9.30am saw us under way from Windsor and within minutes the rain was pelting down. In fact it had been raining most of the night and now I was concerned that river levels were going to rise again and see us stranded waiting for them to fall.
I was seriously considering turning round and heading back to Brentford, However just after Boveney lock the rain dried up and we had a mixture of sun and cloud, and the very occaisional light shower.
The river was still flowing rather fast and again on the narrow sections our speed dropped to less than 2 mph making progress very slow indeed. Eventually we reached Marlow lock and On speaking with the lockie he stated the levels were still dropping despite the rain and we should find the going much easier now.
We had seen very little other traffic and most of it going down stream so it was nice for the majority of the locks we encountered we were able to keep the engine running (with permission of the lockie) as we still have starting problems.
Just after Marlow bridge we encountered a couple of sailing dinghy's spanking along 'close hauled' tacking one side of the river to the other. The first one passed by with no probs at all but the second, Tacked from our starboard side, shot across the river and then tacked again and crossed our bows from the port side.
At the end of that leg he was now parrallel to our starboard bow. I fully expected him to spill his wind and let us clear but instead he tacked again and shot forward hitting our starboard bow just behind the stem.
He shook his head, I said nothing, We disengaged, I saw he was ok and off he went again. We parted company turning our backs to each other without any spoken word....I think we both learned a lesson there.
Nora managed a School girl error when throwing a rope onto a bollard in lock, she caught the bollard perfectly and then proceeded to pull the line tight.....the look on her face was probably priceless as the bowline end also followed the rest of the line through the bollard and then back on board after having jumpped off the T-stud when she intially threw the rope.......I gave her much words of wisdom about making sure all was secure when catching a bollard......three locks later I managed to do exactly the same for my own school boy error.
We eventually arrived at Henley and found a mooring (the first we have paid for so far) just before the town bridge. Nora managed to feed a large flotilla of goslings and 1 duck the majority of a loaf of bread while I toddled off for a walk into town to find an Offie and or a bread shop......I found a Circus, a cinema down a small alley and and offie but no bread shop.
As I approached the boat on my return laden with Rum and coke and 2 packets of Pork scratchings I saw the flotilla of goslings now behaving like sheep and doing their best to keep the grass short surrounded on all sides by adult Geese who honked noisily at my approach.
I then noticed lots of little mounds on the grass opposite the boat and thought, strange, I didnt remember those mole hills before.....they turned out to be Rabbits all enjoying the evening sun.
We finished the evening with a couple of episode of Fawlty Towers and a smashing Spaghetti Bolognaise....Also some custard and midget gems.
other pics.
3 comments:
It all sounds incredibly gentle, Geoff, despite your fast running current and high waters. I know the Thames can be quite mean, but you make it sound dreamy. The yacht thing was strange. Yachts have priority on our waters, but mostly they try to keep out of the way of motorised boats. Is that the same there?
Poor Nora! I've done all sorts of bungles with ropes. Never can get them on the bollards first go.
Its the same here, Power gives way to sail which is why I had made sure he was well past before committing my course, thats why it was strange to see him the tun back towards us. never a dull moment
Appreciate you blogging thiis
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