Day 10 - Wednesday 18th April. We're hoping to make it to the Northampton Arm of the Grand Union Canal today. We have approximately 17miles and 16 locks and we will be there. Setting off at 7.15am in the sunshine we get ahead of all the other boats that had moored up in front of us, one of which was the slow coach we had followed in the fog several days previous.

 

We cruised at a steady pace alone the Nene counting down the locks one by one, wishing we were now on the canals. We had cruised for several hours and were wanted somewhere to moor up but that was the problem with the rivers, it never seems very easy to find anywhere to stop unlike the canals there's lots of places to moor. We've done 11 locks and according to the map there's a mooring just before the next lock but again we've reached the next lock with no sight of any mooring. We carry on towards the next lock, we pass a boat named Rose Marie the chap on board calls over to say he'll catch us up to share the next lock. We wait for him at the lock and we carry on through the next few locks together. He asked where we're off to and we ask him, we're all going to the same place. He advices us that we won't make it to a safe place for mooring up overnight on the Northampton Arm today. We end up calling it a day quite early as he tells us about the mooring he is heading for near Weston Favell. We reach the mooring by 4.15pm, seems early but we had done 9 hours cruising without stopping today. So tomorrow all we have to do is 3 miles and 3 locks and we're there, The Canals.

 

Day 11 - Thursday 19th April. Up early, all excited because we would definitely be on the canals today. We leave the mooring about 7.30am and head towards Northampton town centre. We go right through the middle of the town, a good chance to go shopping. We stop for a short time then we're off again. We're through the last lock and on the final stretch of The River Nene. We can see the Carlsberg Brewery. The Northampton Arm must be close, Mark shouts "It's up that turning". Oops.! I've missed the turning. I reverse and swing round, and we've made it, we're at the first lock of the Northmapton Arm.

 

The locks on the Northampton Arm are so narrow, after being on the river with all that space, we now only have a few inches of space to spare, and here endith the nice paint work. We have 17 locks on the Northampton Arm to do before we reach the main Grand Union Canal. The first part of the canal was quite a struggle with it being very shallow, full of rubbish and some part totally over grown with reeds. We made it to the Rothersthorpe locks, 13 locks one after the other. The sun is getting very hot making it harder and harder to do the locks. After a few bumps, scraps and one small slip-up... that's me slipping off the boat but not quite falling right in, just the one leg in lock 11, we make it to the top lock. After a short cruise we make it to Gayton Marina, a great sight as we plan to stop here on the Northampton Arm outside the marina for a couple of days. A welcome break after 11 days of continuous cruising.

6.30am and we're up and about hopeing to get an early start to Standground Lock. This is the manned lock at the end of the Middle Levels after that we're out onto the River Nene. We're about a four hour cruise away so we need to leave by 8.00am as we're booked to go through the lock at midday.

 

I look outside and guess what.!? It's another extremely foggy morning, bet we don't leave on time. 8.30am and it's still very foggy, 9.00am we decide to take a slow trundle down the river, we can't be to late leaving as Standground Lock closes at 3.00pm on a Sunday.

 

Chugging throught the fog, thinking we're were going slow we managed to catch another boat up, how slow was he going.! our engine was just over tickover and that is SLOW...! With him not letting us past and no way of overtaking we just had to follow. One good thing following him was seeing if he would fit under a very low bridge we were approaching, if he did we knew we would fit. He fitted then so shall we. After a while the fog seemed to be lifting and with that he seemed to be picking up the pace a bit, just in time for Ashline lock. Luckily the lock was open and the boat infront could got straight in and we tied up on the landing stage. They we're soon off again, we were in the lock with no rush to allow them to get ahead, hopefully..! Out the lock we took a slow cruise through Whittlesey waiting for the sharp bend we had been warned about. Surly it couldn't be that sharp.? But it was! Will we make it in one turn..? No. Reverse, forward, reverse, forward and we're off again without touching the sides. We're out of Whittlesey and on our final stretch to Standground Lock. This was a slow chug again as this part of the middle levels is very shallow and narrow. We made it to the lock by 1.20pm a bit late but better late than never. On the other side of the lock we stopped for a break to let things cool off. After a couple of hours break we're off again and we're finally off the Middle levels and on to the River Nene in the middle of Peterborough. We need to cruise for a bit longer as we've been told not to moor here overnight. It's a long cruise out of Peterborough but we've made it into the countryside, ideal for mooring over night.

