South on the Grand Union

Pleasant boating weather, more cloudy than yesterday and not so hot.  Today's cruise was non-stop, lock free, with the aim of reaching the Northampton Arm ready for tomorrow's descent of the 17 Northampton locks down to the River Nene.

View from canal of Pendolino about to enter Stow Hill Tunnel

Passing other boats on the Grand Union

Moored Widebeam

After leaving later than usual at 10:30 the canal took us through varied scenery, some wooded and some with wide views over the fields.  We were generally able to maintain a good speed since the canal is wide and reasonably deep. As usual there is little habitation near the canal, except for the village of Weedon, but for much of the journey we were in sight of either or both the M1 and the West Coast Mainline railway though the instrusion into the seclusion of the canal was limited.  Unusually for this year's trip the canal was fairly busy with many moored and passing boats. A couple of the boats were widebeam which seem a little out of place in this part of the Grand Union.

We reached a suitable mooring spot about a mile north of the Northampton Arm at 14:00 and decided to stop here since moorings may have been more difficult to find further on.

Today: 10.3 miles 3 hours 30 minutes travelling