Wednesday 13th May 2009 Northampton Washlands- Gayton Junction

When we woke up this morning it was raining. We decided to wait a while to see if the weather improved. By the time we had got up and had breakfast, it had brightened so we set off at about 0930hrs.

We didn't have any set plan today but decided to see keep going until we had had enough or the weather deteriorated.

The first three locks brought us to Northampton and we fully intended to stop to pick up some shopping, but mooring was difficult so we carried on.

We then came to the Northampton Arm but couldn't get any further as the lock was padlocked and we didn't have a key.

We phoned up British Waterways, who confirmed that they have had a lot of trouble with vandals emptying the locks so the padlocks have been a new introduction this year.

However they were very helpful and said that they would send somebody to us within an hour. We took the opportunity to have some lunch and true to their word, Sean turned up and gave us a key.

We set off again at 1400hrs and followed another boat up the flight of 17 locks. I attempted to set the first lock but made such a hash of it, that Tom put me in charge of taking the boat through the remaining locks - I think he thought we might never make it otherwise.

We finally got to the end at 1800hrs and were both tired - Tom physically from the effort of opening and closing so many locks and me from the mental concentration of getting his beloved boat in the narrow locks without hitting the sides.

One amusing anecdote. When we were going through one of the locks in Northampton town, four elderly people came to see the workings of the lock. At first we thought they were Polish but then realised they were Spanish. They seemed very shocked when we started conversing with them in Spanish - I think it was the last thing they expected.

We are now on the Grand Union Canal.