Date - 23/07/08 Day - Wednesday Start - March 1330 End - Stanground lock 1900
Harnser's present position http://tinyurl.com/harnser-23 Yesterday we were over 2 hours late locking through Salter's Lode so we were not sure where we where going to stop, in the end we made March for the night and as it was gone 6 pm I didn't ring Stanground to book the lock for today, I rang this morning and got caught by the 24 hour rule, so we are due to lock onto the Nene at 0915 hours tomorrow and tonight we are sitting on the Stanground Lock mooring. We spent the morning in March, most of it in their museum which is packed to bursting point, I was looking to see i f the house my mother was born in was still standing, alas its now a row of new houses. We had a very good fish and chip dinner in the fish and chip shop in the High Street and also bought some fresh stuff from the market. We finally set off at 1-30 travelings quite slowly in the heat. The smoke from the brick works was going straight up and the Fenland wind powerstation was "resting". It was so hot I had to put the sun shade up over the slides. As we approached Ashline Lock there were kids everywhere on the bridge (both sides of the hand rail) on the bank, in the water, sitting on the lock mooring and the lock was against us. First I got the camera out and past under the bridge, it was quite some time before the lad jumped into the water, no where near us, Then I called to the girls sitting with their legs dangling over the moorings that I needed to come alongside and asked them to move, a few comments from the lads but the girls moved so I could come in. Then Magic came on deck, "O he's got a dog, he's nice" etc. boys as well. Diana sets the lock, dog gets lots of fuss, a half hearted request for a ride and general friendly chatting. I went into the lock and they came to watch all agreeing that a lock full of water is deep, I pointed out that the cill by the gates was shallow so to avoid that area. Then some of them went surfing through the bywash tunnel on small plastic dinghies and a ring, on lad helped to do the gates and we waved them goodby. We arrived at Stanground lock at 7 pm and I checked it was OK to moor over night, they asked if I had a dog on board and unlocked the access gate so we could take him for walks. -- Brian <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Join SOW and help save our waterways http://www.saveourwaterways.org
