28 April - 2 May 2006
Calcutt to Gayton Junction
& back
(46 miles, 32 locks, 25 engine hours)

Friday 28 April

There has been so much work going on at home with the new kitchen that we haven't had time to get away. However, we now have a short breather whilst we wait for some more kit to arrive - plus we have no running water or cooking facilities. So, what better way to spend the time than on Per Angusta.

The first thing we did on getting to the boat was to put some washing on - no facilities at home. Leaving the washing to get on with itself, we toddled off to Clifton Cruisers to see our friend Victoria who runs the fleet there plus to take a look at Darren Aldridge's latest boat, Blue Moon, which was moored at Clifton Wharf, where Darren was putting the finishing touches to it now the boat was in the water.

That paintwork reminds me of another boat!! But Blue Moon has the anodised brass portholes compared to our cream powder coating. I don't think that I have seen many boats out and about with coloured finishes to their windows - when we were trying to decide what to do with our windows, we spoke with ChannelGlaze who said that you can now have any colour you want with powder coating ....and how's that for a neat engine bay? The big silver grey tube in the corner with the white pipe leading into it is a hospital silencer.

Clifton Cruisers had a lot of boats going out and spread over quite a wide time period, so Victoria asked us if we would go up to Hillmorton Locks to explain how the locks worked and do a show through for one boat. It was a nice afternoon, we weren't in a hurry so off we went. When we'd finished at Hillmorton, we went to the supermarket to stock up (no food at home or on the boat) and then went back to Per Angusta. In the end we decided that it was a bit late to be going anywhere tonight, so we took the dogs for a walk and then settled down for the evening, so ....

... 0 miles, 0 locks, 0 hours travelling

Saturday 29 April

We set off at about 9.50am and travelled up Calcutt Locks with Guinevere, one of the London Narrow Boat Project's boats. LNBP aim to get children out onto the canals and this was a trip to help train the adults who would be travelling with them. They were all keen to work the locks, so I had an easy trip up.

Noticed at Wigram's Turn Marina that they were charging 52p a litre for diesel and £12 for a pump-out. Ian had a pleasant cruise along to the Braunston Turn and the dogs and I enjoyed our walk along the towpath. I knew the towpath was good after Bridge 103 so decided to take the dogs off there for a walk. We got as far as the public moorings just before the Turn and I signalled Ian to moor up so we could have some lunch. Setting off for the afternoon, we were expecting to meet quite a queue waiting to go up Braunston Locks - it was a Bank Holiday weekend after all - but we didn't have to wait and worked up through the locks with Endeavour, one of the Ownership shared boats.

We weren't too sure how far we were going to go today - it would all depend on how we did through the Braunston Tunnel. Tunnels, narrowboats and me are not a good combination - it is the only time I get travel sick. However, if I sit in the bow and keep an eye on the tunnel side (and approaching boats) and give Ian an indication when he is moving off course, it makes the time in the tunnel less nauseous for me. As we entered the Tunnel it looked as though it was clear and we were almost through when a boat came in - blasting Phantom of the Opera at full volume - so any instructions from me were lost.

Relief at being through and time to make a decision - do we stop just out of the Tunnel or carry on? From past experience, we knew that the towpath edge once past the Tunnel cutting is not very good all the way along to Norton Junction - we'd tried to moor up along there last year on our way back from Crick, but the edge was crumbling and we couldn't get in close enough to moor up. We decided that we would carry on - the weather was still pleasant and, of course, the evenings are getting lighter.

We reached Norton Junction to find a boat coming out of Buckby Top Lock, so we decided to start our descent. We had the lock nearly empty when another boat came into view and moored up to wait to come down. I went back to have a chat with them and found out that they were hoping to get as far as Weedon before mooring. We were enjoying being out and the evening was still very light, so I said that we would wait for them at the next lock and go down the whole flight with them. We went ahead and prepared the next lock and waited for Pendlebury (another Ownerships boat) to join us. Together we worked steadily down the locks and reached Buckby Bottom Lock at 7:10pm. We decided to moor for the night there, so waved goodbye to Pendlebury.

12 miles, 16 locks, 8 hours 15 min travelling

Sunday 30 April

We had moored close to Whilton Marine where the diesel was 55p a litre but they had self-pump out at £8.00 - useful to know that as it is almost half the price of 'manned' pump-outs elsewhere.

