Days On Sun

We boarded Sun boat with eager anticipation. The narrow boat is moored in a cut on the “River Great Ouse“, just outside Ely, Cambridgeshire. The Ely Cathedral is known as ‘The Ship of The Fens‘. We planned to get to know the boat better, with this small excursion, having plenty of time for shopping and wandering through the wonderful streets of Ely, as well as a pint or two.

The weather was beautiful, which was both a good and bad thing. Good because it was beautiful. Bad, because it meant anyone with a boat was out enjoying the last days of summer, this made finding a mooring for Sun difficult. We pass through Ely, looking for a mooring (a parking spot for the 72 foot long boat).

As we made our first pass through Ely, (notice the word ‘first’), we were greeted by other boaters who know whose boat we were on, and know that we’re not him. They look out for one another, and are reassured when they realize, that we are on the boat legitimately.

Sun runs at 4 mph, as the boats owner says, “She doesn’t do anything fast”. The speed limit on the river is almost always 4 mph, so one would think this is a perfect fit. Unless, however, you are the one trying to turn the boat around…all 72 slow feet of her on a river that is about 100 feet wide. My Loving Spouse, who really is quite the sailor, was extremely stressed trying to get Sun turned around and not run aground. A few shunts later and the boat is headed back into Ely, and once again, we’re looking for a mooring. We did this three times, which took approximately 3 hours. We eventually ‘made’ a mooring and tied up to a tree.

We’re off the boat and in a pub with a beer and a cider and happy to be so. Ely is a beautiful historical town…

…a wonderful place to shop…

Shopping was never as fun in England, as it was on this trip, and not just on gin. The first time I was ever in England, 10 dollars equaled 4 pounds. Now, 5 dollars equals 4 pounds. England (in my opinion) has not had nearly the inflation, that we have had to endure, for example, beautiful artisan loafs of bread were only 79p or roughly $1.00. Our money went farther than ever, and we actually came home under budget.

After two days in Ely, we’re ready to set off for St. Ives. We’ve been told, that we will love it. We imagine a two hour trip or so to get there…here is where our expectations and our reality collide.

We make the proper turn onto the ‘Old West River’. ‘River’ is a bit grand when describing the ‘Old West’, a ‘narrow creek’ might be better and remember, we’re in a 72 foot long boat. We’re also traveling upstream, so our 4 mph, is reduced to about 2 mph. My Loving Spouse gets even more anxious at the helm of Sun at this point, yes we do run aground a few times, but he cleverly gets it unstuck without asking me to jump into the river and push.

When the river widened, we searched for a pub….nothing, but some of my favorite animals.

It took us awhile to realize, that each page of the map was at least an hour’s travel time. It was 5pm with about 4-5 pages of the map left to St. Ives. After traveling through our first lock, we note that the map claims ‘The Crown’ has a mooring.

Sun takes up the entire mooring. We tie off quickly and go into the days favorite pub, The Crown.

We order take away and have a few pints. Everyone comes outside to join us, because they either like us, or they want to smoke…it is one of those for sure.

A bit of Irish music floats out of the jukebox and we were so grateful to have a place to moor up for the night and to stop!

We’d pictured our time on Sun, as cruising for an hour or so between stops at villages. Clearly a lack of information on our part. We were in the Fen, the very flat English countryside, with villages few and far between, at least at 2 mph. We set off from Earith in the morning and soon reach our first unmanned (do it yourself) lock.

We have to open the guillotine gate to bring the water up to Sun’s level. Then My Loving Spouse cruises in.

I am the ‘Lock master’. I have a special set of keys and shut the one gate, then open the second gate. It is not rocket science, but I feel a smug satisfaction all the same.

We cruise on toward Holywell. The map book describes the village as lovely. I am excited to stop there for lunch, roam the village and get our trip back on track.

I surprise myself by being a fairly good Narrow boat driver. I am sure it has to do with all my time driving our tractor with a load out front.

Boats steer the opposite way and every once in awhile I panic and quickly hand the tiller back to My Loving Spouse.

We reach Holywell and sort of slow down, but when you’re going as slow as we are, one cannot go much slower. Holywell does look charming, just what I wanted to explore…except…do you see anywhere to moor/park a 72 foot boat? Nope, neither did we. Disappointed, we had no choice but to just keep going, our spirits flagging a bit. We push on toward St. Ives, hopeful for a mooring.

Comforted (kind of) by more cows.

Grateful to be together, we are blessed.

Do we make it to St. Ives?

Stay tuned…..