Cancelled! 23 June 2018

St Ives to Hemingford Grey
1.75 miles, 1 lock

Just a short journey today as we had an appointment that evening

An appropriate way to spend a sunny Saturday night with a picnic and a bottle - well we thought it would be, especially as it was our Wedding Anniversary.  Sadly it was not to be - they failed to sell enough tickets, so it was

First job of the day was to walk Monty, past the sea scouts encampment which was busy again.  We met one of the leaders the night before who said they had one hundred 5, 6 and 7 year olds!!  We wished him luck and that we hoped he would survive.  'It will be fine' he replied 'I am off to get the whisky'!  Was that for him and the other leaders or to sedate the children??!!

Next we came to the GOBA meadow moorings to find out what was going on

Not just a small regatta - it was huge! The races started around 8am.

The essentials at any large gathering 

Rowing clubs from around the region.

Back to the boat and we bade farewell to Di and Doug who were heading back to Ely

We had a final stock up in Waitrose - we are expecting visitors tomorrow, so lunch for 5 was on the shopping list.

We set off late morning in glorious sun - not quite as hot (thankfully) as it was 45 years ago, but definitely really lovely.  The big question was - how long would the delay for the regatta be?  We slowed down, stopped, hovered, waited and waited fully expecting some sort of information from the man on the tannoy.  None came, Chris started to edge forward when we thought the way was clear.  That galvanised the man on the tannoy who bellowed out 'cruiser (are we are cruiser??!!) please stop, do not proceed!!'.  We did, of course oblige and a girl on the bank asked me (in the bow) to stop the boat which is just not possible!  Anyway all was well and we did eventually get the okay to proceed.

The weather was wonderful and there was a lot to look at

 

Canoes came up behind us - they were also instructed to wait

 

 after about 20 minutes we were given the instruction 'Cruiser you are clear to go now', so off we went leaving the rowers who had just completed races in that division behind us to get off the water for a well earned rest.

on past many spectators

and past the start point

 
looking back we witnessed the swap of people on the holding boats (stake boats?)  - all very entertaining.

with the next set of racers following us down to wait their turn.

Just the one lock (Hemmingford) which we had to ourselves - the canoeists caught up with us to portage round the lock

As we approached Hemmingford Grey all we could see was boats moored nose to tail

We managed to squeeze in right at the end with the help of the man on the cruiser next to us

I did mention yesterday that having washed the roof we needed to wash the sides of the boat when we had lower bank sides  - we as you can see that were not that low, but we set to and got the job done and now we look a lot better than we did a couple of days ago.  The black hull paintwork needs a good scrub when we can get to it along with some black paint to repair the few bumps and dints acquired over the last few weeks.

There were plenty of people out enjoying the weather and messing about on the river

Monty and I went off for a walk across the meadow

and ended up in the next village along - Hemmingford Abbots - and what a delightful place it is - real 'chocolate box' country with many thatched properties

A telephone box library

A very pretty village hall

Even the pub is thatched

with a cat on the roof

This house caught my eye - who could miss such a stunning floral display

 and finally a church with a fabulous lych gate.  Somewhere to explore another time perhaps

Our dinner was a fairly simple barbecue with a bottle of something red.  Before we retired we were awarded with a stunning sunset to end what had been a good day despite not being quite what we expected.

 

 

 and finally at 21:55 the last boat of the day came past!  A late traveller indeed.