Bedford back to St Neots

26th July 2016

After weekend back home and lots of paperwork to catch up on, I left Bournemouth for Bedford at 6am, and arrived at 9:00. Alone again, but I had the boat loaded, bed made and ready to cast off by 9:50, the fastest I have yet managed to set off. I did need to be at Great Barford by lunchtime for the new cockpit canopy to be fitted, though, so I had no time to hang around. The three locks were much easier going downstream, as the descent is much less turbulent than the ascent in a filling lock. I arrived at Great Barford at noon, and awaited the arrival of the fitters from Titan Boat Covers.

While I was waiting for them to arrive, I heard the sounds of clarinet playing coming from the boat moored alongside me, and wandered over in curiosity, only to meet the lovely Jones family, whose young son was playing the clarinet so well, and we got chatting, which turned into a cup of coffee, and realisation that we lived quite close to each other. We chatted for a good hour or so while Titan got on with stretching the new canvas out over my canopy frame and punching holes for the new fixing points to match up with the fittings on the boat. Eventually, the Joneses had to leave, but we exchanged details and hoped to meet up in the future.

The canopy fitting took 4 hours in the end, as it had to be "just so" obviously, but with 4 hours of daylight left, I decided to get a move on and keep going. Sadly the Great Barford lock was against me, a boat just having gone in from my direction, and it took half an hour to get through, as opposed to my ten minute best time earlier in the morning. Fortunately, all the rest of the locks were in my favour, and I made it to St Neots and moored at the same mooring as last week by the Priory Centre at 6:30

Great Barford to Bedford (Priory Marina)

23rd July 2016

Last night was an early one, so it's hardly surprising that this morning was also an early start! I was up at 6am, and ready to get going by 8:00, however I was just about to cast off when I remembered that I had left the motorbike in the van! Fortunately I was only parked 2  minutes walk from the mooring, and by wheeling the bike down to the mooring I didn't have to start the engine and disturb the peace and quiet so early on a Saturday morning.

I was sorry to leave this lovely quiet mooring. Once under way, there were three locks to negotiate, one being the very deep Castle Mill lock. The procedure when on your own is as follows, assuming the lock is ready for you with the bottom gate already open. If not you have to get the lock ready by mooring up, emptying the lock, and then opening the bottom gate, a procedure which can delay passage by up to 10 minutes.

1) Drive into the lock, placing your helm position by a ladder. DON'T turn off the engine - you may need to jump back on and manoeuvre the boat in a hurry!

2) Get your centre rope / ropes (in my case) and put them over your shoulders, uncoiled so they can trail down in front of you and down in between your arms - you don't want to lose them, or you will lose the boat!

3) Carefully climb off the boat and onto the ladder, then ascend slowly, making sure the ropes pay out behind you and you don't trip on them or slip on the slimy rungs.

4) Once on the side of the lock, tie the boat up and close the bottom gate, then start filling the lock, constantly making sure there is plenty of slack in the ropes and the boat won't get pulled over by being tied too tight.

5) When the lock is full, open the top gates, drive out, moor on the upstream landing stage, and go back and reset the lock if nobody is coming downstream. (All Nene and Great Ouse locks are supposed to be left empty and with the guillotine gate open)

This lot can take up to half an hour per lock, which is why canal and river distance is often measured in lock - miles. (Add the number of locks to the distance travelled). The three locks negotiated, I soon arrived at Priory Marina, a very well run marina owned by the Canal and Rivers Trust (formerly British Waterways), and filled my nearly empty water tank before wandering over to the office to ask where they wanted me to put the boat. The great thing about boating today is that you can contact the marinas a couple of days ahead of arrival, having a much better idea of when you will get to your destination, and book only the days you need.

Once on the mooring, I had lunch, and then a lazy cycle ride back to Great Barford along the very beautiful "National Cycle Route 51," to collect the van. Final jobs on board included stripping the beds, packing everything up and taking it all home for washing. Goodbye, "Escape,"moped, motorbike,  see you in a week.