Back on the Thames

With the Kennet and Avon Canal now behind us it was out on to the bigger waters of the River Thames heading further south.

The day started out overcast as we slipped off the moorings at Reading around 8:30am. We were prepared for the worst having gone with the wet weather gear this morning. Within a few minutes we were at Blake's Lock which is a nice easy lock to handle first thing in the morning, no windlass required. A few more minutes and we were out on to the Thames, Serafina obviously enjoying the deeper water as handling is significantly improved. We cruised up to Sonning Lock ready to part with our hard earned cash for a temporary licence only to find the 'Self Service' sign up. The gates were just opening to let a lock full of boats come out and there were three narrow boats to go down the lock, one crew member offered to operate the lock as we prepared the boat to go down. Rachael enjoys holding the bow rope rather than having to get off Serafina, open the lock gates and open the paddles of a manual lock.

Through the lock and one hour on we were into Shiplake Lock where the lock keeper was happy to take our money, £61 for a 7 day license for a 57' narrow boat. It was about here that the heavens opened and we were hit with an almighty downpour which lasted all the way to Henley, where we found some nice moorings just past the bridge. We hadn't finished putting mooring pins in before a small boat turned up to collect mooring fees, the rain can't get in the way of commerce, another £8 gone! I don't mind paying fees for good moorings and these were pretty good compared to a few I have had on the Thames.

And across the river from the moorings.

Turns out we were moored next to the park where they run the Henley on Thames Rowing Regatta. They were still packing things up from the latest Regatta and there was still lots more packing up to do. This shot was taken the next morning after cruising for over a mile, must have been a big set-up!

First lock of the morning and the 'Self Service' sign was up. Rachael became the queen of the lock and ran things, there were only the two of us in Hambleden Lock, plenty of room with dimensions of 59.63m x 7.74m x 2.2m, our boats are just over 17m long and 2m wide!

When we arrived in Cookham the weather had closed in again and with only a few moorings available with rings, we breasted up again with Serafina tied to pins on an edge that was just above the level of the roof. Needless to say it was a challenge to get up and hammer the pins in. Rachael had just finished saying noone would find us here to collect mooring fees when there was a lady waving her arms profusely at us from the bank. Turns out she wanted £6 for the mooring. Initially we were one of three boats moored here but by 5pm there was very little space to be had.

Saturday the weather fined up for our cruise into Windsor, beautiful sunshine!. It was around three hours down to Windsor, we were expecting the worst, a jostle for moorings at such a popular place but no such thing! Turning up early is the key, we virtually had the pick of the moorings! In the end we settled for mooring in a small channel just near the railway bridge, it turned out to be a good choice. The views were very good and it was relatively quiet being off the main channel. The bailiff was roaming around and was pretty quick to snaffle our £8 for each boat per night, he was back on day two for our next installment. Once again, by late afternoon it was slim pickings for the moorings, several boats on the hunt for a space.

 

The park next to our mooring contained a memorial to Sir Sydney Camm, designer of the Hawker Hurricane among other aircraft. The memorial was a full sized replica of the Hawker Hurricane.

We had visited Windsor on a number of previous occasions but never by boat. In fact I can honestly say I wasn't aware that the Thames was so close to the centre of town. We did take time to browse and take our second tour of Windsor Castle, the last time was over thirty years ago Rachael assures me.

We head off to Staines tomorrow for an overnight stay, just another nice three hour cruise.