Day 4 - A Bridge too Far?

Today we were heading to Lechlade, the highest point we can visit in our boat (the river is navigable further but gets quite shallow). We didn't put the canopy up last night, one of those very rare times that we left it off - partly because there was little to no chance of rain but also because I wanted to really make sure the Araldite I used had plenty of time to fully harden.

We set off at a leisurely 09:45 and headed up through Radcot lock soon after. The next landmark was Radcot Bridge - not particularly tight but comes with a 'local knowledge' warning of awkward currents. As I approached the centre of the arch I could see the narrowboat ahead get dragged into the side of the arch and scrape its way through! Just before I was 'bows in' committed the current suddenly pushed us to starboard quite hard and with no real room to correct that I just went full astern and reversed out of it.

This is a photo from our 2016 blog when we went under Radcot Bridge OK!

At this point Caroline and I looked at one another and we agreed that it wasn't necessary to get to Lechlade, certainly not worth damaging the boat for anymore! So we turned around and quite solemnly started heading back downstream. It was a bit of a shame, only a couple of hours from Lechlade but we saw the current swirling through Radcot Bridge and that was enough for us to bail out.

Rushey Lock

On the way back we stopped to use the services at Rushey Lock (emptied the pot), Oxford Cruisers was packed with their hire boats so we couldn't top up with water there this time.

We desperately needed to top up our water so we joined the queue for the tap above Eynsham Lock. What a waste of time that was, the tap barely dribbled, it's to do with the 'anti-back-syphon' taps that the EA have fitted. They are simply dreadful. You can only use a maximum of 7m hose (otherwise the back-pressure is enough to stop the flow) so people have to moor very close to the taps, which just makes the moorings around the tap stupidly busy. Coupled with the very slow flow it makes for a very poor experience, they need to resolve this soon.

Topping up at Eynsham Lock

We gave up after half an hour of dribble and were soon at Kings Lock where we decided to moor on the lock island for the night. It is a lovely spot, we've stayed here before. You can just hear the rumble of traffic on the nearby A34 and A40, but not enough to detract from it being a great place to moor.

Our overnight spot at Kings Lock

It was a lovely evening so I carried on repairing the damage from the previous day. We were happy enough with the canopy frame now, the Araldite did the job (post-trip note - I have now bought replacement fittings and a few spares!). This meant taking a couple of sections of windscreen off so I could get to the damaged gelcoat (where the screen had pushed the hinge backwards) to repair this. I also needed to straighten the hinge pin and dress the scrapes on the top edge of the windscreen where it caught the bridge. It wasn't actually that bad at all and I quite enjoyed fixing it all. I took care to align the screens correctly when I refitted them (they can be troublesome to lock together when assembled at the best of times but now they are as good as they've ever been!

Bent hinge pin and screw

Slight damage where the hinge moved back

With everything fixed and almost as good as new we celebrated with a bite to eat and a bottle of wine. Then we both showered (we used the genny so Caroline could dry and straighten her hair) and of course we ran out of water!

23 miles, 7 locks today.  About 12l of fuel

Timings -

09:45 - Left the mooring
10:00 - Arrive Radcot Lock
10:15 - Leave Radcot Lock
10:30 - Radcot Bridge - this is as far as we went, turned around downstream of the bridge
10:45 - Arrive Radcot Lock
11:00 - Leave Radcot Lock
11:30 - Arrive Rushey Lock (emptied the pot)
11:50 - Leave Rushey Lock
12:00 - Tadpole Bridge
12:25 - Tenfoot Bridge (which is 12' 2"!)
12:40 - Arrive Shifford Lock
12:55 - Leave Shifford Lock
13:30 - Newbridge
13:55 - Arrive Northmoor Lock
14:10 - Leave Northmoor Lock
14:30 - The Ferryman and Caravan Park
14:55 - Arrive Pinkhill Lock (busy, we had to wait one cycle)
15:20 - Leave Pinkhill Lock
15:35 - Swinford Bridge
15:40 - Arrive Eynsham Lock (managed to get some water but gave up!)
16:25 - Leave Eynsham Lock
16:55 - Moored on Kings Lock Island

Day 3 - Crunch Time

Osney Bridge to Radcot

We awoke to a slightly grey and cold morning, but we'd both slept well and were ready for todays 'challenge of the bridges'. The river was still running a little fast but the level under Osney Bridge was fine and we had inches of clearance (with the canopy and screen down of course!).

