Overnight at Henley

24th - 25th September 2016

Finally we found the time to spend a night onboard away somewhere other than our base marina! We met friends beforehand at The Crown (fab place!) for a quick catch-up so we didn't get prepared and underway until about 15:20. As we left Thames and Kennet Marina we immediately encountered dozens of canoeists - the majority of whom seemed to be having their first go at it! We managed to slowly pick our way through, in spite of the seemingly suicidal intentions of a few!

Looking back to check there were no casualties!

We were soon at Sonning Lock and the the Lockie was on duty so we were through and on our way quite quickly.

We motored along this familiar stretch and arrived at Shiplake Lock, again it was manned so we had a smooth passage through.

Leaving Shiplake we pass by The St George and Dragon (not stopped here yet), Bushnell's Marina and Val Wyatt Marine. Soon we were through Marsh Lock and mooring up on the park at Henley.

The poor boat hasn't been cleaned for a while (it's surprising how dirty it gets just sitting in the marina doing nothing!) so Caroline went round it with a mop to work up an appetite for dinner.

On our way into town we stopped at the pay and display machine to feed it a tenner, but no matter what we tried we couldn't get it to work for mooring fees - and we really did try! So if your coffers are a bit low Henley, best get your machine working!

We enjoyed a lovely meal at CAU washed down with a pretty good Malbec and followed by a shared gooey pud! It's a little over priced in my opinion, but great staff and pretty good food so worth it for a treat.

Back on board we were full up and surprisingly tired from such a short trip. I managed to get a picture on the TV for the first time ever so we lazed in front of X-Factor before crashing out for the night.

After Bacon butties and coffee we were getting ready to set off for the day. The rather huge (and sometimes poorly steered) African Queen departed first so we decided to give it a chance to get ahead before we left.

African Queen

This gave us a chance to remove our canopy for the first time. It is a straightforward job to remove, simply unzip the front section from the rear, undo all the poppers and lift it off. There are 3 poles that support the canvas and we had been concerned about the rear pole blocking the transom door access as it is folds backwards on the standard version of the boat. But we found that we could lean all 3 poles forward with no bother so our easy access would be fine.

We headed off and tied up on the lay-by at Marsh Lock. I liked driving the boat without the canopy on, the visibility all around was so good.

Marsh Lock

Soon we were through Marsh and then Shiplake. We tied up on the island at Shiplake just to top up with fresh water.

Shiplake Island

We decided to picnic on The Lynch again, it's a lovely quiet spot. Once we were safely moored we decided to put the canopy back on otherwise we'd only have to do it back at the marina. It was lucky we did as it began raining just as we finished. After a nice picnic we just chilled out for the afternoon, this is what it's really about.

The Lynch

By late afternoon we we back at the marina, the boat all tidied and packed away and heading home again. Hopefully the next instalment here will be when we go for a week long holiday in October.