As we left Northampton behind and marine cleat moved onto the River Nene, pronounced Nen hereabouts, the solar was shining, the river broad and the surroundings stunning.
Leaving Northampton behind us.
The locks though had been a distinct story. None of us had encountered Guillotine Locks earlier than. To be sincere had been all a bit of petrified of them. The identify alone was sufficient to place us off even earlier than we caught site of them.
Guillotine lock in the closed position. We were travelling down the locks. All guillotine locks had to be left in the UP place. That meant that at each lock we needed to decrease the guillotine, increase the paddles at the other end to fill the lock to the extent of the river where the boat cleat approached the locks (as in image above), open the gates & drive the boats in, close the gates, decrease the paddles and raise the guillotine, to let the water out so that the boats would then be the same, lower stage , as the river the opposite aspect.
Open & all able to drive out
Now the really scary bit the place we needed to drive the boat out beneath the raised guillotine! Most of the guillotines were electrically operated however we nonetheless had at hand wind the gates, with some taking 75-eighty turns to open or close the paddles and we did 10 of these on the first day!
Next day, Sunday, began wet so we had a late departure and travelled on our own. We had earlier learn a blog by another boat, No Problem, who talked about an outdated customer of ours at the Thatchers, Chop Wales, who we knew moored his boats (yes he has two) in these parts, so Tony despatched him a message on fb and organized to meet him at Ringstead where we had a cuppa with him in the Woodford Mill Tea Shop, and he informed us of his involvement with ‘Friends of the River Nene’ and advisable a mooring for the night time in Woodford.
Chop & Tony in the Woodford Mill Tea Rooms
Chop & his unconventional mode of transport
We took Chop up on his advice & moored up at the FOTRN mooring at Woodford. We had hassle getting alongside the financial institution because it was very windy and blowing us across the river, nevertheless we finally managed to get tied up. In case you loved this post and you would like to receive more info about marine fitting cleat (simply click the up coming post) generously visit the page. The bank was very uneven nevertheless it had all been mown, we had it all to ourselves & the views over the Northamptonshire countryside had been picturesque.
Woodford mooring
We adopted the footpath from the mooring which took us by way of the very fairly village to the pub The Duke for a drink.
Woodford
Woodford from the river
Monday 1st June dawned shiny and sunny, a ravishing morning if a bit nippy. We solely had a brief journey to our next cease Thrapston where we had been to satisfy up once more with Aria & Teezy. The town moorings had been situated simply earlier than the Medieval 9 Arch Bridge. Very tricky to see let alone negotiate.
Thrapston Town mooring
Soon Teezy & Aria joined us and we all moored up securely because the weather forecast was for 52 mph winds the next day! By the evening there have been 5 boats rafted up, all battening down the hatches in opposition to the robust winds.
All three in
Later a pal of mine, Maureen, who lives nearby got here by for lunch & we had a superb catch up.
Maureen & Jan
Tuesday we stayed put whereas the winds raged and went for a walk along a part of the Nene Way taking us spherical Islip and Thrapston and dined on the Woolpack within the night. The next day, having used up our 48hr keep at the Town moorings, boat parts we moved simply a brief strategy to a mooring just under Islip lock which .we had noticed on our stroll. Here we had our first BBQ of the vacation, sitting on the financial institution in the sunshine & enjoyed the sunset.
Tony G,Teresa, Jan, Tony A, Karen & Martin
Sunset at Islip
Thursday was an attractive warm sunny day & we made our option to Fotheringhay, one other picturesque village with a really imposing church overlooking the river. The farmer here allows mooring against his meadows for a very affordable £4 a night time which he collects in his old Treacle tin and assures us all goes to charity.There once was a castle nearby ( solely the mound and earthworks stay) which was the ultimate place of imprisonment of Mary, Queen of Scotts who was tried and executed within the castle in 1587.
Moored at Fotheringhay
Friday dawned dull & wet however it brightened up later and we made our way to Alwalton the place we moored in a by-water, beside the lock, overnight ready for a last push into Peterborough on Saturday morning.
Friday 5th June
Since starting this journey at Hallingbury Marina we have travelled 184 miles and finished 167 locks. It has taken us 4 weeks and we might probably get house by automotive in about 2 hours!
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