Waiting for the Wash

Here's our first post of the new cruising season.  We are moored tonight on the tidal River Nene just below the wonderfully named Dog in a Doublet lock.  Here's an update of how we got here.

This is the view out of our cratch at the bow of Leo in the morning of Monday 13th.  A pair of swans have made a nest very close to our mooring at Bill Fen Marina near Ramsey in Cambridgeshire.  We drove down to Leo on Sunday but, by the time we'd unpacked and repacked on the boat, it was bit late to set off, so we stayed where we were and set off on Monday morning,

Here we are backing out of our mooring where Leo has spent the winter.  Fortunately there was little wind and we could still remember how to manouevre the boat as it is quite tight getting out of the marina onto High Lode, the waterway that leads down to Ramsey.

We started seeing wildlife very quickly.  Here a Great Crested Grebe is making a nest.

And at Benwick about six miles on we passed our first family of swans with four tiny cygnets.

There are lots of junctions on the Middle Levels but we found our way (we have been before). Just short of our intended destination at Whittlesey we came into Ashline Lock. Oddly this lock is 11 feet 6 inches wide, so not enough for two narrowboats together. We were lucky that a boat had just come out and we were able to go straight in.  Leo has spent the winter about 10 feet below sea level so this lock brought us closer to normal.

We were glad to see that there was a space on the mooring which can only take two boats. As you can see the weather was lovely. We are hoping to go across the Wash and at this point we were looking to go on Thursday. While we were at Whittlesey our pilot, Daryl Hill, phoned to ask if we could go Wednesday.  A phone call established that Stanground lock would be closed by the time we could get there, so the answer was no.








On Tuesday morning we set off towards Peterborough for a booking of Stanground Lock at 11 am.

Leaving Whittlesey the channel is very narrow and goes round a notoriously sharp bend. On our first go we went aground on the inside of the bend but managed it second time with no bumps.

Here Helen is waving to a train driver.  Usually we manage to get a toot in reply but this time the driver waved back.

We arrived at Stanground a few minutes before our booking and Wayne, the temporary lock keeper, let us through. It still seems odd to go up a lock onto a river but once through the lock we were on the River Nene.

We cruised into Peterborough where we had to wait a few hours because our booking at Dog in a Doublet was for 4 pm.  We spent our time washing the port side of the boat having done the starboard side the previous afternoon.

Around 2.30 we set off down the River Nene. This is a bit of the river we've never been on before so on our second day we found some new water for Leo - quite an event these days.

The Nene is pretty straight, deep and wide here and we cruised for 6 miles fairly fast down to the next lock.

In this photo you can see the sluices and lock at Dog in a Doublet.  Why the odd name?  There is a pub here - guess what it is called. The publican-cum-lockkeeper had a dog that had a disease and lost all its fur.  The publican's wife apparently made the dog a leather jerkin to keep it warm and hence the name.

This lock has two guillotine gates and lets boats down onto the tidal river below.  Though our booking was for 4 pm the tide arrived late and it was not until nearly 5 that we were let though by Paul and his fellow lockkeeper.  We spent the time having a very pleasant discussion with the two of them.  As often on the waterways we made some new friends.

Since we arrived we have enjoyed watching the mooring pontoon going up and down with the tide.

We even have a friendly common seal to keep us company.  At one point the seal caught a large carp and spent an hour or more trying successfully to kill and eat it.















We had another exchange of texts with our pilot, Daryl, and it now looks as if we shall be going across the Wash on Saturday. We need light winds and the forecast has changed. So we have three nights here rather than one before we move down to Wisbech.

After doing some boat jobs this morning (engine checks, battery checks and odd bits of painting), we dug out the bikes and cycled a few miles to Flag Fen where some important Bronze Age finds have been made. These include several dug out canoes preserved in the peat, the oldest wheel ever discovered in the UK (about 3,000 years old) and the remains of a timber causeway and platform across the flooded fenland. The picture was taken from a new cycle bridge over the river on our way to Flag Fen.

The bridge itself is quite attractive but we couldn't understand why they haven't painted it - the locals call it "the rusty bridge".

Based on some of the excavated remains at and near Flag Fen they have constructed this replica of a Bronze Age hut. It has a turf roof weighing 8 tons when it is dry.

And here's the inside.

















We plan to go swimming tomorrow and do more boaty jobs and then on Friday to cruise down to Wisbech where we will pick up our pilot on Saturday. Unless the forecast changes of course. Hopefully the next posting will tell you all about our adventure of crossing the Wash to Boston. Fingers are crossed. Even the run with the tide down to Wisbech is likely to be a bit of a challenge.