Osney Bridge (pronounced owsney not ozney)

After a quiet cruise through the sweeping waters around Port Meadow we have Godstow Lock in our sights. One of the niggles we have with our boat is that when the canopy is down and the mid and rear canopy frames are laid back (think a bit like opening a pram hood) it means we can't use the rear transom door as they are in the way. So our solution for this is to pop the 2 frames upright and lean them together to form an A shape, then put a tie or a clip around to hold them together. We can then both walk under them and access the rear door easily, we do this all the time.

Godstow Lock

Here we are at Godstow lock, you can just about see the canopy frame if you look closely.

The lock was on self-service but we were soon through and on our way to the next challenging bridge (can you guess what's coming??)

Godstow Bridge is more of a challenge than Osney Bridge. Osney is a bit binary - there's either enough room or there isn't and you can tell as you arrive (reverse out of it if yo have to). Osney has enough height, but the arches are narrow, the sides start closing in quite low down and the bridge is not perpendicular to the river, so you have to line up at an awkward angle! As we approached we could see nothing was coming the other way so I selected the left arch as it looked a bit easier to line up for. Got it in dead centre, part way through you need to make a slight adjustment to the right and then . . .  KLANGGGGG, BANGG! Oh my god, what just happened? I felt sure I'd lined it all up OK and then, in an instant we realised that we hadn't laid the canopy frame back down after the lock. How stupid and annoyed did I feel! After over 30 years of boating without hitting anything and here I was with a mis-shapen frame and a broken fitting, the silliest of mistakes. Anyway, more of that later, I couldn't stop to do much about it right now. I was so annoyed I hardly noticed that we'd passed under the A34 road bridge (Oxford Bypass) and Kings Lock was around the corner.

At Kings Lock we chatter to the Lock Keeper and a chap on a hire boat - we both needed water, the next top up point was at Eynsham lock (the next lock up) so we agreed to let them through so they could fill first (Note that hire boats seem to be exempt from speed limits and it's better to have them in front of you in a lock rather than behind!).

We took a few moments to assess the damage and to take off the broken frame as it was now only connected at one side. The starboard upright was now a bit banana shaped and the plastic bracket that attaches it to the slide rail was broken, so not too bad (but obviously I needed to find a way to fix it before we could put the canopy up again). We put the windscreen back up as there were no more low bridges today.

This is the 'good' slide rail on the other side and the other picture is the broken piece from the other side.

We motored on, decided not to queue for water at Eynsham after all (new 'anti-syphon' taps make water filling a very slow process) and I decided to pop into Oxford Cruisers to see if they happened to have any canopy brackets. As it happened they were closed, it was like a ghost town, so no joy with the bracket but there was a fresh water tap that we took advantage of to fill up!

Pretty Pinkhill lock came and went, soon we were at the lovely looking caravan park opposite Bablock Hythe (looks like some nice moorings just by the Ferryman pub on the right after the caravan park).

Pinkhill Lock

Caravan Park before The Ferryman

Northmoor lock was next, no drama here and a little further up Newbridge - at least this time we wouldn't be able to forget to take the canopy frame down!

It was busy at Newbridge, a gorgeous sunny day now and plenty of people enjoying the river. As well as the usual motor craft (like ours and narrowboats) there were people out in canoes, pedalos, paddle-boards and dinghies! Caroline was at the helm this time and as she approached the centre of the arch she was spooked by the narrowboat ahead suddenly slowing and an errant pedalo - unfortunately this meant she lost the steering momentarily and we bumped the bridge arch with the port side of the windscreen. It was a bit of a hit but thankfully none of the glass panels broke so we just motored on, something else to look at later on. We now had a little souvenir of Newbridge to sweep away later!

Not our best day then. We both felt gutted that we'd dinged our lovely little boat, but we agreed that it could have been worse and that everything is fixable.

Shifford lock was next, the layby was slightly under water so thankfully we didn't need to get off the boat while we waited. It was the same again at Rushey Lock and again we didn't have long to wait so we stayed on the boat rather than go paddling!

