Cruising to White Mills

On Easter Saturday we cruised on the Nene from Northampton to Earls Barton in glorious sunshine on the hottest day of the year so far with temperatures in the mid 20s deg C. There appear to be numerous cats living on boats in Northampton Marina including Morgan who has lost most of his tail!

Morgan, one of the marina cats at Northampton

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One of the new bridges across the Nene

Wide open spaces

The changing skyline of Northampton

Travelling along the wide expanse of the river near Brackmills on a warm sunny morning was a delight, particularly after struggling through the reedy arm down to Northampton. It was quite on the river through the first two river locks and we only met our first boat on the move as we left Abington Lock (3).

Eight hazards at locks

One of the features of the EA rivers are the signs with hazard symbols. Eight hazards is a fairly modest number; electrically operated locks have more! Dangerous pastime boating on the inland waterways.

Northampton Washlands

Crossing the Washlands was less stressful than last time since there was plenty of water. The banks we thronged with walkers, cyclists and runners. Against the strong sun they looked like Lowry figures.

Weston Favell lock with guillotine gate

Weston Favell lock was busy. Two boats were coming upstream and a boat with an unpowered butty was breasted-up was waiting ahead of us. It was time to relax and enjoy the sunshine.

We eventually went through the lock with a similar-sized boat called Imagine (decorated with lots of quotes from John Lennon's song). At the next lock (Clifford Hill) there was a longer delay as a wide-beam boat made its way upstream with four boats waiting to go downstream. The breasted-up pair kindly let us past since they were very much slower than Imagine and Albert.

The crew of Imagine were moving to Billing Marina so we left Billing Lock first to help them negotiate their difficulty turn into the marina. As we left the lock, it was clear from the loud banging emanating from the rudder, and vibrations on the tiller, that something serious was caught around the propeller. Putting Albert into forward caused the banging - in neutral and reverse there was no problem. I was therefore reassured. A similar problem happened on the Trent & Mersey some years ago and it was caused by a pipe fender caught around the prop.

We unsuccessfully tried to moor up Albert just after Billing Bridge but it was too shallow but we eventually found a spot further on where we could access the bank, albeit with difficulty. It was then a matter of getting down the weed hatch. It is never a pleasant activity clearing the prop but at least the water was relatively warm and clear and it wasn't raining.

Temporary stop for clearing the propeller near Cogenhoe

The problem was, like before, a pipe fender caught around the prop. This time with its hard plastic mount attached - hence the alarming noise. The fouling was also compounded by some fabric. It took some time and exertions with a sharp knife to remove the debris. I did manage to recover the pipe fender intact and with little real damage - it will come in handy as a spare.

Weed hatch debris!

Getting back on board required judicious use of a plank. Around Cogenhoe Lock there were a few cruisers out for the day and also a few families with inflatable canoes. It was, after all, a great day for "messing about on the river". We got to White Mills marina late in the afternoon and used a visitor mooring overnight. The Skinner family who run the Marina gave us a warm welcome. They were having a busy weekend.