It was all a bit of a rush towards the beginning of the break. We had to get to Boston by midday on Saturday so we loaded the boat up on Friday evening, topped up the water tank and set off into a wet and miserable evening. Luckily we teamed up with another boat to get through Stamp End Lock in record time and were soon heading off down the River Witham in the last of the evening light at the start of a heavy shower. Eventually Bardney Lock looms up out of the darkening gloom and we settle on mooring topside of the lock for the evening.
We awake early on Saturday intent on making Boston on time; however our plans are soon foiled by the weed. Overnight large reed clumps and loads of stringy green weed have become wedged across the lock gates so before we can even get the boats close to the lock we have to draw through a couple of locks full of weed. Luckily the river level was up slightly so drawing off some water was no great issue. Eventually we are off but the weed makes for pretty slow going. The river really is choked up with weed at the moment and had we not had to make Boston we would have given up. We found a small cruiser in trouble about ten miles from Boston. Their main engine had overheated and their auxiliary was too small to make progress in the weed, so we roped them alongside and towed them the ten miles into Boston eventually depositing them on their mooring.
We were late for our Boat Safety Scheme test but John was understanding enough and did the test anyway whilst we had a visit to the local pub, The Little Peacock, for a couple of swift pints whilst John did his work. We walked back to the marina full of anticipation and awaiting bad news, but we needn’t have worried Naughty-Cal passed with the minimum of fuss and we were soon on our way with a new BSS certificate to hand. Now we can licence her with British Waterways, it’s that time of year again.
Sunday was a much more relaxed affair. Our destination was Bardney Village moorings but we had no schedule to keep so we could take our time, which was a good job really as the weed was if anything for the first stretch, worse than our out bound journey. Still we made it in good time and got ready for our BBQ supper with our good friends on Devocean. We had decided to make from scratch a large proportion of what we would eat that evening which kept us entertained whilst Devocean battled through the weed some way behind. We made sweet chilli chicken kebabs, garlic mushrooms, garlic and rosemary potato salad and BBQ flavour belly pork strips, excellent BBQ food. It is starting to get a little chilly during the evening so we switched on the diesel heating and hoped and prayed that it was still operational after a summer of little use. Thankfully it sprang into life and kept us all toasty warm for the evening. So we girls stayed tucked up in the warm whilst the boys tried to BBQ in a fresh breeze, we were happy to make a mixed grill but the boys wanted to play with fire.
Monday was a much brighter day although the wind was up a little on the previous day. We had a very chilled morning, walking around the lovely church in the village, before stocking up on beer supplies in the village shop. Finally we sat down to a massive cooked breakfast of sausages, bacon, black pudding, mushrooms, beans and toast all washed down with a glass or two of fresh orange juice and some fresh coffee. We had intended on staying at Fiskerton Fen for the evening but a combination of luke warm water for showers (Bardney really isn’t far from Fiskerton so the water had not reached temperature,) and our other friends back from their holidays convinced us to head back for Burton Waters, where we enjoyed a lovely relaxed evening in good company with a few well earned drinks before hitting the sack relatively early.
Yesterday was a day of cleaning. We had a quick nip out to Morton Boats to order a few items for both the dinghy and Naughty-Cal before heading back to another cooked breakfast. We then had the unenviable task of cleaning Naughty-Cal. She has not had a proper thorough clean since we came back from the Norfolk Broads so she was getting ready by now. A few hours saw her cleaned from top to bottom and she looks and smells much better for it now. The colour of the water running from her hull was testament to the amount of grime that can collect in just a couple of months; we didn’t expect her to be quite so grubby. Luckily the wax we applied whilst she was ashore earlier in the year is still working a treat so cleaning her exterior was a breeze. Cleaning complete we settled back with a few beers and a game of monopoly whilst listening to some music with a pan of stew and dumplings simmering away on the hob, happy days. At least it is a short week at work now before we head back to Naughty-Cal on Friday evening.
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