Anglian waterways trip - questions!

[GUMPY]

12 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

Just looking at our schedule we may be rather tight on time for the return journey. I had planned to “do” all the tributaries but we might have to miss one or two.

 

So please rank in the order of desirability, the Lark, the Wissey and the Little Ouse.

You will miss the best bits then.

Don't forget the Relief Channel 😉

 

You might also have to change your crossing dates as silting has got worse due to low flows

 

[nicknorman]

14 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

 

Where are the flower pots going?

For the low bridges? Mostly onto the well deck, a couple inside on polythene sheets. Been there and done that already for the Middle Level. And for the gales.

18 minutes ago, Scholar Gypsy said:

 

My personal view:

 

1. Wicken Lode

2. Wissey

3. Little Ouse (you could choose to stop at the siphon at Lakenheath)

4. Lark, though the top half is more interesting.  Also the museum at Prickwillow is well worth a visit (check opening hours)

5. Relief channel

Thanks. Wicken Lode accomplished already. Unfortunately that order is the reverse order of our return trip but c’est la vie!

[ditchcrawler]

18 minutes ago, GUMPY said:

You will miss the best bits then.

Don't forget the Relief Channel 😉

 

You might also have to change your crossing dates as silting has got worse due to low flows

 

I have come out of the lock turned a very hard left, gone along the front of the structure very close almost to the far side of the river before turning downstream

[nicknorman]

22 minutes ago, GUMPY said:

You will miss the best bits then.

Don't forget the Relief Channel 😉

 

You might also have to change your crossing dates as silting has got worse due to low flows

 

Looks like we will be crossing around 1st or 2nd August so that is the start of a run of spring tides.

[pearley]

13 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

Looks like we will be crossing around 1st or 2nd August so that is the start of a run of spring tides.

I expect you'll be passing us somewhere down stream on Joanie M Too.

[Scholar Gypsy]

23 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

Looks like we will be crossing around 1st or 2nd August so that is the start of a run of spring tides.

The dates in black here are tides above 6m or so, so as you say you should be fine.  I suppose a backup plan is to come down the New Bedford River, as I think Salters Lode is not affected by silting at the moment.

[nicknorman]

26 minutes ago, Scholar Gypsy said:

The dates in black here are tides above 6m or so, so as you say you should be fine.  I suppose a backup plan is to come down the New Bedford River, as I think Salters Lode is not affected by silting at the moment.

New Bedford River does look like a long straight piece of boredom! And precludes doing the tributaries.

 

We saw Salters Lode entrance at low tide, plenty of silt but then again, plenty of water at high tide!

[GUMPY]

The joy of doing the crossing on a spring tide is that all crossings are done on a falling tide. If you get it wrong and run aground that's 12hrs stuck where you are 😆

[nicknorman]

13 minutes ago, GUMPY said:

The joy of doing the crossing on a spring tide is that all crossings are done on a falling tide. If you get it wrong and run aground that's 12hrs stuck where you are 😆

I did ask why they did the crossing on a falling tide, the answer was to do with air draft but if it were up to me I’d do it on a rising tide for obvious reasons. They are probably more worried about a nasty steel boat damaging their structure and never mind being held sucked down on the mud as the incoming tide floods into the boat!

[Scholar Gypsy]

5 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

I did ask why they did the crossing on a falling tide, the answer was to do with air draft but if it were up to me I’d do it on a rising tide for obvious reasons. They are probably more worried about a nasty steel boat damaging their structure and never mind being held sucked down on the mud as the incoming tide floods into the boat!

 

My understanding is that there is (or has been in the past) a concern about the impact if the guillotine at Salters doesn't lower when they press the button. On a spring tide that would cause flooding at Salters as the water level would be above the top of the inner gates. On a neap tide the water would be below the top of the inner gates. Hence on a spring tide they operate only on a falling tide which would give them 8 hours or so to fix the gate if there is a problem.  As you say there is an issue about going under any structure with reducing headroom...

[GUMPY]

1 hour ago, Scholar Gypsy said:

 

My understanding is that there is (or has been in the past) a concern about the impact if the guillotine at Salters doesn't lower when they press the button. On a spring tide that would cause flooding at Salters as the water level would be above the top of the inner gates. On a neap tide the water would be below the top of the inner gates. Hence on a spring tide they operate only on a falling tide which would give them 8 hours or so to fix the gate if there is a problem.  As you say there is an issue about going under any structure with reducing headroom...

As I understand it this is the reason, nothing else.

[nicknorman]

We did get to the end. Quite a flow which made reversing back to the turning point slightly  alarming, bearing in mind the excess of willow trees blocking the navigation!

 

Bedford was a boat desert, which seems odd.

 

[David Mack]

57 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

We did get to the end. Quite a flow which made reversing back to the turning point slightly  alarming, bearing in mind the excess of willow trees blocking the navigation!

 

Bedford was a boat desert, which seems odd.

 

Well done! That's closer to the footbridge than we managed in 2001.

1 hour ago, nicknorman said:

Bedford was a boat desert, which seems odd.

We overnighted in Bedford after going up to Kempston, and next morning the river was full of swimmers. It was the day of the Bedford Triathlon.

