get the table and chairs out for a cream tea provided by Nan

Proseco and

scones, butter, jam and cream - perfect.  Thank you Nan - it was a rare treat.

 We said farewell - it certainly was a perfect day.  Our visitor count this year is now up to 42!

We will come down here again as the views are stunning

Just perfect.