Jannock does the Nene – Day 12

After a very peaceful night pegged to the bank just before Wollaston lock we set off at about 10 am. As we rose in the lock another upstream boat arrived and so we agreed to wait for them at the next lock. We had seen this couple aboard their anonymous boat at Aston lock last Saturday. At Doddington lock we settled inside the empty lock and waited for them to catch up with us. As we waited a down-stream boat arrived to pass through but the crew agreed to wait on the lock landing for our potential partners to arrive. This boat was an ex-Viking afloat boat on it’s way to Willy Watt marina for blacking  and I had a long chat with it’s owner about the stern fender as it was similar to the Black Prince style fitted to Jannock. Our partners arrived and we worked through the lock together. As we were leaving another up-stream boat arrived to share with the boat that had waited and so it all worked out OK in the end.

At Whiston lock there were lots of large weed clumps floating about in the entrance to the chamber and they prevented Jannock from entering alongside the other boat. I had to man-handle them out of the lock using the long shaft before we could get  in alongside the other boat. We took it in turns to stay and turn each lock as we passed through except for the two locks where we met boats going the other way – which definitely makes life easier.

We bade farewell to our partners at Weston Favell lock, just after the Northampton Boat and Shed club,  as they were continuing on to Morrisons in Northampton whilst we moored up opposite the Washlands again for the night. I used the nice pontoon mooring here to allow me to remove the middle bedroom window and re-install it in order to fix the leak we discovered during the heavy rain last Saturday. I’ll do the two on the other side of the boat later on this week.

This evening we walked across the Washlands to the village of Little Houghton, explored the village and finished off with a very nice pint in the Four Pears (NOT Red Lion as stated in the Imray guide) which appears to be an up-market gastro-pub, so up market that even the local vicar looked under dressed.

Graham

www.jannock.org.uk