Sailing through grass - 7th August & Domestic duties - 8th August

Tuesday 7th August 2018
Holywell to The Lazy Otter
11.5 miles, 2 locks

We arrived at Brownshill Staunch (first lock of the day) which you can see from a long way off.  A boat was just coming out so we hoped that the lock would be ready for us.  No such luck.  There were two narrow boats waiting below the lock to come up (one boat at a time in this lock) and despite the fact we are fairly sure they may have seen us, by the time we got there they had shut the top gate and were in the process of starting to empty the lock to get one of them through.  Hey ho, obviously the fact that we are supposed to be saving water obviously does not apply to everyone.  We made it through after the first one came up and we were not in a hurry.

Between Brownshill and the next lock (Hermitage) the river is tidal.  When we came through on 4th June there was water all over the place with many birds including quite a few egrets.  From what we have heard the river was just out of flood at that time as the following 3 pictures show..

Two months on it is a different story.  The river level is low

and we only spotted one lonely egret with no water to paddle around in 

Our luck was in at Hermitage lock - a boat was just leaving and the lock keeper gave us the green light, so we able to go straight in.

Then it was on to the Old West River which was like sailing through grass!

It did not give us too much problem, but not so for many cruisers who take water in to cool the engine and we have come across those who have to stop every fifteen minutes or so to clear out the weed.

There is little of interest - the odd family of swans

This pigeon hitched a lift for around 10 minutes.  It just kept looking around admiring the view!  This trip is the first time I have ever seen a pigeon land in the water with wings wide open whilst it took a drink before taking off again.

The weed was endless. 

 These cows were actually eating the weed rather than drinking the water!

We hardly saw any boats, but when we did they were either at a narrow part or at a blind bend. I pulled over behind a protruding tree to let this boat pass, but they just pulled into the side and stayed there.  I assumed they had stopped to clear weed, so I eventually pulled out and went past only to discover they had stopped to pick something from the bank!  I was too busy to take a picture until we had gone past.

We had just arrived at the Lazy Otter when a familiar boat hove into sight - John and Jan on nb Jubilee.  We knew they were around somewhere, but thought we might miss them whilst they were on the Cam.  The last time we were on the same waterway was on 23rd September 2015 when we passed just as they emerged from the Buckby locks on the Grand Union (See here).  We were about to go up the locks, so it was a wave and shout hello a that time - definitely ships that were passing (albeit in the day and not in the night!).

We quickly banged a pin in and with the wind holding us on to the bank they were able to come alongside for a slightly longer chat

before they headed off to tackle the weed on the Old West River and more excitement than they had bargained for.  We thought the air smelt smokey when we went through - they came across a field fire - see here for words and pictures.

There was a very stiff breeze, but it did nothing to cool the air.  Humidity was very high - the worst we have experienced this trip.  We really thought we would have a storm, so the cratch cover was put down.  It was 30℃ in our bedroom mid evening - very unpleasant.

 Wednesday 8th August 2018
Lazy Otter to GOBA moorings just before Pope's Corner
1.75 miles, 0 locks

What a relief, despite the fact that there was no storm overnight, it was considerably cooler this morning.  It had been a noisy night - the A10 is close by and the wind sent the noise in our direction,  With such a short journey to do we tackled cleaning the boat, something that was long overdue, but it has just been too hot to contemplate for far too long.  She looks a lot better

and we washed the bedding whilst we have good drying weather.

 Our reward - lunch in the pub.  Up the hill behind us with a view down to the boat

past the 'luxury holiday chalets' to The Lazy Otter.  We had intended having a sandwich, but ended up having a meal - Cajun chicken burger for Chris and a duck stir fry for me.  They were both excellent.

Back to the boat and we moved along to some GOBA moorings in the middle of nowhere for what I am sure will be a quiet night, despite the close proximity of the Ely to Cambridge railway line.  (If one looks carefully at the photo below into the distance just to the left of Tentatrice's bow is a rectangular structure which is a support for the overhead railway power lines).