There are some nice moorings on the field soon after Rushey Lock, so we decided to try to find an isolated spot as we wanted to run the generator for a while to top up batteries (without spoiling anyone else's peace and quiet). We ended up a mile or so downstream of Radcot Lock. I fired up the generator, we ate and I started to see what I could do in the way of temporary repairs. This amounted to sweeping up the mess and part dismantling the windscreen to see what damage there was. I did my best to straighten the canopy pole and I Araldited the broken plastic fitting which I then swapped with one of the forward ones as it will be under less stress there.

We actually got off quite lightly, this is not as bad as it first looked

First time use of the new generator (LPG is safer to store than petrol)

Just beautiful, this is what it should all be about

A beautiful sunset on an otherwise frustrating day!

21 miles, 7 locks today. 18l of fuel

Timings -

09:20 - Leave East Street and pass under Osney Bridge

09:35 - Rainbow Bridge

09:55 - Arrive Godstow Lock (self-service)

10:15 - Leave Godstow Lock

10:20 - Godstow Bridge (make sure canopy poles are down!!)

10:30 - Arrive Kings Lock

10:45 - Leave Kings Lock

11:15 - Arrive Eynsham Lock

11:30 - Leave Eynsham Lock (water available at the end of the upstream layby)

11:45 - Arrive Oxford Cruisers (it was closed but we got water)

12:05 - Leave Oxford Cruisers

12:10 - Arrive Pinkhill Lock

12:20 - Leave Pinkhill Lock

12:50 - The Ferryman (nice moorings available here)

13:10 - Arrive Northmoor Lock

13:20 - Leave Northmoor Lock

13:50 - Newbridge - take care!!

14:30 - Arrive Shifford Lock (layby under water)

14:45 - Leave Shifford Lock

15:30 - Tadpole Bridge

15:40 - Arrive Rushey Lock (layby under water)

15:55 - Leave Rushey Lock

16:20 - Moored somewhere between Rushey and Radcot Locks.

Day 2 - Beale Park to East Street (Osney Bridge)

We left Beale Park quite early as we knew we had another big day ahead of us - but we hit another snag at Goring Lock on self service! The head sluices wouldn't open but the lock keeper was soon on duty and over-rode the sensor to get us on our way again.

Goring Lock Layby

Goring Lock

Goring Wier

We stopped at Sheridan Marine to pick up some gas (they don't open until 10 so we had a bacon buttie while we waited). Not sure the early start really paid off.

Next stop was by Abingdon Bridge so we could get 45l of petrol from the fuel station up from Waitrose, then we stopped above the lock to fill with water and to empty the 'pot'. Worth noting that the new taps fitted by the EA are woefully slow and that the next lock with water (for hose filling) is Eynsham - a long way up!

A photo of us taken by Vicky and Terry at Abingdon!

We mentioned to a couple of lock keepers that we were aiming to moor at East Street and they both suggested that we might be unlucky as it gets busy, so we were working out our plan B in case we needed it! 

The run from Iffley Lock was slow - quite a few 'party day boaters' weaving around and lots of rowers from the university clubs, but we made it to East Street to find plenty of mooring space left, nothing to worry about after all.

Moored on East Street, Oxford

Looking back, Osney Lock just out of sight in the distance

View from the bridge

Osney Bridge, 7' 6" on a good day

31 miles, 10 locks today.

Timings -

08:05 - Leave Beale Park
08:25 - Gatehampton Bridge
08:40 - Arrive Goring Lock

09:05 - Leave Goring Lock (minor issue on self-service)

09:15 - Arrive Cleeve Lock

09:20 - Leave Cleeve Lock

09:40 - Arrive Sheridan Marine (they open at 10:00)

10:15 - Leave Sheridan Marine

10:20 - Moulsford Bridge

10:55 - Winterbrook Bridge (lots of rowers around here)

11:05 - Wallingford

11:20 - Arrive Benson Lock

11:30 - Leave Benson Lock

11:50 - Shillingford Bridge

12:20 - Arrive Days Lock (elsan disposal point here if needed)

12:25 - Leave Days Lock

13:10 - Arrive Clifton Lock (self-service)

