All Clear

Sumo's lumps turned out to be benign. His last stitches come out on Thursday, and then we can travel again.

Eight Quid

We've just been charged £8 for stopping on the Cliveden islands. Both of us were too tired and stressed about Sumo to argue and put forth the "No signs..... No money" proposition. Though we are thankful to report that a few boats downstream did. The gentleman who collected the money said that some signs had gone up three years ago, but that they were vandalised and disappeared almost immediately. Not to call him a liar, but we've never seen them. and we've been coming here quite a bit over the last 5 years.


We're not expecting the bushes and trees to be cut back. or to see the moorings dredged. Based on the evidence of my own eyes, I assume they'll be left to become more overgrown and shallow than they currently are.

Huge wodges of the river are now fee paying for an overnight. Many of these places seem to settled on the sum of £8. Even though they provide no services whatsoever.

Vets



I'm famous, fuss me.

 We're at Bourne End for a couple of days, because Sumo is having a small lump removed. He's had it since he was two, but a few days ago, it got a bit red and inflamed. A needle aspiration test revealed Spindle Cells.

He's in surgery now.
We hope to have him back onboard around 18:00

Nuneham

Big advert in the Sky

A quiet and peaceful spot at night, but ridiculously hot and busy during the day. All the potential mooring places prior to this were either too shallow to get into, being fished out of, or already taken. Such is life during the summer, I guess. Poking the pole in (to test out depth), there is a couple of feet of claggy mud in many places.

The Thames Path

Pretty much fenced in on this reach, probably because they don't want you wandering anywhere near the railway line.

Spotted these chalkings, underneath Nuneham bridge..

This wasn't there last week....

Oh Dear

Sad sight to see. Just upstream from Iffley lock.

Had to run the gauntlet of slightly miffed fishermen to get back up to Oxford again. On both sides this time, which was a first. Heaved it down just after I got through Sandford lock, but thankfully, I'd pulled over for a coffee. Pretty much an easy bimble again, the river being very languid and tranquil.

Sumo and myself are vacating the boat tomorrow. And putting ourselves at the mercy of South West trains for 3.5 hours.

Edit: the sunken boat was bought for 5k a few days previously. It had not been moved for ages, and it allegedly went down because the stern gland leaked. An easily preventable accident. Feel sorry for the new owner, but that (sorting out the stern gland) is the first thing that I do when the engine stops. 2 spanners and a 4.99 tin of grease could have avoided this.

In the Shed

Like a typical visit to the Dentist, we have to go back next week, to get some more work done. Chris the surveyor did a thorough job, and was concerned about two patches on the baseplate that have been scraped down. Presumably, when she was a hireboat. The port side gas locker base also needs relining, because the "hammer test" put a hole in it.

*rolls eyes*

Green boat services (Sam & Jon) have kindly offered to juggle boats around to acommodate us. Apart from the unwelcome wallet spanking, the major downside of this, is that Salter's steamers don't allow people to live aboard, or carry out any work themselves. I have to abandon ship. Kindof gutted about that. But if we don't take action now, we'll not be able to get insurance next year; and there won't be any boating at all.

Some more photos and video...

Dogma on Flikr

Today I saw...

1 massive Hornet
37 grumpy fishermen
3 Kingfishers
2 Breasts
1 Happy fisherman


We've made it up past Iffley lock, and are tucked up for the evening, just past the riverside pub that doesn't like boats. Sandford lock seemed much smaller and less formidable this time through it. I stood on the roof holding the centre line. No flow on the river, so the whole journey was a gentle bimble. Didn't rain, either. bonus.

Border Morris

As promised, here's some more pics of the Solstice celebrations in Abingdon...

Thanks to Cris (Wb 'Odin IV').