The final day was rather uneventful. I went through the all the locks to Godmanchester with Nick, then U-turned onto the town moorings for lunch while he carried on. It rained on and off during the morning though I managed to dodge most of it passing through the locks during dry spells and closing Seren’s … Read more »
Tag: boat
Day 51 – Teaching Ducks to Fly
I walked to the petrol station in Outwell shortly after 7.00 and it was already getting hot. Walking back carrying 10l of diesel in a steel can was getting hard when a car stopped and gave me a lift. So plenty of fuel to complete the trip. The run from Outwell to Salter’s Lode was … Read more »
Day 49 – Peterborough
Oundle to Peterborough isn’t that hard but the extremely hot weather didn’t help. The map shows an EA water point at Fotheringhay so that was my first target. Fotheringhay is a very pretty and posh village with plenty of mooring space. All of it chargeable, £5 per night, £2.50 short stop and even £2 to … Read more »
Day 46 – Sarah & Family Visit
I’d arranged to meet Sarah & family at Weston Favell lock, near Northampton Boat Club. Last year we organised a meeting at lock by a club and although the club had visitor moorings it had no provision for visitors arriving by car. This time I stopped on the Washlands Mooring which is accessible by the … Read more »
Day 45 – Northampton Arm
The Northampton Arm of the Grand Union is an oddity. It’s narrow unlike the main line but apes some of the main line design details, particularly the locks. Most narrow locks have walkways, planks basically, on the downhill side of the double lock gates so when you open one you can stride across to open … Read more »
Day 44 – Familiar Territory
I woke up early this morning but couldn’t leave until the Braunston Locks opened at 9.00. So I did some cleaning, swept the carpet, cleaned out the cockpit which gets messy with me climbing in and out all the time. Even cleaned the shower and handbasin. And the cooker. At about 8.50 I started the … Read more »
Day 43 – Back to the GU
From Hawksbury Junction to Braunston is 22 miles and three locks (not counting Sutton Stop I did yesterday. The Oxford canal continues to wind along the contour line, only occasionally resorting to cuttings and embankments and a short tunnel at Newbold just north of Rugby. From the canal Rugby appears to be a small village … Read more »
Day 42 – 6 weeks!
Fairly short cruise this morning to waterpoint below Atherstone locks. A bloke on a narrow boat said his mate on a short Springer would be along soon and we could do the locks together. So we did. Still took all morning, I think we cleared the last one about 1pm. After that another long lock-free … Read more »
Day 41 – Coventry Canal
About an hour and a half this morning to the three locks before Fradley Junction. If you go straight on there are a lot more locks but I turned at Fradley onto the Coventry Canal which is lock-free for 11 miles to Fazely Junction. Fradley had CRT volunteers out in force making it a stress-free … Read more »
Day 40 Aston to Armitage
The marina office doesn’t open until 10.00 on Sunday and as usual I was up at 7.00. So after breakfast, feeling fit once again, I scrubbed the boat roof and side decks. Cleaned shower tray, replaced bathmat with clean one (and washed the the other)cleaned the cooker, emptied loo and filled water tank. Left about … Read more »