August 2017 Bank Holiday Weekend Adventure
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Well, this was a pretty full-on weekend for us. Jane and Bob arrived on the Friday evening to stay overnight so that we could get an early start on Saturday ahead of all the hoards of other boaters out for a weekend’s cruising ….. but in fact in the event there really wasn’t much around. We started our weekend by travelling up towards Reading, passing Hurley, Hambledon and Shiplake Locks, making a couple of stops along the way, and then decided to moor up for the night at Sonning just before the bridge, apparently just outside of a house believed to have been owned at one time by Uri Geller. Unfortunately at some point during the trip the stern thrusters stopped working – there was no obvious reason for them to pack up, but that didn’t alter the fact that it was the time to find out how well I can manage without them. Anyway, we had a lovely stroll along the river, stopping for the obligatory refreshment in the Lock tea rooms before later calling in at The Bull in Sonning for a delicious meal, courtesy of Bob and Jane (thank you both very much for that :-)), and then back to the boat for some well needed R&R and a god night’s rest.
Next morning, Sunday, was another early start, and after a good old-fashioned fry-up for breakfast we all continued on
up through Sonning and Caversham Locks, and from there on up towards Reading Festival (yay, we can now say say we’ve been to (well, passed by) a festival – didn’t see any bands, but did see lots and lots and lots of young people queueing up to go in, and that’s the closest Nicki has ever got to a festival. At this point (mid afternoon) we decided to turn back for Marlow, with high expectations of making it by 7 or 8 that evening. I had to work a bit harder manoeuvring through the locks without the thruster but it worked out reasonably well, although Marsh Lock was interesting on the return – with four small boats in front of us I asked a lock keeper if he wanted us in first but was met with a “first come first serve” response. Not a problem for me although at 42 tons I thought he might have preferred us to go in first, however we are constantly assured that the lock keepers know best and to do as we’re told – what I had not realised and could not see was that the lock keeper had lined all of the smaller boats down one side of the lock but I was going in straight down the middle. A bit of yelling and crossing of arms had the boat in full reverse and the couple in the canoe in had newly decorated underwear.
Following on from that encounter we then carried on toward Henley, only to encounter another near-disaster at Henley Bridge. We were lined up perfectly for the arch but I had not given any thought to the river going round to the right so the current caught and started to push us to port as we went through the arch, and the wheelhouse became in imminent danger of colliding with the bridge. Without the stern thruster I did not have the reaction time to swing the rudder over to push us off, and in fairness, even that might probably have put the bow into the bridge. Anyway, full power in reverse pulled us clear before we made contact – we managed to get out but were then parallel to the bridge and just a few feet clear. Fortunately I managed to steer away and head upstream to gather my thoughts. I should point out that The Angel on the Bridge pub was right next to us with the terraces fully populated on a lovely summer evening. We must have proved some interesting images! Take two went well but I did feel vulnerable without the stern thrusters.
At that point we’d had enough and decided to get past Henley and moor up at Temple Island for the night – it was getting late and we were all tired, so we thought we’d stop before anything else happened and get back the next morning. And what a lovely 
spot we chose – just ahead of Temple Island with a beautiful view of the temple and the surrounding fields. It must have been about 8pm by then, so once again, we ate, relaxed and then got a relatively early night so that we would be refreshed for the morning.
And what a gorgeous morning we woke up to, a slight hazy mist over the fields, peace and quiet broken by the wildlife and a few canoeists rowing past, idyllic or in the words of Bob, magic. So, onwards and upwards, we had a relatively short hop on towards Hurley Lock and on through to base camp, luckily with no further misadventures. 
On arriving back, Bob and Jane had to leave us (only 24 hours late … but I think they enjoyed themselves even with the delay), and Nicki and I then sorted out the barge ready for our next visitors – Himali and Ian and their two beautiful daughters, Freya and Chloe. As this was their first visit we thought we would take them on a short journey into Marlow (whether they wanted to or not), but that quickly changed when we began to exit the marina and found at least 12 boats waiting to go through Temple Lock, so quick change of plan and we cruised up beyond Hurley Lock for an hour or so before spinning round and heading back. One minor issue happened almost immediately on leaving the marina – we almost had our first man overboard exercise … Nicki somehow managed to fall over the side of the barge but managed to cling onto the gunnels with one hand and one foot. So, knight in shining armour to the rescue – I rushed down to her and dragged her up by her life jacket back onto the boat. No real harm done, but I’ll never hear the end of her bruises and aches and pains, and the downside was that we didn’t actually get to do a proper rescue! Oh well, maybe next time.
So, at this point our weekend’s adventures were over and we were ready to just veg out in front of the tv for a couple of hours. Then ….. so to bed for a well-earned night’s rest.
