Starting back up the Nene

We had an enjoyable stay in Peterborough.  On Monday we ate out at "The Brewery Tap", a pub that brews its own beer in a brewery visible from the bar and also serves excellent Thai meals.  Recommended!

On Tuesday we both caught separate trains to visit our father's.  It was Densie's father's 85th birthday whilst my 94 year old father just need some household problems fixed.

A busy day today.  First job in the morning was to buy a lot of groceries from the market, Tesco and Waitrose.  As the last of these is about a mile from the moorings we splashed out and got a taxi back to near the boat.  Then we pulled the boat back to the services area where we filled up with water and pumped-out.  Just as we were about to leave a hireboat arrived with a Swiss group on board.  This was their first pump-out so we helped them with it before moving off up the Nene.

It was a short 3 mile and 1 lock journey to our chosen mooring at Overton Lake.  However not a simple one.  The entrance to Orton lock is partially obstructed by a mudbank, the area being indicated by a set of yellow buoys.  Inside this area there was a narrowboat which looked stuck with the backside of the captain pointing up as he was removing weed from the prop.  We naturally offered to help and with some careful steering were able to get our stern near enough for him to throw us a rope.  This was tied to our stern and we were able to pull the boat off the mud and with the assistance of a passing cruiser were able to get him into the lock moorings.

Densie (furthest narrowboat) moored in Overton Lake

Our good deeds done we ascended the lock and cruised on to Overton Lake via a narrow channel from the River.  The lake forms part of a country park and has a few good moorings.  Unfortunately kama did not apply and our previous good needs were not rewarded by available space.  We were about to leave and start on a long journey to the next opportunity for mooring when the crew of "Dragonfly" who we had met earlier in the day in Peterborough returned to their boat and allowed us to moor alongside.  So it all worked out sell in the end.