St Neots to Hemingford Grey 19th - 20th July 2018

Thursday 19th July 2018
St Neots to Godmanchester
9.5 miles, 3 locks

A bit of a milestone today - the last time both boats sailed together was the 7th June.  It is great to have locking buddies again, especially as most of these locks over the next few days are big enough for two narrow boats.  The first lock of the day was St Neots - a long lock big enough to take both boats nose to tail.

 Whilst Chris and Ken were waiting a family of swans came - their luck was in as Chris had the swan/duck food to hand.

Offord lock is a lot smaller, so just one boat at time and wouldn't you just know it there was a cruiser waiting when we arrived

and a narrow boat and cruiser in the lock coming up

We did eventually all make it through, but it awas an hour before we were on our way.

Moving on as we approached the works for A14 we found, for the first time, that the river was closed to boat traffic.  We knew this might happen at some time, so we just hovered and hoped the wait would not be too long.

We were in luck and within minutes two men whizzed across the river to remove the floating barricade both sides of the bridge.  Maybe the queue at Offord lock saved us some waiting time here.

First unhook from the far bank

 turn about

and tow it back to the other side and we were clear to go.

 So to Brampton Lock and yet another boat was waiting, but this was a very special, much loved wooden steam powered boat.

Brampton is a big lock - plenty of room for all three of us

 As we emerged from Brampton Lock we espied a boat that we had been told had been moored down the back water in Godmanchester for a very long time, but it is now on the move.

So onto Godmanchester where Cleddau found a mooring behind the lock

We moved down the back water just in case there was a space.  It was certainly busy with a lot of boats we recognise from the Festival.  Lily May was on the mooring vacated by Korky Kat

Further on they were three abreast

Our luck was in and we managed to squeeze in between the two weirs - the same place as we were last time we were here.

The day, however, did not end there.  Our mutual friend, Nan, who lives in Godmanchester had acquired tickets for Ken, Sue, herself and I for an outdoor performance of 'The Merchant of Venice' taking place in Downing College, Cambridge.  Chris gallantly volunteered to stay behind to look after Monty as it is still too hot to leave him in the boat with not much air for 5 hours.  Nan collected us the other side of the Chinese Bridge and transported us expertly using a much used (for them) rat run that avoided most of the dreaded A14.  Thankfully we arrived early enough to get four seats in the second row.  Nan had provided us with a veritable feast which we enjoyed before the performance started.  Much dexterity was needed to juggle bottles, glasses, plates, food and cutlery without the use of a table.  So to the performance - parts were, inevitably, cut due to time constraints, but the main part of the story was told and told well.  Every chance to get a laugh was taken to great effect and there was even some audience participation - a good reason not to sit in the front row!  It was a fabulous evening - thank you Nan for thinking of us.

If any of you are ever in Cambridge at this time of year, do please note that there is a Shakespeare Festival which runs annually for 6 weeks.  For anyone who might be interested look here https://www.cambridgeshakespeare.com/programme/ for this year's programme.  If I lived near enough I would be at most of these.

Friday 20th July 2018
Godmanchester to Hemingford Grey
4.75 miles, 2 locks

Yet another hot and sunny morning and we set off to the end of the back water, winded and headed back towards Cleddau and the lock.

Only to find two cruisers waiting to go down the lock, but once they were gone we were on our way to

the second and final lock of the day at Houghton.  This is always a busy lock and today we were lucky enough to have a couple of volunteers on duty who knew their lock well enough to know that with a cruiser in the 'D' that they could get two narrow boats in as well.

 They were right - we were the filling in the sandwich and made it down with ease.

Our target for the day was Hemingford Grey where the town moorings were completely empty - a first for us especially as it was a Friday.

 Plenty of room for both of us.

It was a quiet night in for us once Chris had walked Monty - I have a mass of bites and am suffering with two swollen feet, so I need as much time as possible inside with my shoes off.  This sign was spotted and is very tempting as we could be back on Sunday, but I really need to keep inside away from biting things for a few days.  I was even bitten through my clothes whilst enjoying the play at Downing College - I did not consider spraying Deet on under my bra strap!!