13.25 miles, 1 lock
The alarm went off at 05:00 and we were ready to go by 06:00. Daryl arrived and at 06:28 the tide was deemed to be correct and off we went on a very grey and misty day.
Once again Daryl was on our boat and calmly guided us to Port or Starboard (first ascertaining I was comfortable with such instructions (I am) and did not require right and left when I was at the helm). The main point to remember is not to cut any corners and therefore keep in the deep water. A sandbank is another hazard to be avoided and once again Daryl steered us round it without any problems. His presence was greatly appreciated, particularly in view of the misty conditions.
Once underway we glided past Cleddau and Ken ably followed 'our water' the rest of the way - ie he duplicated exactly the course we took.
Two bridges loomed ahead of us out of the mist
Past the sluices that mark the end of the relief channel that is used to take excess water down from Denver
There are two posts to pass that are the remains of a bridge - the force of the tide can be clearly seen
A quick look behind and yes they are still with us
Past the church at Wiggenhall St German
and the derelict church at Wiggenhall, St Mary the Virgin
and that really was all there was to see apart from a swan ahead of us who instead of changing course to get out of the way,
just kept on going,
until he/she was finally forced to use wing power rather than paddle power,
and did eventually get far enough ahead to get out of our way.
Finally after many miles of nothing, Salter's Lode hove into view through the mist.
The tide was high enough that there was no sign of the sand bank on the left of the lock that we will have to avoid when we head back this way at the end of July.
Swiftly followed by our target - Denver Sluice,
with an empty pontoon awaiting our arrival.
Daryl had phoned ahead so we were expected and were able to go straight in.
We emerged at 08:24 - just two hours after we left Kings Lynn and it was still misty!
The water point is round to the left behind the lock and although it would have been tempting to find somewhere to tie up and go back to bed we both went round to fill up the water tanks.
Say farewell and many thanks to Daryl - I even got a big hug,
and finally the most important job of the lot - to wash all the salt off both boats and polish the windows!
Sue, Monty and I went for a short explore and watched these two cruisers go through the lock on their way to Kings Lynn and then on to Wells next the Sea.
Then they were off
with considerably more speed than we can manage!
This map shows the route we took from Kings Lynn to Denver (highlighted in blue) with the flood relief channel on the right.
this lot arrived very shortly after we had tied up.
Strangely enough both boats our narrowboats were very quiet for quite a bit of the afternoon - if one listened very quietly you may have heard the odd 'z' floating about in the breeze!
No comments:
Post a Comment