And the lights all went out

in Massachusetts Ely. Friday G set off for the physio and I set off for the hairdressers nice and early so that I could have a good nose round all the charity shops and drop a load of books off before we left. Unfortunately Ely City Centre had been hit by a major power cut and nearly all of the shops were closed although the good old British enterprising spirit provided some excellent entertainment in various shops: WH Smith opened the front door and were happy to go and find anything you wanted (by torchlight) if you could provide the right money (perhaps the staff don't know about the till over ride button which opens the drawer in the event of a power failure). The butchers was a hoot with all their customers haggling over weights and then agreeing on a price. Fortunately I found one shop open that took my books so that I didn't have to cart them all back. At the hairdressers I was booked in for a cut and colour and I said that I was happy to have the colour rinsed out in cold water and leave with wet hair as long as the job was done. More difficult than that - they needed power to get the water to the taps in the first place; hot or cold! A 'phone call was made and the hairdresser and I trotted across the square so that I could be 'done' in another salon that had normal taps. I fared a lot better than the lady who they wheeled out to her taxi with wet hair still in curlers (they could have lent her a headscarf)!

We were delighted to find that Kevin and Debbie (WB Avalon) were in town so, with Lesley and Joe still at t'other end (prepping and shifting their caravan to sell it), we decided to try the Le Spice Indian Restaurant which none of us had been to before. It was all excellent but Kevin's Sea Bass was superb.

Saturday we were due to continue towards Cambridge in convoy with our current neighbours the Lucky Ducks, but Amy was rowing early (involving a return train journey) and they were waiting for visitors, so we ended up travelling separately as G was starting to worry that we wouldn't be moored up in time for the start of the Six Nations (sorry NB Beefur - didn't mean to mention that Welsh thrashing). As it turned out, we made good time due to the very strong wind pushing us upstream against the flow.

 Doesn't matter how often you cruise through Ely, the waterfront in the sunshine is a real treasure

 with a wide variety of craft

We managed to moor at the 5 Mile Inn and had intended to leave on the Sunday but most of the other boats left after Sunday lunch which meant we could have shore power and water so we stayed and caught up with the laundry backlog (from the Little Ouse still) and gave the batteries a good charge. We couldn't have had a better anniversary present as this was the last day of our 5th year afloat.

 The weather seems to be following a pattern at the moment; it starts off fine in the morning but by early lunchtime the wind is horrendous and I stopped walking the dogs across the Fens - it reminded me of my old winter walks along the beach with a North Wind trying to rip the air out of my lungs - and used the more sheltered, but filthy muddy, Fen Rivers path.

 Whenever we stop at Upware we always seem to get fantastic sunsets

 Roast duck and a glass of wine for dinner - washing machine and tumble dryer running in the background

 and this view from the bedroom porthole - a perfect end to our 5th year on board (except for a slight data problem that's stopped me blogging for over a week - but you can't have it all)