We decided it wasn't safe to stay in St Ives

as we didn't want to be trapped upstream of Hermitage lock. With the lockie there telling us that the water had risen by 8" overnight and with a series of higher tides now about to start, we thought we'd better make a run for it or risking staying this end for some time. The problem with getting off the tidal bit is that the lock sits under a low road bridge and there can be insufficient headroom for long periods of time (now how many times have I typed that this year!)
So we filled with water to the brim to sit MR as low as possible and we moored on the town wall so that I could dash into town for food to cover us for an unknown period of time as we didn't know where, and for how long, we might be stuck. The irony was that it was a beautiful sunny day.

 This is far and away one of the prettiest moorings anywhere, let alone St Ives, but we never use it

 as your roof is level with the paving and far too tempting for 'happy' people to jump on and off of during the night

 needless to say I returned to find G happily chatting to the gongoozlers whilst cleaning his tiller arm

 so we winded and were off - leaving the gongoozlers to feed the swans

 The current was getting ever stronger and we stonked down to Brownshill Staunch where, although in theory the lock was against us, the water was running straight through. There was less rise and fall than in John Sergeant's waltz. All of the massive sluice gates were open.

 We moored on the lock landing and had a further conversation with the lockie at Hermitage who thought we might get through later in the day as the tide fell. So we made the decision to go through Brownhills onto the rise and fall EA pontoon in Earith. If we were going to be there awhile there was sewage disposal, pump out, refuse disposal and diesel - bearing in mind our fire is disconnected so we're running the central heating more than normal.

 Feeling we'd been very sensible I re-set the lock (still having to wait for the time delay, despite level water), but try as we might we couldn't get MR off of the lock landing - the stream kept shoving us back on. In the end we sort of bumped her round and in, it wasn't elegant but we got her in and not a single glass broken.

 The scene on the other side was as if we'd been dropped into a different planet

 just look at this lot!!!!!!!!!!

 The river channel is in the foreground 

 but then the two channels converge

 So we moored up gratefully to the safe pontoon at Earith (having shifted along an unoccupied wide beam which was moored 6ft back from the end) and settled down for lunch knowing that we would be fine there indefinitely if we neded to.

 We took some further airdraft measurements and reckoned we were an inch lower than we used to be - that probably means we've more rubbish on board and in our bellies! Another conversation with the lockie at 5 ish and we decided to give it a go

 we got through with a top box seam to spare and here we are safely on the other side and allowed to moor on the down river lock landing for the night. We asked why, with so much water on the other side, that the sluices weren't open to dump water down the 40ft drain/Old Bedford River, especially as it looked half empty. Evidently the RSPB wouldn't let them as the far end of that waterway was saturated and would damage birdlife if they let any more water through!!!? On the downstream side we heard the water levels were quite low and a narra had got stranded - who knows

 Anyway, we were safe and through and moored in time for Daisy to go a mousing