More weed, but ditches here we come!

Thursday 24^th August; White Mills to Northampton Arm, lock 17

Another bright and warm day dawned but we didn’t get away till about 10.  We would have gone into the marina for fuel but were pipped at the post by a widebeam arriving and going in for a pump-out, so we thought we’d stop in at Northampton marina instead.  It was yet another day of fairly relentless cruising and locking.  Our first lock was Whiston, above which was the thick mat of floating weed we had just been warned about by a cruiser which had just fought its way through.

Above Whiston lock

It was so thick that I couldn’t open the gates fully.  I pulled some out, but it didn’t make a lot of difference!  Dave put the revs on to get a run at it, then dropped into neutral to get as far through as he could with the momentum, which wasn’t far.  Then he crept slowly and carefully towards the landing stage, while I raised the guillotine.  He didn’t moor up, getting just close enough for me to step aboard and then we were out of the weed without having to engage reverse at all.  Quite an achievement!  Cogenhoe lock wasn’t far, but what’s this? 

Guillotine down and no activity?

The landing below the lock was so short I had to walk along the gunwales to step off and tie up.  When I got up to the lock I found a cruiser, the crew having just opened the top gates and awaiting the arrival of two other cruisers which had just appeared round the bend.  I left them to it and went to pass on the info, to find Dave chatting away to the couple in the mobile home just by the landing.  When we arrived, the chap was painting his fence and didn’t make eye contact.  Dave was six feet away once I’d tied the centre line, and when he said ‘good morning’ the man seemed quite surprised to be addressed.  We have found that fewer people are open to casual chat on the river, possibly because there aren’t that many people around, or they are just too far away for conversation.  A surprising number of boaters haven’t been that bothered either, which is so different from the canals where you can hear someone’s life story in the time it takes to work a lock!  Anyway, Dave and the couple ended up having a lovely chat.  There was plenty of time – not only did the cruisers take a while to tie up, one of their dogs sneaked off unobserved and had to be caught and handed down to its owner, and then the owner of the third boat, a very scruffy cruiser, had been boiling a kettle so he could top up his cooling system! That took a few more minutes to complete.  I handed him his (frayed) rope, neatly coiled and he barely acknowledged me before roaring off with his smelly engine to catch his friends up.  Miserable s*d.

Anyway!  My grumpy mood was soon lifted by a pleasant couple crossing the lock bridge, who did stop for a chat.  After Cogenhoe we were soon on to Billing and Clifford Hill locks where one bank is lined with mobile home parks and caravan/camp sites.  Not particularly pretty, though it must be nice if you have an inflatable or other portable water-craft to have a holiday so close to the water.  It’s a shame not everyone is responsible.

The approach to Weston Favell lock is a different matter – mostly cruisers with a few narrowboats moored along the lock cut, with an assortment of smart sheds and summerhouses belonging to members of the Northampton Boat Club.

The last guillotine of the trip was at Abington.  There are two barrage gates, one here and one above Weston Favell lock, which are closed when the river is in flood I believe.  The surrounding area is known as the Washlands and there are signs in several places warning people to keep clear in times of flood, walkers as well as boaters.  I imagine the whole of the flat land is covered at those times.  The main road and footpath are high up on an embankment.

Flat

The last two locks, Rush Mills and Northampton, had two sets of pointing gates and you are not obliged to close the gates you leave by.

Northampton lock, with a rusty bridge behind

After looking more closely at Waterway Routes we realised that Northampton marina (owned by the EA) has no fuel, so we’ll have to top up at Gayton.  On we went and then, at last, there it was!

This way to the canal!

By 4.15 we had risen up Cotton lock and were mooring on the canal.  No more reaching down for the bow rope in locks!  No more terrifying locks!  Well, a few are difficult, but nowhere near as anxiety-inducing as those deep Nene ones.  We will take our time thinking about what we liked and didn’t about the river.

8¼ miles, 9 locks, another 6 hours cruising