COR LUVA DUCK

SATURDAY 14^TH TO MONDAY 16^TH JULY 201                  

Thank you Adam from NB Briar Rose and to Lesley from NB Yarwood for putting me straight about my ugly goose, it is actually a Muscovy Duck, which sounds much more attractive than the bird looks. I must consult my Ladybird Book of Birds more often, I apologise for my fowl ignorance.

I was surprised though that my blog ‘A DELIBERATE MISTAKE’ posted on June 2^nd invoked no response when I added a picture of the beautiful harbour of Imperia, which is in Italy not far from the Italian/French border, with the implication that it was Kings Marina in Newark. I do hope that blog followers haven’t been disappointed if they have subsequently visited Kings Marina and it wasn’t as expected.

I did forget to mention that whilst at Ely there was a knock on the boat and Kevin introduced himself, he has read the blog and saw us arrive and called to say hi. Kev is busy fitting out his wide beam boat, Avalon and the next day we paid a visited and a justifiable proud Kev showed us around, a beautiful interior, so well executed, well done. Kev’s blog would be very useful for anybody else building and fitting out a boat. http://boatbuildblog.blogspot.co.uk/

It rained hard all night Friday and was still raining well into Saturday morning. The water was lapping over the edge first thing and by the time we took Duggie out the gang plank had to be deployed. The students were busy bailing out the punts and one had sunk and had been flushed through the sluice, but with such a fierce flow I doubt any will be punting today. A large part of the park was underwater, but not from the river, just the ground being totally waterlogged. 

We had a long chat with Kenny from the Cam Conservancy, who said that it was unlikely that we would be able to move until Monday as there was still a lot of water to come down river. Although the sluice had been lowered and the flow has been considerable reduced, the level is still rising and I have taken the precaution of banging in a couple of poles to ensure that we don’t float over the bank during the night.

At last sunshine and Sunday lunch at La Mimosa and a new radio aerial from Maplins to replace the one that got snapped off at Upwell, Radio Four has now been restored. The water level is gradually dropping and we should be able to get underway tomorrow, but Duggie is now hopping along on three legs so a visit to the vets is on the cards.

More rain on Monday morning and although the bollards are visible by the water and pumpout station on the other side of the river there was still about four inches of water slopping about on the concrete, making thinks difficult, but fortunately not impossible. We set off after NB Up Spirit and caught up with them at Bite Bait Lock, fortunately the lovely lock lass saw up through and in no time we were at Bottisham Lock, saying Hi to Matilda Rose on the way. The lower landing stage was well under water so we left the V gates open as we departed, but as we met several boats coming the other way I am sure that they would have been grateful.

Don and Judy of NB Angonoko were surprised to see us arrive so early at Five Miles from Anywhere, but we must have been travelling downstream at 6-7 MPH. Our options were limited Hermitage Lock up the Great Ouse is still closed, so we decided that we would go back to Ely after lunch and an appointment at a local vets was made for late afternoon. We struggled to find a mooring but squeezed in by the Cutter Inn in plenty of time to get the little fella to the vets. The pad that Duggie cut at Brandon is slightly infected and he will need to have a small operation to find if a foreign body is trapped in the pad, so tomorrow he is booked in for the day.