White Mills Marina to Leamington Spa

We left White Mills Marina on Friday 21 July and after climbing the remaining 8 locks on the River Nene we sailed straight into Northampton Marina.  The marina is owned by the Environment Agency and had a convenient footbridge over the Nene which shortened the walk into town.  

We stayed over the weekend and left on Monday morning.  Our first stop was on the moorings for a big shop at Morrisons, it will be sometime before we are near another supermarket.  We then sailed off the River Nene and through the CRT lock onto the Northampton Arm of the Grand Union canal.  5 miles and 17 locks later we moored up near Gayton Junction.  

The next day we turned north on the Grand Union and were surprised by how many boats were on the move.  On Wednesday we stopped at Fred Tarry's for diesel and a gas cyclinder before continuing on through Weedon Bec.  The drizzle turned to heavy rain and we knew where we wanted to stop.  Unfortunately we sailed straight passed it!  CRT have allowed the vegetation adjacent to the canal to grow up that much we didn't recognise the place where we'd previously moored.  We found another spot in sight of Buckby Locks and moored up for the day.  

On Thursday we had the bike out and made short work of the 7 Buckby Locks.  

The Top Lock at Buckby taken from the A5 road bridge

We sailed a little further on, passed Norton Junction, and moored up.  CRT had put up warning signs around a nearby wasps nest but that didn't stop Kev and he paid the price, 4 stings. 

On Friday we were up early to sail through Braunston Tunnel before boats started coming in the opposite direction.  As we came down the 6 Braunston Locks other boats were on the move and we found plenty of space on the moorings.  

The view from the bridge at Braunston bottom lock and yes that heavy cloud did deliver

We had a walk round to Midland Chandlers but they weren't carrying the stock they used to and we came away with only one of the items we wanted.  The Boat House pub was also disappointing, poor service due to a lack of staff and the meals were reduced to a bare minimum.  Perhaps we should have settled for a snack at the Gongoozlers Rest cafe boat. 

The Gongoozlers Rest cafe boat moored up outside Braunston Marina

By early afternoon all the moorings were full and boats were still streaming passed.  Heavy rain didn't deter them either and some were still coming through at 8.30pm.  

On Saturday we moved on from Braunston and found a quiet spot not too far away on the way to Napton.  

On Sunday we had an early start but not early enough, we were stuck behind a slow-coach who was going so slowly we pulled over for a while to let him go ahead.  When we set off again he was only a lock in front of us at Calcutt and he let another boat's crew do all the work while he enjoyed a a cup of tea!  

After we came out of the last lock another slow boat pulled out in front of us, it was even slower than the first and at one point stopped in the middle of the canal so the helmsman could put on a coat.  Luckily we weren't intending to go much farther and we pulled up just short of the Stockton Locks.  

The next day we set off at 6.30am and already some boaters were preparing to go.   We made good progress going down the locks on our own and pulled up at 9.30am having completed 14 locks in 3.5 miles. 

Moored up in a quiet spot after a good 3 hours sailing

On Tuesday  we sailed through the remaining descending locks on this stretch of canal, the next locks will take us uphill.  We moored up on the rural outskirts of Leamington Spa ready to pick Sarah up from the station the next day.  


Our journey from White Mills Marina to Leamington Spa