Jehovah Jireh

This is one of the Hebrew names of God that means "Provider". Providence is a theological subject that is often hard to understand but on days like today it is hard to ignore. Some would say that everything in life is co-incidence but on the other hand today we were very aware that everything was going to the Master Plan.

I awoke at sunrise and decided to leave our beautiful mooring having carefully calculated the probability of being left on the bank holding onto a mooring line with a narrowboat heading toward a weir. Everything was fine and we departed in the growing sunshine to enter Earls Barton Lock. The Best Mate was not feeling well so here I 'single handed' the boat through but by Cogenhoe Lock the crew was awake and Piglet and I were soon into a routine. At Billing lock it was obvious that something was wrong. There was a cruiser in the lock and a narrowboat waiting but the guillotine was moving very slowly. In fact it was Environment Agency personnel hand winding the electic mechanism as the gearbox had failed. They lowered the guillotine gate behind us and declared the lock closed until Friday for repairs!

We were now in the company of nb Billy and Co who were our locking partners for the remainder of the locks on the River Nene. We were at Morrisons in Northampton before 2pm.

We now made the decision to go for the Northampton Arm 17 locks. If it was too much we would stop at the bottom of the main flight after the first three or four locks. In fact, however, all the locks were set for us. At some points we had three locks ahead with gates open prepared to accept us. We passed a boat coming down at lock five and then ascended the remainder. I have never known a flight so prepared: where hardly any locks needed to be emptied to open the gates. We were up by 7.15 this evening. The Best Mate had recovered enough and was refreshed by the effort of the ascent and we feasted on Spaghetti Carbinara at Gayton. A long and fruitful day prepared aforehand for us.

13.8miles and 27 locks today