Day 10 – 27 August 2007 St Ives to Earith We wanted to get Mums car to Earith so she could come with us and then stay the night before driving to Huntingdon to look through local records. Apparently some Askins are from these parts. We drove both cars down, and finally found the marina where the EA moorings are. They kindly let Mum leave her car the night, and we went back to St Ives. We took a wrong turning on the way back, but though we'd be clever and go across the old bridge. It seems this is normally a pedestrian area during the day, and it was chock-a-block with people crossing back and forth. The town was heaving with traffic, and people.
We stopped at Jones boatyard as Gary wanted to look at some 'real boats' instead of these 'tin baths' at the rally. We looked at the boats for sale, but none took his fancy. Gary walked into the Chandlers and we followed. I found an Imray chart of the wash, but I didn't fancy paying £13 for it, but I happened to mention if they had any old ones. He had a look in the back, and came out with loads of them. We found an East of England chart, but later in the pile found a Y9 Wash chart as well. He said I could have them for a donation to the Lifeboats, so put some money in the box, and left chuffed to bits. I only want them to build some scenery for a computer program I've been playing with recently – Virtual Sailor, so it didn't matter they were out of date. Gary and Jenny left later in the afternoon, and we left our moorings at 5:30pm. It took only a couple of minutes to travel half a mile downstream, it took half an hour to reach the lock moorings from the bridge thanks to the queue of boats waiting to get through St Ives lock. It was 7:16pm when we left the lock and headed downstream. We reached Brownshill Staunch just as the last two boats went through. Many had moored at the marina near Over, but we had to push on. Last time we went through this lock it was on the level, but now there was a change in height. It wasn't much though, and it took exactly as long to get through the lock as there are guillotine gates both top and bottom. When we reached Earith moorings in the darkening gloom at 8:40. Four narrowboats were moored in the middle of the jetty, with a fibreglass boat moored at the bottom end, leaving us just 20 foot to squeeze on the end. -- Michael Askin http://shoestring_DOT_zapto_DOT_org/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/canals-list/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/canals-list/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
