April 16th 2011 was a beautiful spring day full of excitement and wonderment of what the next few days will herald for myself, Lee and Buddie Weiser Woodgnome the 1st. I think the dog was just as excited as us and perhaps even remembered the happy times aboard Spindrift when she was just a puppy. Funnily enough, a few days previous we received a call from the marina to inform us that we had won their monthly draw to win a couple of bottles of wine and a beautiful engraved windlass in a nice presentation basket which was the icing on the cake! On arrival we had our pictures taken with our prize, which would appear in Waterways World, before Adrian, the salesman at Wigrams Marina, escorted us to Hannah the Narrowboat and reversed her out of the mooring before handing over the helm to yours truly at around 4.45pm.
My first manoeuvre was to turn her around so that we could get out of the marina. I had never attempted this before so was a little apprehensive but I needn’t have been as it was fairly straight forward. After turning right on to the Grand Union Canal I was presented with my first challenge and nearly exploded in my Calvins. There was a massive overhang of trees which only allowed one boat to pass and there was a boat coming the other way. I did not really have too much of a clue on what to do so I put her in reverse to slow her down but ended up going through the overhanging foliage which ended up with our chimney hat clinging on for dear life! The occupants on the other boat just giggled as they cruised by probably knowing that I was a ‘newby’. Once we got going I started to relax a little more and really started to de-stress. This was exhilaration at 3mph, a bit of a change from blasting along on a dirtbike at considerably higher speeds!
We cruised along for about six miles (2hrs) of beautiful winding canal through equally beautiful countryside just to get a feeling for the boat and to familiarise ourselves again with waterways etiquette before starting proper in the morning. We got moored up just outside the Boathouse pub in Braunston where we enjoyed some fantastic food including black pudding, steak and chocolate pudding all washed down with a few vert welcome beers! We were in bed, full as eggs by 10.30pm - this fresh air is tiring you know!
We did not sleep great due to all the excitement, a new bed and the birds chirping away at 7.30am but we were ready for an exciting full day aboard Hannah the Narrowboat. After a cup of tea and a bacon sandwich for Lee (I don’t really do breakfast) we cast off into the unknown. At this precise moment I smiled to myself and though “This is like falling in love all over again”. It might sound a bit lame but I would place a large bet that many boat owners out there have had exactly ‘that’ moment. The sound of the Lister engine firing up can not be described in a book, or smelt! It’s like a mans ideal perfume, a bit of diesel, a bit of smoke and a bit of burning grease - awesome. I was a very proud man at that moment at the helm of Hannah pulling away from our mooring spot and was honoured to be sharing it with my wife and my mad dog. In my mind I pictured my mum and said to myself “thank you so much mum”.
It was not long before we approached Braunston Locks and a little panic set in. It had been quite a while since we had been through any locks and the first time we had been through a canal lock! The locks on the River Nene were completely different and are called guillotine locks of which many were electric. Unfortunately for Lee, it was her job to operate the locks whilst I piloted the boat. The hardest thing at this point for me was in keeping the boat still which requires a bit of forward power and then a bit of reverse but it did not take too long to get a feel for it. Lee performed faultlessly and we got through all six locks without significant incident, although Hannah had a few bumps!
After the locks it is straight in to Braunston Tunnel which was an amazing experience for a novice narrow boater. I could not believe how dark it was inside the tunnel let alone how narrow it was. There is just, and I mean just enough room for boats to pass each other. I now understand why other boaters call this a contact sport! With headlight glaring I started to feel a bit odd, almost ‘high’ as the patterns of light against the bricks sort of hypnotises you. If you have ever watched one of those weird optical illusions on your computer of those black and white swirls you may have a bit of an idea of how I felt. When you are inside a tunnel of this length you can not see the exit so it can feel claustrophobic to some. I am not too bothered by it but as soon as I saw a headlight approaching those Calvins started to brace themselves again - let’s be clear on this, they are not the same Calvins that I was wearing yesterday! As we got nearer I could feel myself breathing in as if it would make some sort of difference, as a novice it was quite hard to judge just when your bow meets theirs. As the oncoming boats passed and the engine note switched to behind I breathed a sigh of relief that we had not crashed into her. We met a further three or four boats in the tunnel but made it out alive. The other thing that shocked me was just how bright everything seemed as we exited the tunnel.
