St. Ives by boat

Just 15 min North West of the city of Cambridge lye’s a small town called St. Ives. It is a wonderful little picturesque town. It is well worth the visit. We went there today to meet up with my Uncle Ian and Aunt Jill on their boat which is moored in the marina there. We loaded up the boat and headed right through the centre of St. Ives and away from Cambridge. We passed under the only bridge in England that has a Chapel built on it (which is no longer in service) and then went down the river through a few other small villages until we came across this lock. Now this is the first lock I have ever being to where you have to actually operate it yourself. At one end there is a automatic gate with buttons for up and down and on the other side there is a handle to open the valves and then you have manually open the gates.



We arrived at the lock when it was set for boats that were coming the other direction. So we had to open the valves to lower the water, open the gates, and drive the boat in. Once the water had filled up we went to open the automatic gate when we heard a big clunk. Thinking not much of it at the time other than the fact that it was not really level we drove the boat through and went down the river again. During this whole time we had not seen another boat and chances are we wouldn’t as the boating season has only just started up again. So we went another 20min down the river before turning around. We got back to the same lock and that is where the problems started. The automatic gate would not drop all the way down. Finally after moving it up and down, up and down we got it most of the way down and opened up the other end. Now the water has to be level on both sides of the push gates before you can open them and with the alignment of the other gate a little off, water was coming in to fast to open this gate. With me and my uncle using all our weight we managed to get the gates open, drove the boat through, and closed the gates. We change the level of the water again so there would be no problem with water flow and placed a call to the maintenance people who operate the locks.

That done and out the way we made our way back into St. Ives where we moored up in the town and had a great lunch in a small café on the river. We had great weather all day except when it rained as we were eating lunch but I can easily see why so many people head up this way in the summer to escape the city life. It is so peaceful and calm it made for a wonderful Sunday afternoon.

Ok so I do have pics but they are having problems loading in so check back in a few days for pics of this trip.

Clacton Pier

Well after a relaxing day of video games, movies, and a little reading we decided not to waste the day away and Megan, Ryan, and me headed over to the town of Clacton. Clacton is located on the east coast of England so now Ryan has seen both sides of England coast to coast.


The main attraction of Clacton is the pier on which there is a small amusement park and some casino style games. Then we played was the horse races where you bet on which colour horse you think will win. After we put in £1.50 between the 3 of us Megan won £3 and we took our winnings and left the casino part and walked to the end of the pier. It was high tide and the water level was really really high which we have not seen the other 2 times we have been. It was really windy so we decided to head into the town for a coffee. On the way we stopped at one of the games where you control the joystick and try and pick up stuffed animals. Usually I am awful at those games but this time I managed to win Megan a stuffed Dolphin the 2nd attempt.




For the last week I had been telling Ryan that he had to try cockles at least once. Luckily for Ryan due to the strikes in Wales the market was closed and we were unable to find them. Even the stand that sells them on the Clacton pier was closed for the season. But as we went into town we finally found and stand that sold them and true to his word Ryan tried not just one but 3 or 4. They may look disgusting but really they are not that bad. We had coffee in town and sat for an hour at place called Fred’s just talking the afternoon away.


After this, went drove back to a town called Braintree where Ryan treated us to a wonderful meal at a place called Frankie and Benny’s. Once the meal was over we went to the closest movie theatre and watched the movie Hostel to try and scare Ryan a little before he headed to the Hostel in Tokyo. Great movie but really gory.


We had one more day with Ryan after this and it was spent relaxing and organising for his trip to Japan. We dropped him off at the train station yesterday at 11.00am so he could head back to London to stay with his brother Rick for one more night. It was great to have him here and we all had a great time. As we write this blog Ryan will be on a plane somewhere over Russia by now half way to Japan. I know we all look forward to reading his stories on his blog. Don’t forget to check in often to see how he is doing.