We left our little island yesterday morning for a short move up to Great Barford where we will sit for a few days killing time, to be at St Neots for Sunday and our meeting with the Smith family, (sorry Bro).

The island itself is a beautiful little spot, and whilst we were there we had it to ourselves and the birds which sang their little hearts out for us. It is covered in trees and has a narrow path which circumnavigates the outside of this beauty spot, and the only other humans we saw were a couple of guys doing a bit of tree surgery. There was also a memorial on a grassy knoll, which I guess was placed there by relatives of a Father and Husband who must have loved the place, and it overlooked a wide section of the backwater.

The backwater

Our mooring

Looking back upstream

Any way on leaving, we had to back out into the river which was still running quite fast in the direction we wanted to travel. So we lined the back of the boat to point upstream as we entered the flow, however we still had to work at keeping the stern upstream as the bow swung around in the direction we wanted to go. It worked well and we set off downstream toward the Great Barford Bridge with its 13 arches, but only one navigable at the moment as the other main arch is being repaired. As we got close we manoeuvred the boat into position for a clean passage through, and once the bow was in we put on a little power to drive through which we did without incident. The moorings are on the left as soon as you go through the bridge, so once clear we put the boat into reverse and backed onto the mooring near the water point, moored up and settled down for the night.

For those boaters who have an interest the upstream arch is now complete and the guys are moving out to clear the way for boaters, and moving onto the eastern arch.

Clear arch, all that remains is the light platform

Also some other good news and that is the St Neots Lock at Little Paxton which has been having a new guillotine gate fitted to replace the old slow and sticking one is now complete apart from a little tidying up. The old guillotine gate was lifted out and the framework removed on Tuesday of this week, and I have a couple of photos, courtesy of Andy Hubble, the river inspector, Great Ouse Waterways (thanks Andy), so negotiating the lock will be much easier and faster now.

Up goes the frame

Now the old gate

A good and bright day today, after the heavy rains of yesterday afternoon and evening, some of which reached Biblical proportions.

In the next issue; Sally's felt craft, dont miss it!!!!!