Bad news and good news

At just before 11.00pm the EA rang us back to inform us that the river would stay drained for 48 hours so we spent the night sat at a tilt on the bottom. It was a pretty night though

.

 This was our situation in the morning; despite slacking off all our ropes we still had the mooring bollard part way out of the ground by morning

 As the tide comes in they have to close the sluices for awhile until it turns again and we acrued just enough water to get ourselves off with a struggle - needless to say G's physio appointment had to be re-scheduled

 We moved as far as Littleport before the wind threw another hooley at us so we called it a day and snuggled down for the afternoon. This morning we did a Yarwood and pulled pins at 8.20 am - yes us! - neither of us could sleep in the wind so we thought we might as well get on with it. When we reached Ely they were pollarding all the willows in Willow Walk. This young man looked very nonchalant up there with his chain saw whilst the others fed the debris into a shredder thingy.

 A quick chat with those involved 

You Tarzan, me ..

 and no prizes for guessing where some of it ended up!

 The good news is that the EA say they will be dredging between Denver and Salters early March and that the Navigation will be re-opened for Easter. All we'll need then is the Nene Lock repairs to be complete, the Nene not to be on 'strong stream' and a level tide - that's not too much to hope for is it?

Land locked locks

Following several loads of washing and lovely long (by boat standards) showers on Saturday morning, we discovered that the water point was locked off out of use - no explanation. So we decided to move on towards Denver sluice to use the water point and pump out up there. Well, this is how we found the pump out! Graham managed to use bits from our self pump out to get the job done and reported the problem to EA. Fortunately the well insulated water tap was working.

Leaving MR on the service point, I walked the dogs up onto the sluice

 Looking back upstream

 We intended to move down through the Relief Channel to Downham Market this Sunday morning, but there was altogether too much water running and the hooley that had blown all night, keeping us awake, was still blowing. So that was that plan out of the window. G has to be in Ely tomorrow for a physio appointment so he's going to have to walk into Downham to catch the train. Given that we were temporarily stuck, G decided to go and have a look at the prison gates locks that are keeping us here together with high tides and lock stoppages. I must admit, it was pretty shocking.
First we have to go through Denver Lock. This shows the sandbank on the exit side ie downstream on the tidal stretch. In the foreground is the lock landing for coming upstream and the lock itself is just off to the bottom left hand corner of this photo

 You can see the lock itself in this picture

 Standing over the lock itself, looking downstream the way we need to leave. How low this tide is I don't know, but nothing and no-one is coming through this lock in either direction.

 A little further on we need to turn left into Salters Lock which gives us access to the Middle Levels, River Nene (in flood again) and, our ultimate goal, the Grand Union Canal to rejoin the waterways network.

This is the entrance to Salters Lock, between the fence and the tyres.

 Mmmmm ...

 All contributions to the crane hire and low loader fund will be gratefully received!

As I type this (it's just after 10.00pm Sunday), they've opened up the big sluices due to flood water (Earith to Bedford), high tides and melting snow and the back of MR is now 15 ft out and sat on the bottom on the tilt. We are waiting   for EA to ring us back as to when we are likely to be re-floated - I suspect that there's not going to be a lot of sleep to be had tonight either.

The cold didn't save me!

The Yarwoods were off at 8.30 yesterday and we loitered over  a leisurely breakfast and some last photos before engaging in the 'Indian rope trick' - our rear rope was frozen so solid that we had to knock the pin out and chuck rope and pin in hot water before we could untie it.
Funnily enough they were saying on the radio about it being RSPB bird watch day and how the Mistle Thrush was dying out - well lookee who we have here then...

No sign of 'our' Kingfishers, but we disturbed plenty of their neighbours as we left in ferociously cold weather. I've never ever seen so many as we did in that first hour and Whooper swans.

 We passed Winifred Beatrice, but Graham and Corrine hadn't arrived yet - catch you on the next visit guys!

Stopped off at Little Ouse Moorings for a natter with Natalie, diesel and that oh so desperately needed water - first load in the washing machine the second the hose pipe hit the filler! A quick catch up with NB Joint Decision although I didn't see Barbara - hello Barbara and please pass my apologies to your man for my gabbling on - I hadn't seen anyone to talk to except the checkout guys at Aldis (and they are too busy working to engage in conversation) and my husband - and everyone knows husbands don't do talking!

So with the washing machine working it's little socks off (and knickers, sweatshirts and trousers) we headed back onto the Great Ouse to our mooring for the night at Windmill Moorings near Hillgay Bridge where there is a waterpoint to re-fill again after all the washing

This is the view from our window tonight....

Oh well .... back to reality