27th July 2016
Woke up this morning to the sound of rain falling on the roof. Luckily the new canopy was very watertight and well fitted, and only a couple of drops had seeped through despite the heavy rain in the night. Also, fortunately, all the bridges have plenty of headroom, so I can run with the cover up. I was meeting Steve from Titan re sewing my old canopy (as the stitching was coming apart but the canvas was pretty much ok) at the Hartford Marina near Huntingdon, so left at 8am to be sure of getting there on time. I arrived at 12:30, and as he had not yet arrived I decided to fill up with diesel and buy some petrol for the motorbike too. Water tank topped off while waiting....
Steve arrived and we concluded our business quickly, then I set off at 1pm, aiming to get to Ely this evening. Some of the locks were faster than others - the best was 10 minutes, helped by a boy of around 10, who was only too keen to wind the paddles on the other gate after I handed him my spare windlass, and swing it open for me, closing up after I had driven out. His dad was very excited and filmed the whole procedure on his mobile. Most of the locks were 15 to 20 mins, but one took 45 as a boat had just gone in and it was very slow to empty and re-fill.
I finally arrived in Ely at 8:35pm, just as it was getting dark, and found a mooring on the Town Quay again, right where I had been before, under the huge trees. Total distance 38.6 miles, 9 locks, all on my own. No wonder I slept well that night!
Woke up this morning to the sound of rain falling on the roof. Luckily the new canopy was very watertight and well fitted, and only a couple of drops had seeped through despite the heavy rain in the night. Also, fortunately, all the bridges have plenty of headroom, so I can run with the cover up. I was meeting Steve from Titan re sewing my old canopy (as the stitching was coming apart but the canvas was pretty much ok) at the Hartford Marina near Huntingdon, so left at 8am to be sure of getting there on time. I arrived at 12:30, and as he had not yet arrived I decided to fill up with diesel and buy some petrol for the motorbike too. Water tank topped off while waiting....
Steve arrived and we concluded our business quickly, then I set off at 1pm, aiming to get to Ely this evening. Some of the locks were faster than others - the best was 10 minutes, helped by a boy of around 10, who was only too keen to wind the paddles on the other gate after I handed him my spare windlass, and swing it open for me, closing up after I had driven out. His dad was very excited and filmed the whole procedure on his mobile. Most of the locks were 15 to 20 mins, but one took 45 as a boat had just gone in and it was very slow to empty and re-fill.
I finally arrived in Ely at 8:35pm, just as it was getting dark, and found a mooring on the Town Quay again, right where I had been before, under the huge trees. Total distance 38.6 miles, 9 locks, all on my own. No wonder I slept well that night!
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