Sunday turned out to be a scorcher when we went for a walk to meet up with Lesley from Nb Caxton. We sat in the local park by the band rotunda chatting for ages under a very hot sun. Eventually we walked with Lesley up to Fox Boats Marina mainly to see how long it would take to walk there. Joe and Lesley were planning on moving the boat on Monday up to Bill Fen Marina and invited us to join them for a cruise.
Monday morning rolled around with not a very good start to the day so Lesley texted us to say there would be a delay. An hour or so later she rang to say that as the weather forecast for the rest of the week was for strong winds which makes manoeuvring tricky, they were going to move despite the threat of rain.
An hour later we were on board Nb Caxton and under way. We had travelled the section of the old River Nene from Fox boats to Flood’s Ferry aboard Gypsy Rover. On that occasion we turned right towards Peterborough via the Whittlesey Dyke, today we would be turning left following the old course of the River Nene towards High Lode and Ramsey. This was of course an untravelled waterway to us, so another one to add to the list.
As we neared Bill Fen Marina Joe took over the tiller after having given me the pleasure of steering for a couple of hours.The channel was getting quite narrow and it was becoming a bit of a worry as to what winding facilities there would be. At the marina entrance Joe did a perfect manoeuvre to reverse Caxton into the narrow entranceway. The marina owner arrived to direct us to the mooring which required more manoeuvring in reverse which Joe did with absolute perfection.
After lunch and a couple of hours of chat it was time for us to head off into Ramsey to catch the bus to Whittlesey. As Joe had to catch a bus on Tuesday to Stanground they both came for a walk along with their two Labradors, Floyd and Fletcher. We had been gloating on the fact that we had completed the days cruise without getting wet but within 10 minutes of leaving the boat the skies opened and by the time we had walked the mile or so to the bus stop we were soaked.
As we had to change buses at Whittlesey and there was a 40 minute delay before catching the bus to March we visited the George Hotel for a muffin and coffee each to try to warm up and dry out a bit. By the time we eventually reached home the weather had cleared up, wouldn’t that just grab ya!
A BIG thank you to Joe and Lesley for a great day out on the water.
2 comments:
still smiling, we should be through March on or around 15th/16th Sep, hope you may be around?
Hi Jill and Graham
Looking foreward to it! Hope to see you then.
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