We both breathed a sigh of relief as we chugged out of the tunnel and back in to open countryside. It’s quite lovely along here with trees on either side allowing just enough sunlight through to glisten on the water. The canal was not particularly busy so we pretty much had the next couple of miles to ourselves right up to Norton Junction where the Leicester Arm of the Grand Union Canal meets the mainline. We gave way as a boat jumped out in front of us without looking but we were happy to as we were really just pottering along, in no particular rush watching the countryside roll by. It was not long before we came across the next flight of locks.
The Buckby Lock Flight is a set of seven fairly close locks and as we were heading south it meant that they were all downhill so to speak. We had the whole flight to ourselves which in one way was good from me as I did not have to be too careful getting in and out of them but in another way a bit of a chore for Lee as she had to operate the locks all by herself. The poor girl was worn out by the time we exited the seventh and final lock of the day. She had done 13 locks in all today bless her! Along the way down these locks we spotted where our son Luke was working for the day marshalling people on Segways which was a bit of a coincidence!
At the bottom of Buckby Locks lays Whilton Marina where we had been boat hunting a couple of weeks before so we moored up for a bit of a rest and to have a bit of a shopping spree in the chandlery. I was like a kid in a sweet shop as I was presented with shelf upon shelf of boating goodies. I can’t remember exactly what was purchased that day but I am sure it made a good old dent in our finances. I do however remember buying an ice cream as it was so hot - amazing for April!
It was not long before we fired up the trusty Lister SR3 and were on our way again. The next stretch of canal is a pretty noisy one as on the left hand side we had the rumbling of traffic speeding along the M1 motorway totally oblivious to the more tranquil and slower paced canal that run just yards along side it sheltered by trees. On the other side of us ran the train line which every now and then whirred into life as a high speed Virgin electric train raced by, again the passengers were probably as oblivious to us as the motorists on the M1. This is one place I would not want to moor up for the night despite the beauty of the the tree lined canal as even when the train line and motorway go their separate ways you could still here them in the background for quite a distance. After a mile or so the noise began to fade and we were back in to open countryside with just a few ducks and evil swans to keep us company. Buddie Weiser Woodgnome the 1st was beside herself as Lee fed the ducks from the stern of Hannah whilst the evil swans just hissed!
As we headed through bridge 21 the canal got a little more meandering and passed through a lovely little stretch with beautiful canal side properties on the right hand side. As we peered in to some of the rather large conservatories I spotted one full of artists equipment and thought to myself “what an awesome place to work from” and then smiled quite smugly thinking “well I can change my canal view as often as I want and am not just stuck with that one!” Although I would still love to own that particular property as it had it’s own mooring point. We passed under ‘Lee’s’ bridge (we will get to that story later) and onwards to Weedon Beck, a small but useful little town for canal users.
We needed to push on (or so I thought) so we sailed straight through Weedon Beck and on to another nice stretch of canal towards Nether Hayford. The Grand Union canal meanders gently through idyllic farmland until meeting up once again with the railway line, which spoils the tranquility a little but hey, people need to commute so I can't complain too much. I had a huge smile on my face as we cruised along at the grand old speed of around 2.5mph, I just felt so lucky to have a narrow boat, a beautiful lady on board and a mad dog. Life was good, really good. As I navigated the canal I was kept fed and watered by the lovely Lee - hearing an old fashioned kettle whistling away on the stove reminded me of my childhood!
The evening was drawing in by now and the sky was turning golden with hints of pink indicating (if you believe in old wives tales) that we were in for another fine day tomorrow. The birds were flying off to roost and a calm descended upon the waterway. We were just west of Nether Heyford now, cruising through what looked like a little old school boating community. 50’s style service signs for coal and diesel brought another smile to my face as I decided we would cruise for about an hour before mooring up for the night.
We passed through more inspirational canal scenery before finding a lovely little spot just south of Bugbrooke. We bumped our way along the tow path before finally pulling up parallel and tied Hannah up for the night. The last time I was this happy was when my wife gave birth to our daughter Emma. The nerves of piloting a narrow boat had now subsided and I was feeling more than comfortable in our new found lifestyle. Lee was beavering away preparing the salad as I did that 'man thing' of lighting a BBQ with loads if combustion additives! The flames were high enough to bring a huge sense of satisfaction to my inner arsonist!
