Summertime is interesting here at Ely

Moored Ely, River Great Ouse

Well I am very happy to report that the single moorhen chick is still alive and kicking and getting much bigger, so the turmoil of the night of the mink came and went with mum managing to see off the mink or hide the chick.. whatever it is really nice to see that little chick chirping away on the opposite bank to No Problem..

Son Tony is aboard, his cruise unfortunately cancelled due to No Problem being without a gearbox, but he is enjoying, and the weather has been great.. He has enjoyed keeping NP shipshape, and here managing to get water from the nearby boatyard.. Now this takes some doing, the hose will only just reach.. but you gotta get it right, .. Here then from the top of the bridge near NP, Tony getting ready to aim the hose...

Muscle power next......

Now to pull it's extreme to make it reach the tank...

We dare not move from our mooring here, not that we can under our own power, but just to move a few feet might mean loosing our mooring, and that would be a disaster at the moment!

We have visited the magnificent cathedral, and the farmers and craft market.. we have walked around the local fenland and of course, walked the golf course where Lucy once again added to her total of found golf balls.. I actually counted them the other day, and she and Chas and Annie's mutt Molly have found 189 golf balls over there since we have been here!!

Steve has been over a couple of times, he pops in at lunch time for a chat.. away now on his hols in Jersey,, And good friend Kevin has kept in touch helping me with the logistics of getting this gearbox to and fro to HMS in Brundall near Norwich who are doing the repairs. They have it back again today, and I am hoping that tomorrow it will be fixed and on it's way back again by Thursday.. Ho hum will just have to wait and see.

This is the very longest period that I have ever been stationary in one place ever whilst on the waterways.. *Yawn*

There are a couple of beautiful dutch barge type boats around here, this is one of them.. Nordster..

What a beaut this is.. But I had to grab the camera a bit quick when these two well known narrowboats came by.. "A steam boat is coming" shouted Vic and I knew straight away who it would be as I had known that President and Kildare were coming to the fens this year, I ran for the camera, and here they are in full blown steam...

And on they go.. phew talk about getting a steam up!!..

Many thanks for all the comments and emails of late, I will try to answer them at a later stage, I am fairly busy enjoying some quality time with son, and the computer is taking a bit of a back seat..