Bartimaeus

Yesterday morning on our foray to the Boston shops, we could see the tide had brought more water in on other side of the lock. The day before it was very low and muddy. I had taken a view from the bridge while Shane studied the lock.

Having visited St Botolph’s we did a little basics shopping and made our way back to the boat. The tide was in so it looked less muddy and I got another view of the church we hadn’t had before, taking in some the other parts of the building.

Back aboard, Shane reversed out and we headed along the river back towards Anton’s Gowt where there was mooring and a “navigable drain” that had a silver propeller location at the end and interesting locks on the way. I was working the first one and sustained a slight scratch from overgrown bushes at the side, a legful of ants from an anthill and help from the man in the cottage to close the last gate. I had managed to open it but not close it and this was not one where Shane could easily hop off to help. There was nothing to moor to like there often is by a lock, and it was a long way up. I made sure I had secured the windlass in my shorts before climbing down. Often Shane takes the windlass from me as he drives out but the boat was far too low down to attempt that.

We headed to the next lock and Shane handed the helm to me to drop him at a bridge ahead of it but then could not see how to access the lock from there so stayed on and waved me on to turn the corner. The lock was open so I was able to drive in and he climbed on the roof, not just to get off the boat, but also to grab a boat hook as he had read that he would need it to operate the gates, which had no arms to push or pull. No windlass was required this time either. I had to move the boat across for him to get on and get the pole returned. This was another guillotine lock, which Shane had not shared with me and the gate didn’t go as high as the other one so I had to duck my head under the dripping gate as I drove under. Luckily I still had on my raincoat.

Once through I headed to the junction but found myself stuck with little progress. It was no surprise that at this little used stretch the water was very weedy. The bow thruster were struggling to shift through the thick masses and the propeller was churning up mud and nothing was moving anywhere fast. We were unsure about the “weed boom” across the bridge opening and decided to abandon. I managed to get some slow reversing as turning seemed impossible and dropped Shane off to work the guillotine again. The water though sluggish seemed to have some flow and was now pulling the boat round in a way I had failed to turn it earlier in the shallow water. Having reversed through the lock, we were relieved to be back in navigable water. We left it as we had found it with the gates open.

Having seen kingfishers in this stretch earlier, we kept our eyes peeled, but in stead we saw an anglers wrestling with a catch. He was just trying to struggle to the bank to net it when it broke free. We assured him we could vouch it was ‘this long’ – as it has been flipping at the surface of the water and was definitely well over a foot and a very dark stout looking fish.

Shane wanted to operate the other lock too as I had had difficulty with the gate and the man from the cottage might not be there to help. This worked and then I just had to get round to the jetty.

I drove round to the mooring jetty but turning was pretty slow. Shane had run round to it, before I was moored right up. Once moored Shane got hold of the boat hook again. This time he was having a go at clearing the bow thrusters that were clogged with weed. That tool has been put to good use today.

We overnighted and with a poor weather forecast decided to stay put the next day. Despite the rain I saw some swimmers arrive and change beside the boat and set off swimming up the river. Shane was surprised as he had seen a sign saying no swimming.

Another group arrived later. It was clearly popular in any weather. We had a quiet day with a couple of walks when the rain was off. There were a lot of snails and baby toads around in the damp. Some creatures like it wet. We met the man at the lock cottage again and he said there were otters, mink and a seal in the river. During the evening we kept feeling bumps against the side of the boat. We looked out but didn’t see any water mammals, so we assume they were very big fish.

We also discussed the booms across the bridges designed to prevent the spread of water weeds. I wonder if they are successful if boats are allowed to pass through and push them down. Mind you few go there.

The next morning I was awake at 6 and there was a lot of chattering. A very early group of swimmers were getting ready to plunge into the water. We have the windows a little open for ventilation and they were changing right beside us on the jetty and they no doubt weren’t aware of that. Later in the morning another group was returning from their swim and we were having breakfast. Shane told me he had heard them wondering about the name of the boat. When they had all dressed, I went out ready to explain as it looked like they were gathering beside the name to check it. In fact one woman had a measuring device in the water. I asked if she was testing the water quality. No, she was taking its temperature. I said we had seen the notice that suggested the quality was poor but it no doubt fluctuated and she said she did check the water quality regularly and it was okay. They seemed to know what they were doing, though they were not that happy when I mentioned the possible large fish banging into the boat. A chat about the name brought them to a brighter topic. I’m not a swimmer anyway, but the water right there did not appeal.