This is more like it

Friday 25^th August; Northampton to Grand Union bridge 46

It was another lovely sunny morning, but the hoped-for early start didn’t happen as two boats went by before we were quite ready.  So we gave them a good start and left at about 8.45.  When we came through Northampton on our way to the river I hadn’t taken a photo of the well-known Northampton National Lift Tower, but here it is now. It was commissioned in 1978 as a lift test tower, and officially opened in 1982 by the Queen.  It was Grade II listed in 1997.

127.5 metres tall

There was a bit of weed about, but it didn’t become a problem till lock 14.  I needed to hook some out so I could open the top gate, and obviously wasn’t the first to do so!

From then on the weed was bad, very bad.  Unlike the weed we encountered yesterday on the Nene, which was mostly floating, this was rolling along under the surface, like tumbleweed, and just at prop depth.  I tried to get a decent photo but the reflections made it difficult.

Tumbleweed bottom right

Some reed clearance wouldn’t go amiss either.  Would you believe the second boat that passed us earlier was called African Queen? 

No, we weren’t pointing towards the bank, that’s what it looked like ahead!

Once we got above lock 13, where the Rothersthorpe flight begins, the weed was gone.  Dave had been down the weed hatch 3 times.

More work, less weed

We rose steadily up the flight, taking a bit longer than on the way down.  Many locks needed turning, but with the work shared we rather enjoyed it.  We took time to admire the murals painted under the M1 and slip-road bridges.

Once we had left the motorway behind, the locks are a bit closer together, so I could lock ahead.  We have our tried and tested system of sharing the work, and on a relatively calm day like today Dave could often close the top gates himself, so I didn’t have to keep walking back.

Only one more to go

When I walked up to start preparing this lock I had spotted African Queen just disappearing round the bend at the top of the flight, so we had caught up by about 15 minutes.  We didn’t see them again, as we moored up on the offside bollards for a late lunch.  It had taken us 5 hours from Northampton. 

We stopped on the wharf at Gayton marina to take on fuel and dispose of the accumulated rubbish.  There are few places on the Nene for rubbish disposal and I was glad of the abandoned carrier bags I had retrieved at a couple of the locks the week before, as they came in jolly useful.  I made another trip with the recycling while Dave paid for the diesel and sorted out our mooring for the next few weeks.  We didn’t go into the marina, though, with its short pontoons and noisy road nearby - we wanted some proper canal peace and quiet.  We won’t be driving home tomorrow anyway– bank holiday Saturday driving down to Devon?  No thanks. We turned right onto the Grand Union at the junction and stopped on the Armco before bridge 46.

Now that’s more like it!

Between us we washed and dried the starboard side, then I got the shears and trimmed the grass along the edge while Dave used the colour restorer on the paintwork.  Black paint seems to fade badly, rather as red does.  Then he got out the black paint and sorted out the scratches and scrapes below the gunwales caused by the chains in the Nene locks.  He got the timing just right for it to dry before the rain which started during the evening.

5 miles, 16 locks, 5½ hours