From greg@willowsett.freeserve.co.uk Sun May 2 15:51:59 1999 Date: Sat, 01 May 1999 15:38:33 GMT From: Greg Chapman Reply-To: canals@blacksheep.org To: canals@blacksheep.org Subject: XPOST-Trip Report from Dave Green Newsgroups: uk.rec.waterways,uk.rec.waterways.fens Just passing this on....... ========================= To: Greg Chapman Subject: Re: River Nene Query. From: Dave Smith Date: Thu, 29 Apr 1999 18:39:33 +0100 Hi Greg This has to be a bit brief. We are off to Paris tomorrow for the weekend my birthday treat. Things are a bit hectic, having been away week already and since we are also back on the boat in the middle of May for a couple of weeks I already have a mountain of things to do when I get back. So, I am unlikely to be able to spare any time looking at newsgroups in the next few weeks. If you want to post this on uk.rec.waterways.fens & uk.rec.waterways on my behalf, you are welcome to: ATB BFN Brief trip report 16th - 23rd April. Sue and I took STILL WATERS (OwnerShips scheme) for our maiden trip during this week. It was moored at the Blue Lias marine (bridge 21 by Stockton locks on the Grand Union). The boat lived up to our expectations and performed well for the entire week. The weather was lousy for most of the week and the high winds made manoeuvring a bit trick at times. We travelled down the Grand Union and then into the Northampton Arm, where we joined the River Nene. We then travelled up as far as Cogenhoe, where the guillotine locks become "manual" rather than electrically operated! We then returned via the same route (of course) - this was a comfortable trip for the week for two, including an afternoon free at Northampton on the way back when the weather was so lousy we didn't budge. The BWB licence allows a reciprocal (free) use on the Nene for a two week period for an owner during any year - but you need to egta licence - we got this licence from the Alvechurch Boatyard at Gayton on the Northampton Arm. The Nene locks required a special key - we had one, but Alvechurch Boatyard also sell these for about 4 gb pounds. The Northampton Arm was very weedy particularly at the lower end and the paddles on the lower locks were hard work, not having been greased. Apparently, a BWB man told me that this was a deliberate policy to make it more difficult for vandals to play around with them. The gates were also quite heavy. There was evidence of vandalism on the Nene, too, with many of the life buoys missing from their riverside containers. Apparently they had been renewed only a day or two before! Traffic was light on both canal and river over this period and we had to travel up and down the double locks on the GU by our self for most of the week - traffic in the other direction seemed to be mostly doubled-up. We moored for a night in each direction at the new riverside development near the start of the Nene and felt quite secure there - some of the apartments have security lights that flicked on and off as people walked past. A couple of minutes walk away we found Morrisons Supermarket - extremely cheap prices, well stocked and about the best supermarket we have come across. It has an eating place with super meals at lunchtime for as little as 2.99 for roast beef and appears to be open and serving meals until about 8pm - definitely worth a visit for restocking and more! The river Nene didn't seem to be particularly high, despite the recent rains, but the locks were overflowing their top gates and one could have filled the locks without even opening the paddles if one had time and wanted to be lazy. There wasn't much more than 2 to 3 feet clearance under the bridges for the narrow boat and one can see why it is easy to get trapped on the Nene if the water rises suddenly! Sue & Dave Smith (STILL WATERS) ========================= Greg