TRIP REPORTS : THE FELIS CATUS YEARS

MY LONGEST CRUISE, Summer 1979

Part 2 : The Middle Level, the Great Ouse & the Cam

Click on a picture to see a bigger version with a caption

We resume the story at March on the Old River Nene.

Next morning we reversed to Fox’s boatyard for diesel & water. There was a diesel shortage that year and one had to plead to be allowed to buy more than a thimbleful. The morning was spent shopping in March and using the launderette there (a long way from the cut). After lunch at The Ship, we set off again, at 13:17, heading for Outwell and Well Creek, where we found an awkward combination of weed & shallows. The hot sunny weather which had been with us from the start was interrupted briefly by a shower of rain that was noticeably warm.

At Salter’s Lode we had to queue a little while to lock out into the tidal Ouse, and chatted with the lock-keeper, who turned out to be a relief man whose weekly tour of the Ouse locks (giving the regular lock-keepers their day off) was to dog our footsteps.

The tidal crossing to Denver Sluice was quite impressive, as was the engineering of the sluice itself, with its row of pairs of tidal doors stretching across the considerable width of the river, a modern guillotine sluice at one end and the navigation lock at the other. In those days the lock at Denver still had two pairs of mitre gates at the tidal end to make it workable whichever way the levels differed. I'm told that there is now a modern guillotine gate there. Above the lock we were in the Old West River and spent the night moored by the Jenyns Arms, tying up there at 19:43. The log records that Roger and Wendy tried the pub while I cooked our traditional drunken spaghetti. I doesn't say what they thought of it (the pub, they were too polite to comment on the spaghetti).

Three views of Denver Sluice

On the Ely Ouse (above & below)	A lateish start (by our then standards) at 09:58 was followed by breakfast on the move. We reached Ely by lunchtime, where we moored by Banham’s bridge, used a sani station, shopped and had an excellent lunch at the Minster Tavern (Bass on hand-pump). We were off again mid-afternoon and soon reached Pope’s Corner, where we turned into the River Cam. I remember this as a very pleasant navigation with elegant swan-neck curves to the balance beams of its locks. We moored at 18:15 by Clayhythe Bridge and dined at the Bridge Inn.
	Ely Cathedral	Swaffham Prior Fen

Overnight the weather broke, and we awoke to heavy rain that continued for most of the day. We set of in a break in the weather and went upstream to Cambridge. When winding to moor below Jesus Green lock, Roger slipped on the wet gunnel and had a ducking - no harm done except to his dignity. We had a late breakfast on board before going into Cambridge for shopping. In the rain and very crowded, the city did not prove very attractive, so we decided not to stay the night, but headed back to the Old West River and a mooring at Twenty Pence Bridge at 19:19, where we drank at the pub of the same name. The beer was on top pressure. In 1979 it was still quite hard to find beer that wasn’t.

The weather was again dry and turned sunny later. We started at 07:36, not as early as planned. We passed through Earith and onto the main Great Ouse, again breakfasting on the move. We had a brief stop at St Ives Boathaven to use the sani station and buy gas. I noted in the log that we found Great Ouse locks very slow to work - noticeably more so than those on the Nene.

Lunch was also eaten on the move. .At one of the lock-landings, we had a bit of a coming-together with part of the fixtures and fittings and sustained some damage to our Masonite cabin side, which I patched upWe moored for the night at 20:04, about an hour later than planned, in St Neot’s town centre, where Chris re-joined us. We picked her up at the Bridge Inn & went across to the public moorings opposite. Roger & Chris went for a beer after dinner.

The day started with some shopping in the town, again in hot weather,while waiting for our fifth crew member to join us. This was Ian, another work colleague who was later to become a member of the syndicate owning the boat when Roger & Chris sold their share to help finance a new home. Underway at 11:53, we ate lunch on the move and reached Bedford at 6 pm.

We locked through the last lock on the navigation and decided to see how far above the town we could get. In those days we refused to believe in the existence of a head of navigation until we'd been aground on it. Felis Catus drew about 27 inches (0.7 m) at the stern, but only about 6 inches (0.15 m) at the bow, so this was quite a practical proposition. Very soon after leaving the lock, we passed under a railway bridge with very little headroom to spare, so decided that we had to come back that evening, lest any overnight rain should bring up the river level and trap us upstream of the bridge. We estimated we were about 2 miles above Bedford when Roger chickened out of going any further when he saw some horses fording the river and thought the depth indicated was too little for us to go any further. I was game to try, but wiser counsels, and the thought of that railway bridge, prevailed.

On the return trip we were aground briefly, but managed to pole off with no particular difficulty. We went back through the lock and moored for the night in Russell Park at 20:05, along with another boat, Mary Anne, whom we had last seen at Salter’s Lode (see the photo from 7^th August). It was a pleasant evening and we ate dinner on our boat’s spacious back deck.