Wellingborough

O what a beautiful morning!

Yes, another glorious, sunny day. Although there a few moments when it was almost too hot, there was often a slight cooling breeze. We set off just after 8 o'clock, although Andrew opted to walk back into Oundle and around to the marina where we planned to stop for fuel.

It took us a little longer than expected along that stretch - slower than some - and through Lower Barnwell lock where Andrew met us again - bearing cream cakes for afternoon tea! Shortly afterwards we made the tight turn into Oundle marina. As well as the planned fuel stop, we also used the sani station, water tap, rubbish bin and replaced the gas cylinder which gave out last night just as the roast veg dinner was finishing cooking! All round a good stop - and very pleasant people as well. Because of the acute angle of the entrance, Mike decided to reverse out - just as he was doing so, we were passed by one of the boats which had moored at the same place as us last night - the ones who watched our incompetent lock handling! In any event they decided to share the next few locks with us until the moored up at a pub - presumably for lunch.

The scenery was regularly punctuated by the 'spires and squires' - most of the churches are quite splendid but one did seem to be lacking in architectural integrity

We continued on our own and stopped for our own lunch at the EA moorings at Islip Mill, quite splendid in construction, if perhaps a little over the top!

The water clarity is quite amazing and the wildlife around is abundant - not least the damsel flies, just about caught on this picture of the river water from the front of the boat. We also passed a couple of owl nesting boxes, and Mike spotted one of the kites at the same place as he saw the pair on the way down.

Our target for tonight was Wellingborough which now looked quite a tough target so we pressed on. After lunch Andrew took another look at the air vent pipe to the water tank which is still causing us problems when filling. We subsequently decided that we could do with a visit to B and Q for parts - our friend Google told us that the best option was right next to Tesco in Wellingborough and that they were open to 9 pm.

Some of the locks are still manually operated - at some stage it would appear that a winding handle was replaced by a large wheel that takes around a hundred revolutions. Warning notices dating back to the older mechanism showed concern that they could easily turn unexpectedly and harm bystanders. No doubt, this led to the safer, if harder, option.

Our initial progress stayed well within target but towards the end we fell behind - especially at Ditchford Lock with its radial gate - a boat had just started to come down but the main problem is the length of time the gates take to open - at least 5 minutes each way as, of course, we had to leave it open behind us after taking the boat through to the upper level.