Having not visited Life's too Short for almost a month due to other commitments we decided to grab a day onboard while the sun shone, destination Henley for lunch!
On arrival at the marina it was very disappointing to notice that nothing had been done with regards to the snag list and also we've had no communication about when this situation will change. We knew that as ours was to be the first 295 that there could be some teething troubles, but we were told that things would be rectified promptly. However, it is now well over 2 months since delivery and since we reported a list of snags - with very little actually being resolved so far. UPDATE, Viking have since spent time on the boat and resolved many of the snags, thank you chaps.
As we weren't overnighting it didn't take us long to get our stuff on board, run through Uncle Bryn's checklist and set off. As we left I got in touch with Keith (the proud owner of the second 295) and we arranged to meet him and Wendy for lunch which was a great idea of Keith's.
The Thames is lovely all year round but particularly so in spring with the trees coming into leaf and blossom, the ducklings, goslings and cygnets paddling after their caring parents and much more boating activity on the river itself. The downside of course is that everyone else decides to come out to play as well! As we approached Sonning lock we noticed it was on self-service, that the lay-by was full and we had no where to moor while we waited. I held off near the approach for a good 20 minutes until there was an opportunity for us to go through.
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| Sonning Lock |
When the lock keepers are there they are really good at making efficient use of the space available, it isn't the same on self-service - in fact it seems to be selfish service where some people are concerned! I use the Thames Book to plan ahead, looking at the sizes of the lock before I get there so that I can get a reasonable idea whether we'll fit in or not with the other boats waiting.
We left Sonning Lock, safely negotiated the bridge and headed on to Shiplake. This lock was manned so we got through quite quickly this time.
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| Shiplake Lock |
The stretch from Shiplake to Marsh passes some wonderful properties, the kind of places that we can only dream of so we have to make do with snapping a few pictures as we cruise past (we've probably taken the same pictures for the last 30 years!).
On arrival at Marsh lock we noticed this one was also on self-service (to be fair it was lunchtime) and again there was a queue of boat waiting to go through. There was a huge barge 'African Queen' at the head of the queue and she went through the lock by herself, she didn't look easy to manoeuvre and took ages to get through so it gave us the time to chat to the others who were waiting and of course to get some more photos. When it was our turn we took quite a while to get all the boats organised to make best use of the lock, but then we were soon through.
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| Marsh Lock |
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| The park at Henley |
We had a lovely time in the pub with Keith and Wendy, but eventually we had to head back, hoping to catch the lock keepers before they packed up for the day. We didn't have to queue so much on the way back and all 3 locks were manned so our passage was much smoother.
We were back at the marina by about 6:30. Life's too Short looked a little used - not damaged but dirty from the grime on the lock walls, we need to give here a good wash and polish, but not today, we're out of time. We added something else to our snag list though, the throttle control in reverse is awful, 90% of the lever travel doesn't change the engine revs from tickover (not very good for stopping the boat) then suddenly a couple of mm more and it lurches to almost full revs! If the engine isn't in a dead straight line when this happens the boat lurches to one side or the other, very embarrassing when trying to manoeuvre slowly in a lock and potentially dangerous. I've asked Tingdene to take it back to the place where the engine was fitted to get them to adjust it. It can't be right like this. I'm also keen to try a rudder-safe to see how much it improves straight line stability, because there is quite a bit of play in the steering and it gets a little tiring having to continuously steer to keep it in a straight line.
Not sure when we'll be back on board, hopefully in the next week or 2 and I'm anticipating a few snags to have been resolved!
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