South to St Ives

Artistic view of the Old West River

Our plan is to spend the weekend in St Ives.  It's likely to be busy so we started travelling early today to have a good chance of finding a mooring space.  After leaving our mooring in bright sunny weather at 8:10 we carried on west on the somewhat tedious Old West River to Hermitage Lock which took us up to the tidal Great Ouse at Earith.  The lock is manned as it is vital for flood control.

Seal at Earith

Waiting for Brownshill Staunch Lock, Densie can just be seen on the right had side 

 On the main river the strong headwind made steering the boat difficult and tiring.  But it was more interesting than the Old West River - in particular seeing a seal on the river's edge as Earith is some 40 miles from the coast at Kings Lynn.  Beyond Earith we ascended Brownshill Staunch, a "staunch" was a single gated barrier across the river, normally opened when the tide level permits.  These days it is now a standard lock with a guillotine gate one end and swing gates the other, but the name remains.

Holywell

A couple of miles after Brownshill Staunch beyond the attractive riverside village of Holywell the river becomes very shallow and narrow and so not only were we fighting a headwind but also the increased flow of the river and the increase in resistance arising from the lack of depth of water.  Our speed slowed from 4 mph to little over 2 mph which added to our displeasure.  However after a further couple of miles (1 hour!) the river widened again and we reached  St Ives Lock.  Two cruisers had entered the lock before us but they kindly waited and arranged themselves so that we could fit in as well.  One must bear in mind that cruisers are thin fibreglass whereas we are 15 tons of solid steel.

Then into St Ives by lunchtime under the historic bridge with its Chapel in the middle.  There were no moorings available at the obvious places but from our previous visit we knew of further moorings at the other end of the town just off the main river which proved to be nearly empty.  So we are happily set up for the weekend.

In the afternoon we walked into town for some immediate shopping and found a Waitrose which sold everything we needed and a Chinese Restaurant which looked suitable for our first meal out since Peterborough two weeks ago.