The Great Ouse above St Neots
The Great Ouse above St Neots

A cruise from the Anchor pub in Bedford down river to moor at the St Neots pontoons for a Beefeater lunch and then on through Paxton and Offord locks to moor for the night at Buckden Marina on a quite unbearable hot day.

We had stopped to check at home to find the decorators working well and I also dealt with some local issues as Councillor whilst Diana did some washing as the girls and Daniel swan in the pool. I then brought my computer on board for the trip to accompany my new Cellnet telephone .

We slept well and awoke to the birds at 7.00am on Di got the drinks as I caught up on some reading and then, once the children woke up, we all got going. Diana has established the routine that we shower in the aft facilities and do all else forw'd which seems to be the most efficient way of getting a family of five ready in the morning. I was out mopping again because, although it had started another very warm and sunny day, there was some condensation last night. We got going at 10.00am as the temperature soared in the hot sun and locked through Eaton Socon and eventually moored up at St Neots pontoons again. We had another nice lunch at the Beefeater again (Fried Plaice and Salad for me) and then did some more chores in town. I had two telephone calls. One from Stephen Bloom who wanted to borrow one of our outboards and another from our housekeeper Joan who had some messages for us. These we received quite happily on the boat via our new Cellnet telephone.

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We then set off again at 2.30pm and were back at Paxton by 3.45pm, even though the lock was against us. It was quite unbearable in the heat but at least I had my big white floppy hat to protect me. At home, I found the decorators quite well advanced with my office, and the gardener was just returning to do some watering as the lawns and flower beds were drying up. I think that this summer is going to be quite unusual. I used the house telephones to deal with a constituency query for Southoe (they want a playing field of their own) and also restored diplomatic relations with the higher police management after they had taken offence at my recent FOCUS. In fact, the local Inspector was happy and felt that his Superintendent was getting worked up over nothing. I then went back to the boat and tried out my computer on the boat power supply to ensure that it was working properly. This enabled me to catch up on these last three days' journal and I made the decision to keep it aboard as it works quite well. It runs off of AC mains generated by rotating machine from the boat's DC supply. All very clever!

Diana caught up on some washing and the girls had a swim with Daniel in the pool. Although the heating had been switched off, the pool was still over 80degF. Then we filled up with water and I put the computer away ready to set off. We left Little Paxton at about 7.00pm and then stopped for a chicken and bread tea with strawberries and cream for half an hour soon after. The weather was very warm and uncomfortable but cooling gradually as we went along. Offord Lock was set for us and we were through in quarter of an hour and so had moored up at Buckden Marina before long, ready for fuel in the morning. I showed the girls how to fish for a few hours there and caught quite a few small dace and just one small roach. I then spent a couple of hours at my ship’s log and journal before turning in rather late at 11.00pm. The cabin temperature was still at 72degF even then.