We woke to a bright, cloudless sky. It remained largely sunny, with only small, fluffy clouds. However, there was generally a rather sharp wind. So it was great sitting in the shelter to enjoy the sunshine but not so good when steering! The wind also made some tight navigation all the more tricky.
We continued down the River Nene with its ever-changing scenery. Several of the locks were once mills - mostly now converted to posh homes!
We arrived in Peterborough as planned with time to moor up at the Town Quay and spend a little time in the city centre - yesterday we booked our passage into the Middle Level for 3 o'clock.
Christine checked out where the rubbish and water facilities were - she chatted the skipper of a hotel boat who was able to point them out - not at all obvious around the back of former public toilets now out of action!
Peterborough is one of the ancient cathedrals - the associated monastery was taken over by Henry VIII but, with the political skills of its then abbot, a deal was struck which saved the cathedral and landed the abbot a prestige job! Plus ca change . . .
The cathedral inside is spacious but does not feel at all oppressive or formal. The volunteers at the entrance make every visitor feel really welcome - at it is one of the, sadly, few that nowadays do not levy a charge to go in.
After her execution at nearby Fortheringhay, Mary Queen of Scots was later interred here as earlier had Catherine of Aragon. Despite falling out of favour with the king as she gradually became too old to deliver the required male heir, Catherine was allowed to live out her days in relative peace, if not necessary in the style she had expected!
After calling at Asda for milk and a few other items, it was back to the boat and lunch. Before setting off we made good use of the sanitary and rubbish facilities before going on down to the turning into the Middle Level. The entrance to the lock is not overly-impressive!
Stanground Lock is manned - this enables the lock keeper to sell keys. It turns out that we needed a special windlass as well as a security since the design is quite different from either the canals or the Environment Agency locks. The pillar design at the next lock was reminiscent of some of the mechanisms on the Leeds and Liverpool - but these required up to 75 turns!
It was a gorgeous evening in the sunshine - although the steerer needed extra clothing! By now we had established that the tide time for Salters Lode lock is between 12 and 2 tomorrow lunch time. This gave us a bit of a choice - should we go slowly and take an extra day or carry on late to give us a chance of passing through tomorrow. Andrew persuaded us to opt for the latter so we shall see how it turns out.
The Levels are relatively featureless but not entirely without interest. Of course, if this was what all navigations were like then there would be no fun but just for a change for a day or so, it is certainly worth the effort. The water is very clean and well stocked with fish, although spotting anything other than tiddlers was a bit unusual. Fishermen will be out again after today, which we think is the end of the closed season.
We passed a couple of boats on the move but otherwise it feels very deserted and isolated. Occasionally we passed other drains going off at an angle but not many of them are navigable. Two did, however, warrant 'road signs'
We arrived in March - we had been promised good town centre moorings - to find that most were already occupied (actually there is only room for abour five boats even if moored politely! So, we had to take what was available and ofrget the lack of a view!
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