Day 47 - 49: Nether Heyford to Gayton Junction

One side of the hull painted, we set out on Saturday morning for the few miles to Gayton Junction where we will turn off east onto the Northampton Arm of the Grand Union canal.  Unfortunately, as we made way for an oncoming boat at one of the bridges near Bugbrooke there was a loud rattling as we lost steering and drifted onto a gravel bank.  We managed with the help of a fellow boater moored nearby to get in to the towpath side and pull the boat under the bridge to moor up.

Fearing that the propeller or rudder or both were damaged we examined the propeller shaft and found a tangled mass of twine, wire and thorny branches had wrapped itself around the shaft completely jamming the mechanism. With some effort and strong language, a combination of pulling its ends and rotating the prop shaft eventually brought the tangle out in bits.

Tangled mass retrieved from around our prop

The excitement required an overnight stop, then we went on the following morning to Gayton.

Unusual houseboat

After a long gap since the last services, we found the very well kept CRT ones at Gayton Junction with some relief then turned onto the Northampton Arm and moored.  The junction was exceptionally busy with both private and holiday hire boats, in fact more activity than we've seen the whole trip so far.  The seventeen locks from Gayton down to Northampton are known as the Rothersthorpe flight and the first couple were picturesque in the evening light.

Top lock at Rothersthorpe in the magic hour

Crane and crescent moon at Gayton