Left Teddington 8:40 after a trip to M & S for a newspaper. We dined last night at the Tide End Cottage just across the footbridge. It is a Green King pub and had a reasonable choice on the menu with a mixed grill for under £10. I was told the beer was good too. We changed the side of the boat we were towing. We decided to keep breasted up and use both engines rather than cross straps as the boat we are towing has very straight square bows. Our prop wash was hitting the bows and we lost half of our propulsion. All went well until Sunbury where Roger pulled the stop knob off. He now has to dive under the deck to stop the other boat. The fire brigade were out in force handing out free smoke alarms. Kidde with 10yr batteries. They seemed most surprised that we had got a carbon monoxide alarm. We are going to stick the smoke alarm in our bedroom at the front of the boat to try to avoid false alarms. As the afternoon wore on the river got busier as all the barges and tupperware boats came out to play. When we got to Bell Weir lock there were two very large boats in the lock so we pulled over and let a crowd of smaller boats go in. I went up to let the locky know that we would come in with the next locking. I'm not the lockkeeper he said, he's gone for his tea. The lad made an excellent job of filling the lock with boats, packing them in professionally. Turned out he was off the trip boat in the lock. When the locky came back he told us that EA. were cutting down on lockies and some locks would be self operating. Also the maintenance yard at Sunbury is being sold for housing and EA. will rely on contractors. We now hope to be at Reading for Mon/tues. A day to do my washing then we head down the K & A Sue nb Nackered Navvy
