alafloat

Well that’s it the rivers are now behind us

We came down the River Nene  in small hops some days only 3 hours cruising the weather is just too hot for long hard days. (at our age ???) for some reason the return down the R Nene was a lot easy that the going up maybe we have become use to the locks this time we decided to adopt a different system of Locking instead of dropping Noreen off so she could prepare the lock, most of the locks are Guillotine and the rules state you have to leave the guillotine open that meant we could motor straight into the lock Noreen and I then climbed the ladder I secure the boat, Noreen fills  the lock I open the gate and off we go the only set back is before you leave we have to empty the lock and lift the guillotine however once the rhythm was established we sailed through them. Arriving in Northampton on Friday and as Maryanne was coming over and bringing Thomas with her we decided to moor in the marina, with Thomas on board its saver. A BBQ was organised for sat night evening but in true Hodgkinson fashion as soon as I put a match to the fuel it thundered then it rained for two hours, the impromptu indoor BBQ was a great success if not hard work.

We were expected to meet Keith and Carol at Gayton Marina on the Grand Union on Monday but disappointingly Keith is not so good and had to stay in sunny Hyde. Kath and john have taken a few days off and gone home to catch up on the family, so we decided to stay here in the Marina for the week, we can rest up, the boat can be prepared for the return leg and Thomas and I can get some serious fishing in, so Buggerlugs and Orion are moored on the visitors moorings and we are just chilling out. Monday next we will start the return leg; there are lots of routes we can take via Birmingham, via the River Stour or the River Trent but caution tells me to not push my luck and return the way we came which is the shortest and has the least locks.

Other than the above we are just chilling out and thankful we are not travelling through the torrential rain, thunder storms or oppressive heat here we can relax and prepare for the return.

Speak Soon

Buggertlugs

The Marina supply these trolleys, you can even take them to Morrisons 

for the shopping  its just along the tow path (as long as you take a chain and lock) 

But for walking around to our fishing spot they are perfect 

First day we had 30 fish of which I caught 2 

and 5 crayfish??

Thomas is going to be a natural