Negotiating locks along The Great Ouse
Negotiating locks along The Great Ouse

After some private time and shopping in St Ives as I planned our cruise to Boston and Grimsby, we enjoyed a trip roller skating at the St Ivo Centre, before we took off along The Old West to arrive at The Twenty Pence Inn in early evening for a meal out. The overnight was warm and muggy conditions and turned to showers and then rain.

It was warm and muggy overnight and we had great difficulty getting to sleep and even then woke up several times during the night. At one point, I went over to see Diana and she was receptive for once. We awoke with the morning light at the usual time and then had breakfast on the boat. This morning, Diana first went shopping with Daniel and then took the girls to the St Ivo centre for a roller-skating session. I stayed on the boat and used the computer and printer to enter the routes to Boston and Grimsby and then calculated the best passage plans.

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Di came back with some burghers for lunch and then we set off shortly afterwards, locking through St Ives, Brownshill and Hermitage and then cruised half way along The Old West to arrive at the Twenty Pence Inn in early evening. The river was shallow but recently dredged. The weather had turned to showers and was raining for much of our boat journey and so we had the canopy up and the side screens down which we managed with some help from the Brownshill Sluice lock-keeper. . The family had tea en route and Diana and I went across to the inn for a dinner which was rather poor. Daniel had a call from Angela this evening which was rather unsettling as she is fed up and lonely without him.