HI All,
Have been meaning to do this for days! This boating lark can be so much fun,
there is little time for anything else. Today it's raining so thought I
would catch up. Hey, stop nodding off at the back, I haven't started yet:-)
Friday August 25th - The meal at the Bull in Sonning last night was
excellent. Being next to the church, we even picked the night the
campanologists practice and had an added bonus. Incidentally, they are very
trusting round here. The fee for the mooring ( 5UKP ) was left as
instructed, in a red letterbox, next to a wooden door. Upon investigation
the door was open, giving access to the rear of the letterbox, a security
box, with the key in it!
We leave Sonning at 11.30ish and head for Beale Park. The day is warm and
sunny. We stop for major provision shopping at the Tesco, well Wendy did, I
stayed with LT and put the finishing touches to the polishing and external
cleaning of LT. My, she did look great, even if I say so myself. At
Caversham lock we get our first real queue. 50 minutes. Past the Reading
festival site, what a lot of people and we can hear the sound of music in
the distance. At Tilehurst I do a double take. A boat called One Moore is
moored at the end of a garden. Is it?, yes, it's our previous boat. Now
painted green and with new cratch cover, it's clear someone loves her as
much as we did. Great. Through Purley, Purely squire, famous place. We stop
for water at Mappledurham lock and eventually arrive at our mooring S3J3,
well S3J6 actually, but never mind, at 6.30pm. Flags wave, hooters sound,
chums even leave their beer and rush to help us moor. Brings a tear to the
eye even now, thanks guy's :-) The next 3 days are spent at the IWA show.
The show itself was disappointing. Not sure what it wants to be. There
seemed to be more craft/food stalls than 'boaters' stands. The beer tent and
entertainment was good and I'm sure those who spent a lot of time in there
were well pleased. There were boats for the public to look at and some
manufacturers, but I thought there were a number of major companies
missing. There was a great big arena with all sorts of non boat things going
on. Classic cars, motorbikes, medieval jousting, I though this was a boat
show, to promote the waterways?. I was going to buy some new fenders, I
needed a new light switch and various other things. So, not much money
spent. It will be interesting to see what the visitor numbers were, compared
to 3 years ago! What the show lacked, was made up for by the crew's from the
surrounding moored boats. I have not laughed as much for ages. Thanks to all
who contributed to a really fantastic few days. Quote of the weekend, (Allo,
Allo mode on) - 'Av I pist the tost' - you had to be there :-)
Tuesday August 29th - We had decided, well, Wendy had decided an early start
was a good idea. 5am to beat the rush! Some boats had already left the day
before, perhaps 50%. Anyway, we were ready at 5am but it as dark so we
waited until 5.30am and gently and as quietly as possible chugged away from
the site. We were on our own apart from 2 Nb's going south. By 6am we
reached the end of north section and a light or two coming on. Now, we don't
do early mornings as a rule but I have to say, the early morning red sky was
worth the effort. Goring lock was predictably deserted and I manually
operated the lock, from top gates open and lock full through the complete
cycle to top gates open LT going north. Not an exercise, exercise get it, I
want to repeat. Just prior to 7am we reached Cleeve Lock and the Lockies had
arrived, hoorah!. From now on we started to collect other boats behind us
and one or two in front. At the next few locks, there was some minimal delay
and the early start decision had proved to be correct. The sun was out, the
temperature warm, I saw a couple of turtles or terrapins basking in the
sunshine, all was well with the world until we reached Clifton Lock at
10.20am. There was a queue of 7 boats upon arrival and we were the first of
the six that had left Days lock in one block. 40 minutes or so later it was
our turn and we followed a Nb into the lock and moored on the opposite side
of the lock as the locky directed. Seconds later a Nb, well known to the
boating world and being steered by a well known boater decided to come
between the two of us. 'STOP' shouted the locky, 'no room', too late, BANG,
WHACK, WEDGE! What a pratt. No amount of reverse could remove said boat
which was now wedged at an angle and sticking out of the lock gates. He was
not only in the wrong place, but he was too long anyway! What a pratt.
Another boat tried to pull it off that only helped drag us all back along
the wall and damage LT even more. Eventually the stuck Nb was positioned
dead straight and hard reverse removed her, not only from us but out of the
lock completely, at the Lockies insistence. There has been some damage and I
will be contacting the perpetrator next week. A 'sorry' might have been
nice! Somewhat annoyed we arrived at Cullam lock to find the lock moorings
full and we had to position ourselves on the moorings before the bridge,
which are very high and could easily have whacked LT's cabin sides. Where
has my perfect day gone?. Reaching Abingdon at 1.30pm we pull up the first
available FREE mooring. Great, target met. We walked up into the town for
provisions and to visit my old shop. It had of course been Jessopised and
looked very good. The staff are still the same and all seemed happy with
their lot. That pleased me. Harnser arrived early evening and we did a quick
boat shuffle to enable Magic, the dog, to uncross his legs and leap into the
trees. Eat on board, very good TV picture.
More later.
Regards
Andrew & Wendy from The Cut - South Oxford Bridge 131
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/
