MONDAY 23RD TO THURSDAY 26TH JULY
2012
The water had dropped
below the river bank and the flow had substantially slowed as we left Holywell
behind us on Monday morning. The sun still shone and within a couple of miles
we were through St Ives Lock and approaching the multi arched Town Bridge with
the remains of its chapel in the middle, the river side buildings are really
attractive, but we carried onto the EA moorings and water point off to the right
of Holt Island. There was just one mooring spot left and we slipped into it and
awaited for Angonoka to come alongside, but by the time they arrived, having
visited Jones’s boatyard for services, the boat behind us had left, leaving
enough room for them and our hoses were just long enough to reach the tap.
St Ives is very pretty
and the town square is dominated by the austere figure of Oliver Cromwell. We
enjoyed an afternoon drink on The Dolphin Hotels riverside terrace followed by
ice cream before wandering back to a deserted SKYY, most of the other boats having
left, including Angonoka. Judy and Don had backed out of this narrow back water
to the GOBA field mooring half a mile upstream, but we enjoyed a peaceful night
We joined them on
Tuesday morning and proceeded up this very beautiful stretch of river, passing
though Hemingford and Houghton Locks which once had mills beside them and
stopped for lunch at the garden side mooring in Huntingdon. We decided we would
explore this town on our way back in a couple of weeks and so pushed on through
Godmanchester Lock and Brampton Lock which still does have a beautiful mill
with a working water wheel, it is a pub and resturant now, but sadly there was
no room for us at the mill, so we carried on a little further to the GOBA
mooring and squeezed in alongside one another. This was to be the last day that
we cruised with Judy and Don as they were turning around in the morning to head
back, as they have much further to go to get to their home mooring at Newbury.
We had a lovely last supper with them and on Wednesday morning we bade them farewell,
with the two dogs looking very sad to be parted, as we all were.
We turned SKYY into
Buckden Marina as it is part of the same group as Wigrams Turn and admired the
surroundings and the log cabins; maybe this will be where we will settle after
finishing our liveaboard life, who knows? Filled with diesel and water we carried
on passing by St Neots and a very green boat before arriving at Eaton Socon
Lock. Kids were jumping in and swimming all over the place as we tried to moor
up, one young lad grabbed hold of the boat and I told him to get off as I was
concerned that he would get squashed between SKYY and the bank, in fact he was totally
exhausted and was about to go down, so he clung on as we carefully eased up to
the bank, fending off with the poles so his mates could drag him out. Seems lucky
we turned up when we did or it might have been the Fire and Ambulance services
that were needed.
After some difficulty I
managed to moor stern on to one of the two short finger moorings provide by the
lock side Mill Tavern and Jac’s friend Chris and her husband, Mike joined us
for a drink at the pub and then dinner on Skyy. They only live a short way off so we will stay for a couple of days allowing
us to watch the Olympic opening ceremony on Chris and Mike’s big TV on Friday
before moving on to Bedford.
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