Northampton Arm

Today is the day that we leave the canals and join the river Nene. We woke this morning to wet, cold and windy weather, well it is still early in the year and after the snow of last week it feels positively warmer. Ahead of us is 17 single chamber locks downhill towards Northampton and we set off at 09.25 and entered the first lock noticing that the pound below us was very low and when we emptied the lock, Sally reported that she was on the bottom. So I closed the bottom paddles and filled the lock again, then released it again to put some water into the pound.

With the gates open Sally manoeuvred the boat out only to get grounded in the pound, so I let a load of water through to float her and get her into the next lock, it worked!!! We continued on through the next locks and when we were in number 5, the BW lock keeper arrived and asked us to sit just below in the pound as there were other dry areas further down and he wanted to let water down to fill them. It was our chance for a nice hot cup of tea while we waited, and a half hour later he told us to carry on which we did. Pretty soon we were under the M1 and making for number 13, still wet and drizzling but we were nearly down to the Nene.

The last 4 locks were quite spread out so I got a chance to ride instead of walk as we passed through the outskirts of the town. Passing by the Carlesburg brewery and the industrial section, passing the Nene retail park where I had been many times to spend my hard earned cash. As we approached bridge number 4 we spotted what looked like a fairly new motorbike which had been dumped into the canal, too heavy to recover though. At number 17 and the last lock for the day we entered the Nene, which was lowing and much deeper, as we seemed to speed up with a lot less reves. Passing under the town bridge we moored up on the wharf not far from Morrisons superstore, what a relief, I felt exhausted (must be getting old). Once moored we lit the fire, had another cup of tea and a sandwich before falling asleep on the couch.

I think we will spend the next day or two here exploring the town amd its shops.