A fine day brings the boaters out!

It’s been a bit manic out on the river today, lots of boats of all shapes and sizes out and about. There were just two boats down on Wicken Fen last night, though, us and a lovely couple on a boat who’s name escapes me but it’s not relevant anyway as it’s getting a new one!
Phil and Eileen cruise through the summer months then lay the boat up and return to the land for the winter. We had a good chat this morning before we left.

Eileen, Phil and the dog Ria

Wicken Fen moorings.
We should have spent more time here, there’s lot of fine walks in the area. Meg and I went up towards the village this morning to have a look at the windmill.

Wicken windmill, still grinding flour since 1813.



Crystal clear water on Wicken Lode.

We cruised gently back along the lode, luckily only meeting one small boat on the way, and turned back onto Reach Lode under that Cock Up Bridge.

I think I know where the name came from. It’s easy to make a mess of the turn in or out!

We pulled in on the lock pontoon to fill with water as a boat was leaving Upware Lock. By the time we’d topped up the lock was resetting to act as a sluice, red lights flashing and sirens wailing warning boats not to enter. I was going to leave it to sort itself out before setting it for use again, but a local told me you can interrupt the cycle without problems. So we were through quicker than anticipated.

After the lock it was a right turn out onto the Cam and point the fore-end north towards Ely.

Well disciplined cygnets

And a mess of greylag and Canada geese near the Fish and Duck Marina

The local boater we spoke to at Upware said that we’d be unlikely to get a mooring at Ely today. On fine weekends the local marinas disgorge boats to head there for the day, so it’s likely to be full. So we planned to stop a couple of miles short, on the EA moorings at Little Thrapston. They were empty on the way up… but not so today. In fact, if a large cruiser hadn’t pulled out ahead of us, we’d not have got on here either. As it was we just slotted into the spot. Depending on the provision situation we’ll hang on here till Monday.

Locks 1, miles 5½