Tuesday 12 August 2014

GOBA members only moorings - what a joke!

In between the storms yesterday we had an amazing full double rainbow directly opposite the boat. The photo doesn't do it justice as it was extremely bright with all 7 colours clearly defined.


The super moon duly appeared at dusk but it was far too windy to get the telescope out and it clouded over later so I didn't get to see any of the Perseids Meteorite shower either.


We left the good Denver moorings after lunch. The duck weed had collected into another thick blanket by the weir and service block.


It's still extremely windy and we passed a few of these outlets from the pumping stations, bubbling with a strong discharge of flood water from yesterday.


Someone's got a good sense of humour round here!


When we came onto the Great Ouse we paid £20 to join the G.O.B.A (Great Ouse Boating Association) as they have moorings and facilities along the Great and Little Ouse.


The first GOBA mooring we came across was about 10ft long and it was impossible to get off. It was also littered with an abandoned fridge and tractor tyres.

We wanted to moor at The Ship Inn at the junction with the Little Ouse river, but the E.A. moorings were full and the only vacant mooring outside the pub was far too short for us. We'd seen some GOBA moorings listed in the guide book on the Little Ouse so made the decision to go that way although it was another hour and a half to get there.

These moorings are a disgrace! If it wasn't too late and too windy to carry on, we'd have just kept cruising to the next E.A. ones.


You can't get into the bank so I had to lasso a "bollard" so we could use the plank to get off. When we did manage to get off the boat the bank is unstable and made from very soft muddy dredgings.



The mooring "bollards" are 3" x 2" softwood which were hardly driven into the bank and pulled out as soon as we tied up to them. Roger had to hammer them in deeper and we've had to use 4 ropes for any measure of security.


I hope this is just a one-off and that the other GOBA moorings are better, otherwise I'll be complaining and asking for a refund!

1 comment:

Graham and Jill Findlay said...

We passed those moorings and carried on. I think they are a new set up and need a year or two to settle. Most of the GOBA moorings are just river bank, no bollards or piling, but generally quite usable.The E.A. moorings at Brandon are great.