After a lazy breakfast, we cruised down to Weedon. We passed by the first set of visitor moorings and carried on to the second set at Weedon Wharf, where the visitor moorings were on both sides. We moored opposite the towpath, by the path down to the Church and Ian went in search of a Sunday newspaper - just a short walk past the Church. This looked to be a pleasant mooring but we only stayed long enough for me to make some biscuits and scones. I'm in search of the perfect scone recipe at the moment and am working my way through all the different recipe books.

Setting off from Weedon Wharf at about 1.25pm, we cruised through some lovely countryside. We saw a widebeam GRP moored up between two bridges, neither of which looked wide enough for the boat to get through. This was the first widebeam we have seen in all the time we have been out on the canals and we have yet to see one actually moving.

I was keeping my eyes peeled for NB No Problem as I knew from Sue's blog that they were in the vicinity before going onto the Nene for the summer. Sue and I have tried to meet up several times, but have always missed each other. We got as far as Gayton Junction without seeing No Problem and decided to wind at the Junction after taking on water - which meant that we definitely won't get a chance to meet up with Sue this summer as she will be on the Nene. We wanted to be back at our home moorings on Tuesday in time for us to get home for Ian to go to Rotary on Tuesday night and if we had continued along the Grand Union, it would mean going through the 3,076 yard Blisworth Tunnel to reach the next winding hole. Turning at Gayton Junction would take us onto the Northampton Arm and at least 13 locks before we could wind. So winding at Gayton Junction was really our only option. For the green ones amongst you, there is a small set of recycling bins at the waterpoint at the Gayton Junction.

We moored for the night just past Bridge 47 and this would have been a pleasant mooring if not for the speed merchants rushing by. One boat went past at such a rate it pulled out our front mooring pin. Maybe people had gone too far and were rushing to get back somewhere before the end of the Bank Holiday but people on this stretch sure were in a hurry.

11 miles, 0 lock, 7 hours travelling

Monday 1 May

We didn't pull the pins until about 10.45am. Today as well, people seemed to be in a real hurry and weren't slowing down going past moored boats. I don't like it when you are going passed moored boat and they have signs up saying things like "What part of slow down don't you understand" but for those boats moored on this stretch, if today's travellers are typical, I can understand it - they must be really fed up with constant buffetting.

There are some people in the narrowboat world who blame all the speeding on the hire boats, but today the worst offenders were people in boats which seemed to be private boats. One chap came by at such a speed that his bow wave was a good 18 inches high - he waved a Good Morning at me, but his speed was such that I didn't have time to either acknowledge him or suggest that he should slow down.

We took a 2 hour lunch break and reached the bottom of Buckby Locks at the same time as Klingon 2 - a group of friends out for the day and with plenty of bodies operating the locks we made good progress. We had decided that we would moor between Locks 7 and 8 for the evening before going through Buckby Top Lock and heading towards Braunston Tunnel. We were just above Bridge 12 and had a peaceful night, despite what looked like the proximity of the road. It was nice to see this house on the other side of the canal - they certainly get the excellent views with all that glass.

12 miles, 6 locks, 5 hours 45 min travelling

Tuesday 2 May

We were aiming to be back at our moorings by mid-afternoon so that Ian could get home in time for this evening's Rotary. We got through Braunston Tunnel with no hiccups and decided to have a quick snack mid-morning at the top of Braunston Locks before doing the homebound stretch in one go. Although we didn't have any company down the locks, we made smooth, quick progress and once we were down, I took over the tiller from Ian. He says that he finds the stretch from the Braunston Turn to Wigram's Turn a bit monotonous, whereas that is a stretch I particularly like - the sky is always amazing and I enjoy the rolling fields. I was very happy to be on the stern and today it gave me plenty of practice handling Per Angusta in the wind; it was catching me broadside and kept pushing me onto the towpath - I think this is the windiest day I have ever experienced on a canal. I certainly had the boat at some odd angles to keep her moving forward. There are a couple of 'hairpin' bends and I did wonder whether I would get Per Angusta round them. It was heavy going this whole stretch but I got a great deal of satisfaction out of doing it.

We made it back to our moorings by mid-afternoon, did a quick clean through and then set off for home. We had 4 days peace and calm away from the chaos that is currently our house and went home fully refreshed to tackle the next stage of rebuilding the kitchen. I hope that it won't be too long before we are back on board Per Angusta, although on our next visit we really must do a spring clean!

11 miles, 10 locks, 3 hours 30 min travelling

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