It's canal law that you lubricate yourself sufficiently whilst eating charcoal covered meat and I think we more than excelled ourselves this evening. With a warm fuzzy feeling we settled in for the night, almost wishing the night away as sleep just got in the way of cruising the Grand Union Canal!
The 'old wives tale' turned out to be true as we awoke to a beautiful morning. The ducks were out in force with their symphony of quacking, much to the amusement of the dog who was standing on the stern shaking with excitement. I took a look at our canal guide and was shocked how close we were to the Northampton arm of the Grand Union Canal. We had planned that this would have been our target destination by the end of the day so we were actually almost a day ahead of schedule. It only took us an hour or so to reach Gayton Marina where we had planned to buy our River Nene license and guillotine lock key. It did not quite turn out this way as when we pulled up and had a chat with the office staff we decided that we would stay for the duration of our canal licence, which had a couple of months to run.
We were given a birth number so we turned the boat around and headed in to the marina. We were lucky enough to get what I would consider the best birth on the marina! We were not trapped between boats, we were on an edge with a lovely little green area to our left, an absolutely delightful spot. We were told that this was a temporary spot as it was reserved for another boat in a couple of months but none the less we were ecstatic. It is now 2013 as I sit here tapping away on yet another new Apple gadget and we are still here, in the same delightful spot! What a result!
We were now faced with the challenge of recovering the car from Wigrams Marina but our son Luke was eager to see our new floating part time home that he did us the honour of collecting Lee from our new berth and driving her to the car. He brought along our daughter Emma who wanted to spend a couple of days with us aboard Hannah so it all worked out brilliantly.
Emma and I cracked open a new box of wine as Lee and Luke headed off to collect the car. It was nice to have a couple of hours with my daughter without the usual distractions of Facebook, TV and text messages! It was very warm as we just sat on Hannah's stern taking in our new surroundings, the 'real world' seemed like a distant memory at this moment.
Unfortunately Luke could not spend the next few days with us as he now has his own hectic life to cope with so it was a little sad to see him say his goodbyes - I think that lad needs a bit of a break! Another ’man BBQ' was the order of this evening along with more wine and laughter - there seems to be a pattern developing here! We worked out how to turn the lounge seating in to the second double bed for Emma before passing out in a state of euphoria.
We all slept very well and after the obligatory cup of tea and bacon sandwich we prepared Hannah for her first voyage with a guest aboard - the first of many I hope! We topped her up with fresh water (it took nearly an hour to fill the water tank!)' checked how much fuel we had before reversing out of our birth and back on to the canal. This was my first experience of reversing Hannah and I have already come to the conclusion that she will go exactly where she wants to rather than where I want her to go! I don't know whether this is just a feature of Rugby boats or that I am just useless at reversing!
Gayton Marina has a tight turning out on to the canal through a quite unique swing bridge and this proved to be quite a challenge to a newbie like myself. With my previous boat, Spindrift, it would have been quite simple as she was only 22ft long and was very agile, but this proved not to be the case with Hannah! I misjudged my steering a little, well actually quite a lot to be fair, and left it far too late resulting in a pretty much head on crash with the opposite bank, much to the amusement of Emma! We were almost blinded by tears of laughter but as I looked back at the impact point I was comforted by the state of the metal edging of the bank which showed that I was most definitely not the first to have done this! Maybe they need to put a few tyres there to soften the impact!
It's only around 300 yards from Gayton Marina on Northampton arm of the Grand Union meets the mainline Grand Union so after another quite tight right hand turn we were safely on our way, with no further embarrassing incidents. By this time we had all stopped laughing and were basking in the spring sunshine cruising along in our very own narrow boat - I was smiling like a Cheshire Cat.
I was eager to get my daughter to take the helm and after some gentle persuasion and encouragement she was at the tiller like a pro. It is a cherished moment for any parent to see their offspring smiling and enjoying the moment without them feeling the urge to tap feverishly at their mobile phone's keyboard - simple pleasures. I popped up to the bow end to take in the scenery and was immensely proud to see my daughter and wife chatting away and laughing at the helm, confidently piloting Hannah along the canal. This vision of the two most important ladies in my life (apart from my dog and my mum of course) was a defining moment for me and perhaps one that changed my life completely.
