Gayton Junction to Cogenhoe via the Northampton Arm

We contacted the Canal River Trust when we arrived at Gayton Junction to find out at what time they filled the leaking lock pounds in the morning. They said that the work would start at 8am and we could start our descent of the Northampton Arm at around 9.15am.
The day was perfect for the descent and I was determined to beat the previous time of 4hrs 10mins. and we set off at 0920hrs
Christine helmed the boat while I prepared all the locks 17 in total. Chris came up with the bright idea of pulling the opposite gate too
 with the boat hook as she was alarmed at me leaping ( well gingerly stepping actually) over the gap between v-gates. The Thames lock keepers have a pole that does same job and it does save time. We eventually arrived at Northampton Town Lock at 1310hrs so beating my previous time by 20mins. We then travelled on to Cogenhoe, having lunch on the go and arrived for our evening mooring at 1600 hrs.


The Ring Completed now on the way back to PYC



Third Lock Down and Tom ready with his trusty boathook ready
to pull the gates together



Last Lock of the 12 descent locks The M1 motorway crosses above
(and Tom  does look a bit Knackered)

The bottom of The Northampton Arm which has been
dramatically de-weeded and cleaned up
(Well done CRT)

Always sad to see someone's pride and joy ending up like this
But it does need to be attended to before an accident happens.

A glorious end to a glorious September day.
The view from our mooring