Ely

Here I am Rune

Distance 3.1 miles

Total 4088 Locks  264 Tunnels

Running total mileage 6,098.5 miles

Well we succeed in finding a mooring back here in Ely so we are now suitably set up to get the weekend shop tomorrow and then head on further up the Great Ouse on Saturday. Once again, not sure just how far we will be going, I want to stop off at Westview Marina at Earith since I understand they have a bit of a chandlery there and we need a couple of bits.

The weather today was glorious and it was a bit of a shame that were only travelling a few miles in it, although it could be said that it was a bit too hat for travelling any great distance. Forecast remains the same for the next few days.

Chettisham

Here I am Rune

Distance 8.9 miles

Total 4088 Locks  264 Tunnels

Running total mileage 6,074.3 miles

On this occasion we really are moored in the middle or nowhere, there are 4 ‘nearby’ towns, all much the same distance away, by a small measure, the nearest is Chettisham (1.5 miles)

Today was a day for getting the domestic stuff done, topped up with diesel at Bridge Boatyard which seemed quite a bit cheaper than Ely Marine (£0.95 litre versus £1.25 litre) so we saved about £30 on the tankful. Chugged off out of Ely heading towards the River Lark and took lunch at the Diamond 44 Environment Agency moorings before setting off down the River Lark to Prickwillow with the intention of mooring there for the night. Sadly the Enviroment Agency have fenced off both of the moorings at Prickwillow (not sure why), so we have had to return to Diamond 44 for the night. Not that its a problem, but if I’d known, we could have just stayed here after lunch.

Probably a bit of a long day tomorrow since there are now no available moorings on the River Lark, we’ll need to go to the end, turn around and come back here to Diamond 44 for tomorrow night’s mooring.

Ely

Here I am Rune

Distance 4.9 miles

Total 4088 Locks  264 Tunnels

Running total mileage 6,065.4 miles

Another short hop today from Littleport into Ely, mainly to get the domestic stuff done. As luck would have it we were able to find a decent mooring pretty much in the middle of the town moorings, and since we did so quite early (lunchtime) I took the opportunity to complete the engine service that the boat was in need of (17 hours over service time). Probably just as well that I did, the intention was just to do an oil and filter change, rotate the air filter and check the inline fuel agglomerator. All was well until it came to the agglomerator check, when I found it was half full of water. With that much water in it, it only made sense to then check the fuel filter to make sure none had gone past the agglomerator, fortunately none had and the fuel came out of the filter water free (pretty much). Since I’d already taken the fuel filter off, and I carried a replacement, it made sense to put the new one on, so hopefully the engine is all clean and ready to go. 

The only slight hiccup was when re-tightening the air filter I managed to drop the socket and extension bar, and annoyingly trying to recover than took me longer than the rest of the work! It looked as though it had fallen into the sump below the engine, but since there was a lot of oil and diesel down there from a couple of previous oil changes I couldn’t see or feel the missing tool. I then took the decision to clear the crap out from under the engine, still no sign of the tool. Had finally decided to give it up as lost when I caught a glimpse of it trapped in the very small gap between the starter motor and the engine, and with a magnetic probe, managed to recover it. Time to complete the engine service; about and hour, time to recover the lost tools; about an hour and a half!