Wisbech

Wisbech is a very interesting and beautiful market town. We have been blessed with great weather which always helps, but the Georgian buildings and superb scenery make this town very special. We arrived from the Wash and tomorrow after spending two days here we will leave for Peterborough. We have been to Octavia Hill's house/museum. She was one of the founders of the national trust. We have been to the St Peter and St Paul Church which was founded in the 12th century. We have been to two local museums and had a trip round Elgoods brewery which has much to recommend it !
The yacht club where we are berthed has superb facilities incl. Water, electricity, fuel, showers and a laundry. It is all state of the art and was built just 18 months ago.
We look forward to our return in August.

Boston and the Wash

We arrived in Boston on another beautiful day and managed to moor free of charge more or less in the centre of this wonderful old market town. We were here last year on our recce trip and it really is a splendid place. Unfortunately Canon Whitehead who is the vicar of St Botolph's church (The Boston Stump) had only just returned from holiday as he was caught up in the volcanic ash air problem. To add to his woes he had developed a bad cold. Consequently he had not had time to arrange trips for his parishioners on our boat. He did however come and meet us and we had a picture taken of us all inside the church. We are now trying to do a trip with him and his parishioners on our way home in later August. It did mean we were able to leave a bit earlier and the tides were right on Tuesday 27th April 2010 for an attempt at crossing the Wash. We sailed at 08.30 hrs on a fairly complicated course to avoid a lot of sandbanks out into the Wash and returning towards the Wisbech channel which is the entrance to the River Nene. We went out on the ebb tide and waited at anchor for the tide to turn so we could go up the River Nene on the flood tide. There was a fair bit of shipping about but we were able to go up before they could so we avoided them. The weather on the Wash was flat calm, good visibility and no wind. Ideal for us.

Lincoln Cathedral

Humber and Trent crossing

We stayed two nights in Hull Marina. As you see by the flags it was too windy for us on the Humber on Tuesday. By Wednesday (21st) the "white horses" had gone and we had a safe passage across the Humber (2 hours) and up the Trent to the tidal lock at Torksey (5 hours). We motored on to Saxilby (a Roman settlement on the Fossdyke) and moored by the blossom tree in this pleasant village with its friendly people.

By lunchtime on Thursday we were in Lincoln. We took advantage of British Waterways Board (BWB) showers and did the laundry. We cycled to M&S and to the computer repair shop. As you see, we are now back on air! Little sleep was possible for Thursday and Friday nights as we had to moor beside the Uni. halls of residence and the firstyears were in party mode!!

Saturday 24th we welcomed a party of six from Newbald. Mike Bushby, our vicar, had driven down in his minibus bringing Lynne, Stuart, Mary, Sylvia and Elsie. The glorious sunny weather continued and we took "Farcet Fen" through Brayford Pool, under the bridges of Lincoln - including the Glory Hole (c. 1160), up to the lock and back. We had a picnic on the waterside garden right in the heart of this wonderful ancient city.

Canon Kirk kindly posed for a photo with us in front of the Angel Screen of the Cathedral

Humber and Trent

Voyage start from Beverley Beck

We visited the second Church on our boat pilgrimage Holy Trinity Church in Hull. They are currently awaiting their new vicar and the day we hoped we might be able to entertain them on our boat in Hull Marina was last Monday and that is a day that the Church is closed. Instead we went to Holy Trinity Church on Saturday 17.04.2010 and had a wonderful reception from all the staff. The picture above shows Veronica McKenzie, Jean Fenwick, Gordon Barley(The verger) Gordon Kirkby, Margaret Nicholson, Una Beswick and Diana and me. We have been on many occasions to Holy Trinity Church but always to services and never to have a good look around. This time we took the opportunity to really see how magnificent it is inside and out. We learnt that it is in the guinness book of reciords as the largest Parish Church in England and has been in existence for over 700 years. In fact the current church founded in 1285 and completed in 1425 was the third church on this site.

William Wilberforce the abolitionist MP for Hull was baptised in the font which dates from 1380. The Church has a long and interesting history. We were invited into the back room for coffee and cake and given a truly warm welcome. Our next post will be setting off from Beverley Bec k on Monday 19.04.2010 at 07.00 Hrs.

Friday 16th April 2010 we were delighted to welcome the vicar of Beverley Minster (above) The reverend Jeremy Fletcher and Mervyn who is in charge of the Minster newsletter on the boat in Beverley Beck. They were great company and delighted to give us a send off on our boat pilgrimage. Mervyn took a lot of pictures and we will apparently be featured in the Beverley Minster Newsletter coming out shortly. We put the bunting out on the boat to welcome our visitors.

We were also joined by our vicar from North Newbald The Reverend Michael Bushby who joined us for a quick sail up the Beck into the town. This was the route used to bring the stone to Beverley Minster when they built it, so it was all very appropriate.
We leave on the tide from Beverley Beck tomorrow (monday 19.04.2010). We will lock out at 07.00 Hrs. We are being joined by Judi Murden from Radio Humberside who will then drive into Hull to catch up with us as we sail along the river. We are then on live at 08.45 Hrs, so it should be interesting !

Best wishes

Hamish and Diana

Publicity to date for the Boat pilgrimage

Hamish and Diana are delighted that their idea of visiting 7 major Cathedrals, Minsters and Churches by boat to help pay for the repair to the stonework of their Norman village Church of St Nicholas in North Newbald has caught the imagination of the media. The above press cutting appeared in the local paper 'The Hull Daily Mail' and has created a huge interest in the project. Further publicity was had on BBC Radio Humberside on the Sunday morning show and a further programme is scheduled for Monday 19th April when the Radio Humberside car and reporter Judi Murden will be down at Beverley Beck at 07.00 Hrs to see us off on our journey. She will then follow us and report our progress live on the programme at 08.45 Hrs. On thursday 22nd April we will have the support of 'The Pocklington Post' which is a weekly newspaper and they too are doing an article on our interesting boat pilgrimage. This publicity hasd lead to an excellent fund raising response of circa £ 800 towards the overrall cost of repairs of £ 30,000.

Preparation

Testing the blog