Tuesday 22nd August 2006 Runnymede to Temple (near Bisham)
We set off at 10:00, and had a good run right to Eton, where we took the weir channel, past the college and turned just below the weir - where it gets quite shallow very quickly. We shared Eton lock with the "super-yacht" narrowboat Phoenix 58. It looks a little more in place on the Thames than the canals. After finding that the sanitary station location at Bovney isn't where it's shown on the Nicholson's, we still didn't miss our lock full because of the time it took to turn it. We then went down the Windsor Racecourse backwater to the entrance of the marina there. This is a nice stretch, with lots of sharp bends. It's a good job we didn't meet anyone coming in the other direction. There was a good view of the race track here, but nothing was racing so we headed back up the river. We went up the river with a wide plastic hire boat, who were weaving all over the river as they went. At Maidenhead we had an ice cream, with raspberry sauce, and we then started looking for moorings after Cookham wharf. We didn't really find anything good until Marlow, but Dad didn't like the noise from the road, so we went through the lock, just missing out on the penning thanks to another boat that overtook us when we were looking for a mooring. Dad talked to the lock keeper, who was very helpful, and said we could moor at various locations around the lock. He said he would lock us through, but the current locking took longer than normal (I think they had a problem, and had to let some water out again). By the time he had emptied the lock, and opened the gate, he was ready for off. We worked the lock with the wide hire boat, who helped after the locky asked them to do so. We started to look for moorings again once at the time, but one space was to small, and in the meantime the hireboat we left closing the gates had caught up and passed us. At the next lock, just above Bisham Abbey, were some moorings. I didn't think we'd fit in after the big hire boat, but we just did. There is a stream that empties here, but we just squeezed in front. Wednesday 23rd August 2006 Temple (near Bisham) to Reading Today we will be mostly waiting. We got up early as there was rain forecast for the afternoon, and we just caught a locking - well we thought we had as a wide narrowboat from the Lee was about 2 inches to wide, and we got stuck inbetween when they pulled the front end in wedging both of us. With a bit of throttle, and some pulling we finally got free - by this time a dutch barge called Sudersee, moored just below at Bisham had arrived at the lock. We went through with them, and another boat as they were only 63 feet long (and 13 feet wide I found out later). I noticed they had a separate engine for the bowthruster, which while noisy did give them extra turning oomph. The lock keeper came while we were working through, and operated the top gates. At the next lock we found the widebeam narrowboat moored up having breakfast. The lock keeper was not to pleased, but was happy he didn't have another boat to contend with. We squeezed into the lock, but there was no room for Sudersee. They caught up with us at Hambledon lock, and we all squeezed in. At Marsh lock there was a huge queue, which grew even more before we left it. Rather than try to get in as many as possible the lock keeper tried to keep it simple, and get boats through quickly. He was filling the lock quickly, which is just as well. Sudersee stopped just above Shiplake lock at the sanitary station there. I thought we had a good break there, but he just caught us up before Sonning, so we were stuck behind him again. He let us moor alongside, and I had a good chat with him. It turns out that the rudder actually turns like a finger giving him sideways thrust at the sturn, and the reason he had no trouble catching up with us was that he had a 120 BHP 6 litre turbo DAF main engine. I also found out he had more power in his bow thruster, by several factors than my SR3, at 90 hp! Some confusion with the BW boat Saggita getting out of shape caused us to miss the lock at Sonning, so we had a really long wait there. We finally reached Tescos at 16:00, where the boater from the boat in front helped us with our ropes. It started to rain at 16:20, so we timed that nicely. --- Mike Askin nb. Shoestring http://shoestring.zapto.org/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/canals-list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
