Retirement with No Problem

Great Bedford to Paxton, River Great Ouse, 10 miles 4 locks

What a wonderful morning weatherwise…

The scouts and their Dads arrived yesterday evening, their tents already assembled on the campsite just by the river, and by early this morning they were out in all sorts of floating items.. there were plenty of activities both on the water and on the GOBA mooring field on the opposite bank of the river from No Problem..

A boat exited Great Barford Lock just as I got back to NP having taken Lucy and Meg for their morning walk, so we took the opportunity to start our cruising day…

The working boats you can see in the background are putting pilings in for some new lock waiting moorings to be put in here at Great Barford.. the old wooden structures at each of the locks being replaced by posh non slip nice long moorings!….

No Problem fits on these!… There is no real stream on the river, the weirs are calm and gentle….

Look how clear this water is as it cascades downstream at the weir…. wonder how long that log will hang on in there!..

It was great that the wind had dropped a bit.. I really was getting fed up with it keep on blowing day after day, although it was still there today at least it was behind us.. This is an odd lock going downstream…

There is a boat in the lock, and the lock waiting mooring is beyond the lock.. not one of the nice new long ones either.. we won’t fit on that for sure.  But on a river it is not advisable to ‘hang around’.. there is a weir behind me, gently does it, and with the bow in the bushes only the centre rope will be available to secure us. 

Tis then a matter of backing up before entering the lock.. I’ll tell you what, steering and maneuvering on this river certainly has improved my skipper duties!! ..

I popped into St Neots for some bread and a couple of bits that didn’t arrive with Mr Tesco yesterday, and after lunch we continued on… Oh yeah I nearly forgot this….

Ha, a roof garden!   Very neatly laid turf on top of the wide beam… anyone for tennis!!

The woodburner has sprung to life this evening.. last night I was frozed when I went to bed and took a while to warm up.  I didn’t realise how cold I was… now it is a bit too warm and we have had to open the front doors!!…

A start made this evening….

There will be a few more on the roof before we leave tomorrow…