13:20 - Leave Clifton Lock

13:45 - Appleford Rail Bridge

14:00 - Arrive Culham Lock

14:20 - Leave Culham Lock

14:45 - Abingdon Bridge (stopped below bridge to walk into town to get petrol)

15:40 - Arrive Abingdon Lock

15:50 - Leave Abingdon Lock

16:10 - Leave Abingdon services after filling with water and emptying the pot

16:25 - Nuneham Rail Bridge

17:05 - Arrive Sandford Lock

17:15 - Leave Sandford Lock

17:25 - Kennington Rail Bridge

17:30 - Arrive Iffley Lock

17:40 - Leave Iffley Lock

18:00 - Folly Bridge

18:10 - Arrive Osney Lock (self-service)

18:25 - Leave Osney Lock

18:35 - Moored on East Street

Day 1 - Bray to Beale Park

I'll list all the timings of locks and bridges at the end of the blog section for anyone interested.

We set off from our marina berth at Bray at 09:25 with a vague plan to reach Pangbourne Meadow if things went well or maybe Sonning if that's as far as we could get. The river has been running quite fast recently with many red warning boards but luckily things have improved and there were some yellows remaining but no reds. Even so, the river was still running quite fast as our 'comfortable cruise' speed was just 6.5 km/h. Maybe even Sonning was looking ambitious!

At Bray lock we caught a small Broom boat, he was a bit slow leaving the lock layby and getting into the lock, bu hey-ho, not everyone is on a mission like we tend to be! We ended up following him on to Boulters, he was slower than we wanted to be and hogged the middle of the river so we didn't bother passing. On the approach to Maidenhead we caught a REALLY slow widebeam barge. Interminably slow. Like 2.5 Km/h slow! The approach into Boulters was dire, Mr Widebeam seemed to be asleep, he certainly wasn't in any rush to move off the layby to get in the lock! Meanwhile Mr Broom decided to hold off about 200 yards distant for some inexplicable reason and before long we had a large Broom behind us joining the unnecessary queue! Eventually we reached the lock to find Mr Widebeam had tied up on the right, 20' back from the gates, Mr Broom had left a similar distance between himself and the widebeam but tied up on the left (he could have move up much further or even gone alongside (Boulters is over 21' wide! So we went on the right, had to overlap, couldn't get in far enough to reach the steps (which we would normally use in a deep lock) and the big Broom squeezed in behind us and was rubbing his starboard  box against out port side. No need for any of this! I spoke to the two 'pilots' in front and neither would move. So it all just took longer than necessary and left us with a bit of ill-feeling towards others so early in the day. Why can't people just be a bit more thoughtful and considerate? For the record Boulters is huge- 199' long and over 21' wide. It was embarrassing to be 1 of just 4 boats 'struggling' to share the lock.

We found Nemo! A beautiful Piper barge

Rant over. We were past them both before Cookham lock :)

Cookham, Marlow, Temple, Hurley and Hambledon Locks all passed without incident. Then we reached Henley.

Cookham Lock

Marlow Lock

Marsh Lock (at Henley) was the first that was unmanned. A couple of boats came out heading downstream as we approached, good timing we went straight in! Closed the tail gates, closed the tail sluices and opened the head sluices to fill the lock. Apart from a light sprinkling of rain it was going well - until the lock was full. The green light for the sluices stopped flashing so I pressed the button to open the head gates. Nothing. Not even a clicking sound, the gates were not going to open! I left it a few minutes and tried again but no, still no joy. So I decided to close the head sluices and see if I could drain the lock to go through the cycle again. No. Once the head sluices were closed again no button at either end would do anything, we were stuck! Long story short - I called the EA and nearly 2 hours later the lock keeper from Hambledon Lock arrived and was able to override the issue caused by a dirty sensor. We were on our way again and the queues at either side of the lock were able to continue their journeys as well.

Marsh Lock, our 'home' for 2 hours

Next to Marsh Lock

Now we were 2 hours behind whatever schedule we were following, so we just carried on.

Shiplake was fine, Sonning was unmanned but no problem for us. So do we stay here or carry on? It's 'only' half six, so we carried on of course!

