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 -
09:35 - M4 Bridge
09:40 - Arrive at Bray Lock
09:50 - Leave Bray Lock
10:10 - Maidenhead Rail Bridge (where we caught Mr Widebeam)
20:20 - Arrive Mapledurham Lock (Self service)
No comments:
Post a Comment