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Saturday 24 May 2014

No room at the Inn.

First thing it was nice, with even a bit of sun. I let Macy the cat out whilst I made Helen a cup of tea and squared off the galley etc. I left Macy sitting on the deck of the pontoon in the warmth of the sun and took the tea through to Helen. A few minutes later there was such a commotion and as I went to find out what it was this things dashed through the cabin in such a haste that I didn't get to recognise it. It turns out that Macy must have fallen in and almost straight away climbed up the rear button fender and dashed inside. I didn't recognise her as she was half her normal size being wet. She has been chasing flies so I think that she may have over stepped the mark a little. We were lucky as there is quite a run on the River Witham at the moment so we have all learned valuable lesson today. It will be interesting to see how long it is before she ventures out again! The rain came soon after and we stayed put until after lunch when it just about stopped.

Just down from the mooring is the Bardney Sugar factory. It now doesn't take beet I don't think but makes liquid sugar and is used for storage.

The banks are quite high on this stretch and there isn't much to see. There was one spot to be had at the pontoons at Southrey/Dunston but we were heading for Martin Dales as we wanted to walk into Woodhall Spa. However when we got there the moorings were full and as we didn't see anybody we didn't want to just double up so carried on.

Martin Dales Moorings.

As we passed under the bridge I could see there were planes flying round ahead. As Tattershall is the home of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight I thought that with the castle and being a Bank Holiday Saturday the likelyhood of space on the one mooring would be slim and I didn't fancy going on to Boston then. Just as we passed the end of Timberland Delph, a drainage ditch we came across a length of concrete that looked deep enough. A quick decision was made and we rounded up and parked up. It is a place where a gas main cross the river so the bank was made hard and very handy too. Not long after we had moored up there was the noise of planes approaching and loo and beholf a Hurricane and Spitfire flew very low overhead. (At least I think that is what they were). Helen loves planes and was very thrilled to get a grand stand seat.

Our mooring for the night.

Macy got her second scare of the day when this cow seemed to want to come aboard. Mind you Helen was having kittens too as it was much closer than it looks in this photo.

This is the entrance to Timberland Delph and it is navigable for a couple of miles but there is nothing to see up there. Further down there will be opportunities to explore a little on these navigable drains and through these pointing doors for access.

The rain was soon back and it was quite a miserable afternoon/evening so we did what anybody would do and...breakout a jigsaw! Amy had given us one with a boaty theme but unusually just to make it tricky the picture had fifteen deliberate mistakes. I had never seen that before. Mind you we have cracked on and will have ti done by tomorrow. We are hoping that there will be a berth for us at Tattershall or Dog Dyke. If not we will just carry on and do these stops on the way back.

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