Saturday 14th April - day 6. Up at 6.30am to get an early start on the Middle levels. This is the river that runs from Salters Lode through the Fens to Peterborough. It's ment to be Narrow, shallow and full of rubbish, sounds nice..  NOT..! to make things worse it was rather foggy outside to. We leave at 7.15am, fog no better. We have a slow cruise in the fog till 9.00am when we reach Outwell for a short break. There not wrong about it being narrow, shallow and full of rubbish, i would like to add twisty to the list. We reach Marmont Priory Lock at 10.40am and finally the fog has cleared. We wait a short time for a boat coming the other way but then we're off again. The sun is now out and its getting hotter and hotter again. After a couple of hours we've make it through March and past Fox's Marina. We're now thinking about mooring up for lunch, where will we stop.? We come round the corner and there's Flood's Ferry Touring Park with a pub and visitors moorings, looks like a good place. Oh no..! engine has over heated and stopped. Good job the touring parks there, we're gonna float into there bank and it looks like the pubs open. Mark jumps on the bank to try and stop the boat but slips, luckily only one foot in the river. The boat comes to a hault and we pull it back to the moorings. We leave the boat to cool down, we also cooled down with a couple of cold beers. After chatting to the owner of the site in the bar he tells us we can stay over night if we want. That sounds like Saturday night sorted then, a few early beers in the pub and a fresh start in the morning. With the lovely sunset over Floods Ferry it looks like it gonna be a lovely day tomorrow. The engines running fine now and we should be off the middle levels by lunch time tomorrow.

Its been a busy few days and some days no signal for the internet so we've got a bit behind. This evening, Wednesday 18th April we have a good signal, we've moored up early so here's our chance to catch up whats been happening.

 

After the small problem of a sheared bold it was all sorted and we where off on the Wednesday(day 3) as planned. Leaving the mooring by 8.00am we cruised in the sunshine for about an hour until we reached Ely. We had a short stop for supplies then back on the move again by 10.15am. The weather was getting hotter and hotter. We cruised for another two hours and then stopped at Brandon Creek to allow the boat to cool down. We were so close to Dever now there was no need to push on in the midday sun. We spent two hours on the mooring then started our final approach to Denver. The time flew by, we were at Denver. This is home of the big sluice that stops the whole of the Gt Ouse from being tidal. 

 

We moored up and took Cassie for a walk to take a look at the route we would need to take through Denver Sluice. This would take us on to the tidal Ouse, a ten minute cruise and we would be at the next lock called Salters Lode. This lock would take us out onto the middle levels toward Peterborough.

 

Hopeing to go through Denver and Salters Lode on Saturday. We need to talk to the lock keeper to find out the tide times and when we will be able to go for definate. He's not at the office now until tomorrow, we will have to pop and see him in the morning. It's time to chill out now with a couple beers and see what tomorrow brings.

 

Thursaday 12th April - day 4. It's another sunny day. Going to see lock keeper about tide times. Much to our surprise due to the tide times we will have to go tomorrow(Friday) not Saturday as we wanted. So we've booked our place, we have to be at Denver Lock at 3.00pm Friday. Spent most of the rest of the day watching other boats coming, going and getting stuck on the sand banks due to very shallow tides.

