Irthlingborough to Thrapston

Friday 10th August

At 6.20 this morning, the sun was shining and the sky was blue. Two hours later when we set off, the sky was grey and it felt decidedly fresh (or, according to Stephen, cold).

Yesterday evening we were joined on our mooring by nb Phenomenal and a cruiser, while another skiff arrived and moored on the other side of the river.

The weather, although grey and breezy, did stay dry for most of today’s journey though we worked our final lock of the day (Denford) in the rain.

We had a bit of excitement at our first lock of the day, Irthlingborough. As the water level was going down, one of the chains on the lock wall caught under the boat causing it to start to tip. Fortunately she righted herself quickly and all was well. It would have been difficult to have done anything quickly about the water levels in the lock as the guillotine gates move so slowly.

Three of today’s five locks are manual rather than automated – this means that instead of pressing a button you turn a wheel several dozen (hundred?) times. I think we would still be doing them if Stephen hadn’t come off the boat to help me.

We moored at Thrapston in a lovely little backwater above the bridge. The rain continued until into the afternoon, but by 2.30 the sun was out so we walked over the bridge into Thrapston, bought some milk and bread and returned to the boat via Islip Lock. We timed it exactly right as we had a cloudburst about 10 minutes after we got back.

nb Phenomenal turned up at lunchtime, but only stayed long enough to do their shopping before moving on.  In the early evening nb Patience and nb Spurwing arrived. This is a very small mooring and I doubt whether three boats manage to moor here very often – Patience is behind us and Spurwing breasted up to us.