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.
11 comments:
I remember doing the same trip with Moneypenny, so we are really jealous. Sounds like you had a great time, 008. Nothing better than Sunday afternoon boating in Sunny England!
Hey hun, I was more afraid that when Jill and I were travelling into the next loch the loch door was going to come down really fast and either kill us or chop the boat in half :o. However we survived it and it was a Great day out! Wonder if thats where the St Ives hand cream and products come from :o!
That was a heart-warming story Phil. You should write it into a screenplay or something. But seriously though, watch out for those locks, they'll skin your hides and eat the rest of you alive. That's how I lost my great uncle.
Play Safe™.
Hey Guys, I am finally making a post. Its always great to hear from you and I'm glad your still having fun. By the way I did read that really long entry in one sitting, but I did it at work!
Cheers!!
Kris
All right, enough is enough, come back to Milton, I'm getting board...lol Just kidding, glad to hear you guys are having a blast. Looking forward to hearing about your shitty trip in person, LOL. Can't wait to see the both of you soon. All the best, Rendy.
Hey Kris, you know if you click on the radio button down there labeled "Other" then you can sign your name instead of making it "Anonymous" and then having to sign your name in the post. just a heads up
This blog is dead. Funeral to follow Saturday, April 22, 2006.
Oh nice, did you just add the photos?
Yea I added them later on. Sorry but the blog is on hold for a while as we have not being around at all. I work all week and the last 3 weekends we have been away back up in london. We actually just got the inernet going down here so I will update it in the next few days and also catch up everyone elses blogs. Cheers
See I do read em. Did you ever get the car fixed?
Ladybug
update your blog or get out of my country!
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