 

Friday 13th April - day 5. What a date to go out on the tidal river for the first time! 3.00pm couldn't get here soon enough. Finally it arrived. Off to the landing stage at Denver Lock. The first boat got slightly grounded but managed to drag it's way out. We've got to wait for the tide to come in further for deeper water. The lock keeper opens the lock and calls us in. Here starts the nerves, the door opens and the tidal river is there! The lock keeper tells us it's all clear to go. We're off..! through the narrow channel out of Denver Lock, straight out to the middle of the river, straighten up, cruise to Salters Lode, 10 minutes and it will all be over or as I thought. As we approach Salters a boat comes out and gets grounded. We have to stop. My worst nightmare is coming true.! We're now being blown across the river towards the sand banks, trying my hardest to keep the boat in the centre, it's not happening, we're against a sand bank but suddenly the other boat begins to move. Full power and we get away from the bank and start heading towards the lock but there's another boat coming out behind him, will he get stuck yes, no, yes, no and hes off, we keep going up to the lock, just past the lock we turn doing the 120 degree turn that lines you up with the lock mouth, we're lined up spot on, in the lock we go. Oh no we don't.! we're stuck on the sand. We have to sit and wait for the tide to come in further for deeper water again. After a short wait we manage to crawl our way in. Hooray we're in...!!!!! On the other side of the lock we moored up for the evening and a well earnt beer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a well needed rest we're up ready for the off. We left the ferry boat by 9.20am and headed off to Brownshill Staunch Lock. No problems there and we're off to Hermitage Lock, the lock that had been closed over the winter. This stretch of water is tidal and seals can been seen at the right time, our time was not the right one. After passing through Hermitage with no problems again we're on the Old West River. A very narrow, shallow river with lots of weed to get wrapped around your prop, and yes we got lots round ours! Four hours later we stop near The Lazy Otter pub not far from Stretham to let the boat cool down and for Cassie to have a run around but she spent most of the time barking at the swans.

 

After a two hour break we headed off agian toward Ely, an hour later we reached Popes Corner, where the Gt Ouse and the Cam meet, shortly after we have some strange noises coming from the engine!

 

Called it a day here on the EA mooring to investigate noises. Luckily it was just a sheared bolt.

 

We would be off again in the morning.

 

 

 

Finally our adventure was going to begin. On Friday 6th April, whilst having a few beers we found out that the work had been completed and the lock had opened. We had decided to wait a couple of days to let the easter rush pass.

 

Monday 9th April was our day to leave. We had a couple of days to say our fairwells to family and friends, well ok... an excuse to drink more beer.

 

Monday arrived, so did the hangover!

 

7.30am We leave the marina for the last time and into the first of many locks we would come across on our journey. We make it to the next lock by 8.00am to say our final farewells to family and friends then we're off on our adventure.

 

We couldn't have wished for a better day for our departure, calm and sunny.

 

After a few hours cruising we arrive in huntingdon for a short visit. We're then off again hoping to reach the Ferry Boat Inn, Holywell to moor up for the evening. Another four hours cruising we arrive in Holywell for a well earnt beer and to chill out after a busy day.

 

 

 

Hiya we're Nicky, Mark and Cassie

 

Our adventure started on the 6th November 2004. Up bright and early to travel to Braunston Marina on the Grand Union canal to see our boat, a 60ft traditional narrowboat, being lifted on to a lorry. It would then travel down the M1 to Bedford to be put back in on the River Great Ouse. We could not sail back due to a lock closure at Paxton near the marina that would become our home for the next two and a half years.

 

Several months went by and we decided we would both love to go off and travel the waterways of England, give up work and be free for a while. The date we wanted to set off was the 1st March 2007, this gave us approximately 18 months to complete all the work we wanted to do.

 

Late on in 2006 we found out that due to a lock closure we wouldn't be able to leave. It would not be open until 1st April 2007. I guess that's not to bad we'll only be delayed by a month, as we thought.! We've now found out another lock is closed and won't be open till 6th April.

 

So with the work completed and the new member of the family (Cassie the Staffy) now six months old and getting used to the boat, we're ready for the off.

 

Watch this space to see if we finally start our adventure aboard "ONE WAY OF LIFE"