Wither Wisbech?

You have to book your passage out of Peterborough if you want to leave any other way than back up the River Nene to Northampton. I had called the Dog in a Doublet sluice the previous day and had told to be there by 1000. This called for us to be up a little earlier than normal, but not much.

Luckily it wasn't foggy when we left and we were soon swung and heading to more fresh pastures for us. In the photo above we have just passed under the High Bridge and the route to Stanground Lock, Morton's Leam, is just off to the right.

As well left the 'real' world behind for the 5 mile or so trip down to the Dog in a Doublet Lock we wondered what our day would turn out like. Passing this sunken cruiser before we had got on the tidal stretch didn't lift Helen's spirits. Especially as it was her BIRTHDAY. I can always boast that I took her on a European River Cruise for her birthday now.

We arrived on time to be greeted by the lock keeper by 'I wasn't expecting you!' It turns out another cruiser had booked to leave with us but a later phone call had cancelled them, but his wife had missed the name and he had assumed it would be us! The current lock was built in 1938 and is named after the nearby pub.

We were penned through and it was explained that it may be best if we waited a little while to arrive at Wisbech at a 'good' time. We eventually left after about 30 mins at 1045. there was virtually no difference between above and below the lock as it was high water and a spring tide. HW in Wisbech had been 2hr 20 mins previously. The pub was named, apparently, after a dog that got a skin complaint so lost all it's fur and the wife of the landlord made a doublet to keep it warm! As simple as that. You can just see the pub over the abutments of the old bridge that was replaced in the 1990's by a new road bridge

This red admiral butterfly landed on us in quite windy weather, and seemed loath to leave us. We naturally took it to be a good omen as it was an admiral.

The first part of the journey from the lock is pretty boring as it is an almost straight channel. It was dug in the early 1700's and was called Smith's Leam and it was supposed to supplement, or improve on the drainage provided by Morton's Leam. It is now called the 'River Nene'.

On the outskirts of Guyhirn, at Ring's End there is a bend in the river and the pillars of what used to be the railway viaduct from Spalding to March railway that was opened by the Great Northern Railway in 1867. Guyhirn Station was just after the viaduct. It became jointly owned by the Great Northern and Great Eastern companies. The station was closed to passengers in 1953 due to low numbers and to goods in 1964. The line remained until 1982 when it was removed, along with the viaduct. Or most of it anyway. Just below the tall trees Morton's Leam once again merges with this waterway and the course becomes less man made in its course.

The only possible mooring between Dog in a Doublet and Wisbech is this very small floating pontoon just down from the bridge above.

We were just stooging along at canal speed, but seemed to be doing a good speed. I had no real idea of what to expect at the end or what the strength of tide would be like, but I did know there was a turning basin for sea going vessels so knew that we would be able to turn.

It wasn't until we got to this newly dredged bit of bank that you could actually see how much the tide had dropped due to the vegetation. It was down a bout 1.8 metres  from HW it looked like.

As we came into Wisbech the water had dropped further and was between banking and narrower so seemed to speed up a bit, especially round the corners. However the view along the South Brinks was magnificent and really showed what a wealthy trading port it must have been. Helen later said it reminded her of Pisa!! She should know as she was there a month or so ago.

We were swept round Town Bridge and onwards. It is always intriguing to know what maybe round the corner.

One more bend, and under an newer Freedon Bridge, opened in 1971, and we come to the floating pontoons of the Yacht Harbour. We had been told to moor between a catamaran and the tug 'Fenlander'. As we passed by as slowly as possible we saw no catamaran, but saw the tug and space near it, so decided that would do. The lock keeper had told us to swing in the turning basin, but this was a long way round the next bend and would take a fair bit of power to get back to the berths. 

I decided that there was plenty of room just past the tug and there seemed plenty of width to the water so easily turned round and headed back to moor just behind the cruiser astern of the tug. We were heading upstream. We were soon moored up and the first part of Helen's birthday completed. We quickly got our glad rags on and we were off on shore leave.