Sonning Bridge

Such a shame to see the stretch around the K&A entrance and also Tesco at Reading still occupied by so many illegal long-termers, certainly not a place it would feel safe to moor any more. I don't know what the solution is to be honest, if the option is to confiscate the boats and turf these people out onto the streets I don't think that helps the social problem much at all.

Not sure that was such a great idea to carry on as Caversham was on hand-wind only! It's been a while since hand winding a lock and I'm not getting any younger. Surprisingly it only took us 20 minutes to get through (luckily someone else had just come through the other way so the gates were already open). It's hard work, not something I'm used to these days ;)

Mapledurham Lock

We motored on to Mapledurham, very strong currents on the approach but went through on self-service with no bother and on to Pangbourne Meadow. Except we didn't, there were no easy places left to moor so we carried on through Whitchurch and made it to Beale Park a little after sunset!

Powering on past Pangbourne

Finally moored at Beale Park

A long day - over 12 hours without a proper break, 35 miles, 13 locks, about 30l of petrol. But we made it and the burgers that Caroline cooked went down without touching the sides!

So for anyone interested in our timings, most locks were very quick to pass through with no queueing.

35 miles, 13 locks today.

Timings -

09:25 - Left Bray Marina
09:35 - M4 Bridge
09:40 - Arrive at Bray Lock
09:50 - Leave Bray Lock
10:10 - Maidenhead Rail Bridge (where we caught Mr Widebeam)

10:30 - Arrive Boulters Lock (manned but still really slow to get through)

10:50 - Leave Boulters Lock

11:15 - Arrive Cookham Lock

11:25 - Leave Cookham Lock

11:45 - Bourne End Rail Bridge

12:15 - M40 Road Bridge

12:20 - Arrive Marlow Lock

12-25 - Leave Marlow Lock (straight through, really quick!)

12:35 - Bisham Abbey

12:45 - Arrive Temple Lock

12:50 - Leave Temple Lock

13:00 - Arrive Hurley Lock

13:15 - Leave Hurley Lock

14:00 - Arrive Hambledon Lock

14:25 - Leave Hambledon Lock

14:55 - Henley Bridge

15:00 - Arrive Marsh Lock (self service)

17:00 - Leave Marsh Lock (see above for the reason it took so long)

17:35 - Arrive Shiplake Lock

17:40 - Leave Shiplake Lock

18:10 - Arrive Sonning Lock (Self service)

18:30 - Leave Sonning Lock

18:50 - Thames and Kennet Marina

19:05 - Arrive Caversham Lock (Hand-wind)

19:25 - Leave Caversham Lock
20:20 - Arrive Mapledurham Lock (Self service)

20:35 - Leave Mapledurham Lock

21:05 - Arrive Whitchurch Lock (Self service)

21:15 - Leave Whitchurch Lock

21:35 - Arrive and moor at Beale Park

We're back!

Ready to join us on another trip to Lechlade?

It's been a while since I last updated our blog. Much has happened in the last 4 years or so but we still enjoy time aboard Life's too Short as often as we can, so it's time to get back to blogging our adventures!

I will try to fill some of the gap since 2107 (our move to Walton marina that ended up with Shepperton marina becoming our base for 2 years, a rather expensive trip to St Katherine Docks, we became grandparents, our move to Bray Marina and what we did to avoid Covid-19 when it arrived in our household!).

But for now, please fast forward, it is late May 2021 as the country is gradually moving out of lockdown and we are back on board for a week or so with a plan to go to Lechlade again. The weather hasn't been great recently so the river is running a little fast. There's been a mix of Red and Yellow boards for a while but as of tonight there are no Red boards in place, lots of Yellow boards and quite a few stretches without any warnings. So we're set for a fairly early start tomorrow morning once we've filled with water and collected a new toy (more to follow) that I left in the car boot we should be on our way.  We have plenty of fuel, (but hardly any gas) and a fair selection of wines and spirits to keep us going. What could possibly go wrong?

Where will we be tomorrow night? Not sure, but if the river conditions continue to ease we hope to have a long day so maybe somewhere upstream of Reading with a bit of luck. we are expecting the river to get very busy over the bank holiday weekend so we want to take the opportunity to get to the quieter end if we can.