"Right" said Fred - or should that be Ken?

Leaving the lovely Ely behind we decided that we would head towards Cambridge on the River Cam.  Shortly outside of Ely there is a junction where boaters can turn off onto two smaller waterways:- Reach Lode leading strangely enough to a place called Reach (!) and Wicken Lode leading to Wicken Nature Reserve - these are dead ends but we have received glowing reports of them both.

"Right", said Fred Ken, "let's go!"

Trouble was there's a lock to get through to enter Reach Lode ..............................

"I can't be certain, John but that lock doesn't look big enough to take this boat!"

"Have we got any dimensions?  The Imray Guide says nothing about length!" says Ken.

"Well this free EA map says the lock is 18.7 metres," says Ange.

"Kessandra is 65 feet" says Sandra," - what's that in metres?"

Oh dear!  19.8 into 18.7 won't go!

We tried moving the decimal point and adding a 0 but that didn't work either!

"What about positioning her diagonally?" suggests Ange

"Good idea," says John "- that's Pythagoras's  Theorem!"  

That didn't work either and, having done the maths to work out why (!) it was because the width of the lock needed to be 6.4m and it is only 4.3m - an insufficiency of 2.1m!!!!

"Oh well, there's only one thing for it," says Ken.  "Reverse!"

Off course we should have worked all this out before turning into Reach Lode.  SO - two narrowboats were seen reversing the 1/4 of a mile back to the junction!

A happy ending though - we soon found a lovely mooring where we were able to sit and contemplate.............

about all the maintenance jobs we could ......... and would ........ be getting on with!

But not just yet!!

"Ellen" is 61.5 feet.  According to my reckoning that is 18.8m!  On their map EA say the lock is 18.7m ........ but then states that at the end of Wicken Fen you can turn a boat 63 feet long!!!!! ?????????

How many metres is that?  

I'm confused!  

Well, on the homeward run we will attempt to take "Ellen" to Wicken Fen ......... watch this space""