Tuesday 9 Oct 2012 Fotheringhay

We were up bright eyed and bushy tailed for a 8 am. start. Quick confab on the lock moorings brought forth that the EA had not checked at Islip yet but they thought it would be OK and to ring back at 8-30 for conformation. We decided to stay put until after the 8-30 call which was a wise move as the level at Islip had not dropped and there were still 4 boats there. They were going to reverse Titchmarsh lock again so the navigation was still closed and they would ring us at about 1 pm. when it should be open. On the strength of that we went for a walk around the meadows. We could hear the hunting horns in the distance but couldn’t see anything. The spiders had had a field day overnight with cobwebs everywhere.
On returning to the boat a little before 11 am. the others were making ready to set off, the EA had called to tell them the navigation was fully open. The boat below the lock went off first and then we shared the lock with Straw Bear and followed down.
By now the water levels were well down and as we dropped in the lock the hunt crossed the river on the bridge behind us.
The river had dropped more this morning than it had all night and the flow was very gentle.
Straw Bear led the way first under the A14 where the EA had left a weedcutter moored, I can see now why they don’t have a problem with their props getting fouled all the time. Next was the old arched railway bridge soon to be followed by a dismantled bridge with just the supporting walls standing in the river now carrying just a pipe. I was expecting bit of a hairy ride at Thrapston arched road bridge but it was easy with the slow flow. We locked down Islip lock and out under the low footbridge, it was a case of bobbing well down and removing the exhaust but otherwise we had loads of room.
Just above Lower Barnwell lock the “Strong steam “ warning was still on display, I think this may have been one they missed, however the level below the lock was still a bit high. About half way down this reach we came upon a bail of straw floating mid stream right on a bend so I went to the inside of it and pushed it over to the edge by giving it a gentle side swipe as I passed.
We continued sharing with Straw Bear and their little dog all day until after we had done Perio Lock where we discussed mooring arrangements for the night, nether of us were keen on going much further so we decided to stop just above Fotheringhay bridge for the night so that we could eat at the pub while they were to continue to the moorings just above Warmington lock