[nicknorman]

31 minutes ago, David Mack said:

Well done! That's closer to the footbridge than we managed in 2001.

We overnighted in Bedford after going up to Kempston, and next morning the river was full of swimmers. It was the day of the Bedford Triathlon.

Also quite a lot of moored boats in that photo. Today, there was not one single other moored boat in Bedford.

[enigmatic]

No boats at all in Bedford is unusual, but it's usually mostly empty; I haven't seen it as full as in that photo. I guess it's possible the EA actually enforces the 48hr moorings to keep the continuous moorers at bay

 

You have a lot of rowers acting like they own that stretch too. That might put some of the local boaters off, as does the bridge a lot of the larger cruisers can't fit under, and the fact it's not a weekend so they're not on their boat

Also it's Bedford, looks beautiful from the river but in terms of reputation as a destination it's on a par with somewhere like Nuneaton

 

[PaulJ]

1 hour ago, nicknorman said:

Also quite a lot of moored boats in that photo. Today, there was not one single other moored boat in Bedford.

I expect that would have been taken around the Bi Annual River Festival time. It fills up a bit then 😀

Absolutely normal not to see a boat moored on the embankment or above- most visitors tend to stop on the Goba mooring near the pyramid.

There's a couple of boats moored in what used to be Kempston Marina which is near the footbridge close to the Temple. Used to be a small community of liveaboards next to the railway bridges but council shut it down about 25 years ago.or so.

[nicknorman]

2 hours ago, enigmatic said:

No boats at all in Bedford is unusual, but it's usually mostly empty; I haven't seen it as full as in that photo. I guess it's possible the EA actually enforces the 48hr moorings to keep the continuous moorers at bay

 

You have a lot of rowers acting like they own that stretch too. That might put some of the local boaters off, as does the bridge a lot of the larger cruisers can't fit under, and the fact it's not a weekend so they're not on their boat

Also it's Bedford, looks beautiful from the river but in terms of reputation as a destination it's on a par with somewhere like Nuneaton

 

Yes it wasn’t a terribly appealing town when we walked around. I’ve seen much worse though!

On a related subject, what is the situation with proposed Bedford to MK waterway? Seems to have gone very quiet.

[David Mack]

4 hours ago, nicknorman said:

Also quite a lot of moored boats in that photo. Today, there was not one single other moored boat in Bedford.

 

2 hours ago, enigmatic said:

No boats at all in Bedford is unusual, but it's usually mostly empty; I haven't seen it as full as in that photo. 

 

2 hours ago, PaulJ said:

I expect that would have been taken around the Bi Annual River Festival time. It fills up a bit then 😀

Fulbourne was there on it's way to the IWA National Festival at Milton Keynes, the last leg being done on the back of a lorry, as part of the publicity for the Bedford-MK Waterway.

Many of the other boats pictured are Wilderness trailable boats. It was an owners club outing, and they were all going up to Kempston later that day.

[PaulJ]

31 minutes ago, David Mack said:

 

 

Fulbourne was there on it's way to the IWA National Festival at Milton Keynes, the last leg being done on the back of a lorry, as part of the publicity for the Bedford-MK Waterway.

Many of the other boats pictured are Wilderness trailable boats. It was an owners club outing, and they were all going up to Kempston later that day.

That makes sense- I did think they looked unusually uniform as I posted 😃

[enigmatic]

56 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

On a related subject, what is the situation with proposed Bedford to MK waterway? Seems to have gone very quiet.

If you read the sign near the lock, it's from about 20 years ago, when building new waterways was still in fashion!

 

There's still a trust, now perhaps more focused on running community boats, and it's still in long term framework regional plans for the area, but unless the developers of all the new towns planned for the area get forced to pay for it...

 

I think the only development that's happened since the idea was conceived in 1995 is the mooring at Kempston

 

[PaulJ]

49 minutes ago, enigmatic said:

 

 

I think the only development that's happened since the idea was conceived in 1995 is the mooring at Kempston

 

Don't forget  the 'canal bridge"/underpass on the A421 near Marston Moretaine when it was being built...😀

[GUMPY]

Worth a visit if you are close enough

 

 

[Mac of Cygnet]

I remember that when I visited Prickwillow there was a line painted about 10 ft up on one of the interior walls, labelled "Mean Sea Level".  Is this really the case?

[Athy]

34 minutes ago, Mac of Cygnet said:

I remember that when I visited Prickwillow there was a line painted about 10 ft up on one of the interior walls, labelled "Mean Sea Level".  Is this really the case?

Probably, yes. Much of the Fens is below sea lavel, hence the very high banks on some of the Fenland waterways (Downham market and Guyhirn for example, and much of the route from Outwell to March).

   I think it's something to do with peat shrinkage following drainage operations long ago, Somewhere in the Fens there's a marker post whose top was originally at ground level but which now rises abut nine feet above the ground.

[GUMPY]

It's at Holme Fen

 

https://www.greatfen.org.uk/about-great-fen/heritage/holme-fen-posts

Oh and it's not nine feet it's nearer 13ft of shrinkage.