WooHoo!

Well, finally, Freyja & Christina are safely moored in Blackthorne Marina ;0)

 

Christina and Freyja safely moored and awaiting TLC

 

Glenda looking happy that we made it ;o)

A huge thank you to all that helped us through all the problems

Joe from Sudbury (R.I.P.)

Dave from Bay Photos

Gary

Clive at Willy Watts Marina

Tol at Willy Watts marina

RiverCanalRescue

Heritage spares

Cogenhoe Mill Marina

Red Bull Boatyard

Dave at Bay Photos took some great photos, click link below :-

Three men, a narrowboat and a butty.

So, so near, yet so, so far ;0(

I went to rejoin the boats at Billing lock near Northampton, Glenda brought her Dad, George, to see them. Dave and I replaced two rotten water pipes that were causing the header to lose coolant.
Someone had passed through the lock earlier and told Dave and Gary that the river was now open, it was late afternoon and I decided to try to get to Wellingborough.
We set off breasted up but quickly found it too difficult to negotiate the tight bends, so after ending up in the bank, we put Christina on a long line and made good progress until we approached Cogenhoe Mill lock, Glenda had told me to check the book before setting off, but not why, if I had read the warning to keep left then we wouldn't have been dragged into the marina by the current caused by an open flood gate. It was all we could do to avoid bashing anyone's boats.
They told us there was still a red flag up and we shouldn't be moving. But Dave the site man said we could moor there until the flood subsided.
A huge thank you to all at the Cogenhoe Mill Marina & leisure complex and for the great welcome we received at the site's Crow's Nest Bar. ;0) This turned out to be fortuitous, the boats were now safely moored on a site with very friendly people, so Dave and Gary could finally return to Wales.
A big thank you to both of them for looking after our boats ;0)

Dinky Dave and Gary on our pontoon, spot the missing narrowboats!

Freyja and Christina moored in EA's Becketts Park Marina in Northampton.

Freyja is going again ;0)

Here they are moored at EA's Northampton Marina Becketts Park. Huge thanks to Clive at Willy Watts for coming to the rescue
Also very glad we joined River Canal Rescue, they were great.

Almost made it

Well, we got as far as the Northampton Arm and Freyja stalled, now the starter is refusing to play. So, after bow-hauling and poling them both through the Rothersthorpe flight, they are now sitting awaiting repair and for the marina to arrange to move them on the final leg to Blackthorne Marina.
I'm very disappointed that, despite all the running repairs, we didn't get them to our moorings.

So near, yet so far ;0(

It has definitely been a learning curve, we are now broken down near Weedon Bec, raw water pump is on strike, changed the impeller, but still no water ;0( Apart from that we've struggled because the marina forgot that I told them to fill her up before they started her so they didn't drag a load of crap into the newly fitted filter so we've had to change the filter again and a new lift pump and clean the diesel bug crap off the lift pump filter.
The water pump fell off, the exhaust fell to bits, the solenoid caught fire and now the water pump is down, starting to feel a bit beaten by it all. Just hope River Canal Rescue can get us going again in the morning.

This is turning into a bit of a struggle LOL!

We left Aqueduct marina, Church Minshull on Monday afternoon & stopped the night at Kings Lock, in the morning she wouldn't start so waited until 9 am to find some easy start, then found the stop button was not returning, next night we stayed under the M6 at lock 57 on the T&M, early start and had many probs, engine started racing, throttle stopped working, crept along on tick over then racing again which caused the exhaust flexi to break and the water pump fell off!
So the marina had not done a great job of servicing it.
We struggled on bow-hauling both boats to lock 42 at Kidsgrove where Red Bull Services helped us out with bits to fix the exhaust. a great guy, very helpful.
We went to the Canal Tavern & the Blue Bell, where we met Brian off NB Alton, he agreed to drop of some coal at 7 o'clock next morning, he arrived with his good lady  Anne Marie.

At gone 2 o'clock we left to try to make the 3 o'clock deadline for the Harecastle tunnel, made it just, as did two other narrow boats, we waited for two others to come the other way, we followed the other two with no probs, but then the motor started to play up again, think the lift pump is dodgy, this caused us to run out of light in Stoke on Trent :0(
Early start in the morning, fingers crossed.