Three Pound Pee

Determined to get the most out of every sunny day, and emboldened by our successes yesterday, we decided to take ourselves upstream through three locks. First off, Marlow. Which is my least favourite. Glided ourselves in well, and the lock keeper kindly threw our ropes back down to us. So it was quite stress free. Emerged on the other side, and didn't get sucked into the weirstream. Found us a lovely (free) spot near Marlow park to sit and enjoy a nice cup of tea, while we consulted our river maps.

Marlow to Temple lock, was a nice sedate cruise in the sunshine, with no other river traffic.

We got to Temple lock at lunchtime, and found it completely deserted. Self-operated it via the control panel (4 big red buttons). And from there, it's only half a mile up to the next lock (Hurley), which was manned by the time we got there.

Temple Lock wiki entry.

Beyond Hurley lock, there was a long wide stretch around some beautiful bends and stunning scenery, up to the ruined and restored abbey at Medmenham.

Hurley Lock wiki entry.

We knew there wouldn't be time to press on much further, so we passed lots of moored up boats, and rammed the bank in an empty spot on the edge of what we presumed was a farmer's field. As soon as I'd jumped ashore and banged a pin in, a boat pulled up next to us. "Mooring fees. Five Pounds, please". "But we're just letting our dog out for a pee, and then we'll be off", We replied. "OK, that will be three pounds then please". "That's outrageous!", I stated. "You are on private property, Sir", was his reply. Sheena paid up, while I fumed silenty at the extortion. Needless to say, we won't be stopping there next time we pass through.

On relaying this tale to other boaters, it transpires that this man is well known for fleecing the unwary. The farmer who owns the field used to let people moor there for free, but this man cut a deal with him, renting the land from him. Further on down the river, on the other bank, it's still free. So that's where we'll stop next time. This man's greed, was the only bad part of the whole day. Which otherwise, was perfect.

Bray for the Day

Steve, our mechanic, reckoned if we set off early, we'd be able to get down to Windsor in a day. It was nice and sunny, so we took a leisurely cruise down to Bray lock, which we'd not attempted before. Going down through Cookham, Boulters and Bray locks all went fine.

Then tripboat 'Windsor Sovereign' came steaming very fast around a blind bend, on the wrong side of the river. We had plenty of room to pass on their starboard side, but their skipper wasn't having any of that. He sounded a fat blast on his horn, and headed straight for us. Which we took to mean, "Get out of my way, you idiots".

I had to lean on the tiller, and managed to pass us port to port side without a collision. But it was a hairy few moments. We know that boats should usually pass port to port. But this was an unusual situation. He wasn't slowing down, and the safe thing to have done (i feel), would have been starboard to starboard. Oh well. Lessons learned. Look out for massive tripboats hogging the river on this stretch.

Tucked us up nicely, opposite Royal Windsor racecourse, where we had a nice cup of tea. Then turned around, and made our way back to Bourne End. Going back through Bray, I bumped us into a wall, which was a little embarrassing. Don't know how it happened. Front end seemed to have a will of it's own. But the lock keeper had seen it all before, and was quite amused.

As it was after six in the evening, we had to operate Cookham lock ourselves. But it's a short rise, and everything went smoothly. So now we're confident that we can get down to Windsor in a day. We tackled three locks, in both directions. 'dogma' behaved really well. Nothing overheated, snapped, or went pop. And we didn't get rammed by the tripboat. A good day's boating.


Bray Lock wiki entry.

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Aroo de de de doo
Aroo de de de dido
Plenty of people messing about on the river. Narrowboats, slipper launches, rowing boats, hireboats, inflatable canoes and massive hotel barges. So plenty of practice at avoiding obstacles. The best free mooring spots were taken, but we managed to ram the bank further on downstream, without running ourselves aground. We've discovered that trees are very useful for stopping the boat from going anywhere. Then it's just a matter of swinging the stern in leisurely, and stepping ashore with the pins.

Breasted Up

This is the space we have to squeeze back into, when we've been out practicing. At first, the thought of banging into Derek & Gaye's nice shiny Polish boat filled us with dread. But we take things nice and slow, and are happy to report we haven't bumped them once. Even with a crosswind blowing.

The only downside about being breasted up next to them, is that we bob around like a cork. So on sunny days like today, with a lot of river traffic, we can more or less forget about connecting to the internet.

The people of Bucks, call it "rafting up". Because I suppose they are far too polite to mention breasts in conversation.

More Practice

We had an amusing start to today, when a little GRP cruiser ('Bizet') with a 'full steam ahead' merchant at the helm, overtook us at maximum speed down the lock cut. The bow wave was about a foot high. He then moored right in the middle of the layby, where he had to wait for the gates to open. The lock keeper waved us in first, and Mr Bizet took that as a cue to fire up his own engine and attempt to pile in at the same time. The lock keeper waved at him to stop, and go back. Oh, how we enjoyed that little moment.

He then let his wife drive, and she ended up graunching the boat against the lock walls, in reverse. When the gates opened, he had to wait for us to leave first. Which also felt sweet. And the last we saw of him, he was zig-zagging off down the river, trying to overtake everything in his path, without crashing into the overhanging trees of the islands.

Saw a pair of Buzzards at Cliveden. Red Kites are bigger, rarer, and more visually impressive. But they don't make the same sound as a Buzzard, which ranks in my top ten 'nature sounds'. They also seem to be able to glide for much longer than Red Kites. We saw them all the time in Devon, a familiar and welcome sight. But they are scarcer around here. Maybe Red Kites eat them.

Rammed the bank again, successfully. And had a nice walk around the woods in the sunshine, despite having whammed my shin with the sledgehammer. Hitting my shins with the sledgehammer, was number one reason for not considering a sledgehammer. But the ease that you can ram the pins into the ground, won out in the end. But to the people who say, "Will you be getting yourself a chain saw?". The answer is "NO!".
On the way back through Cookham lock (which we had to operate ourselves again), Mr "I've been boating since the seventies" advised us to tie up with the stern rope first. From the flybridge of his rather large cruiser, with bowthrusters. Doesn't make much sense to me, as the blunt end is where the engine sits. In our admittedly limited experience, it's not been good for us to leave the boat's unpowered bits flapping about, and we've been tying it down as soon as possible. And then swinging the stern around with the engine. But we nodded politely and thanked him for his 'wisdom'.

All summer, we've seen cruisers tie up at the Bourne End jetty. It's invariably the white gloved wives and girlfriends who lasso the bollards and cleats.... from the front.

Pretty Vacant

Cruised ourselves up to Marlow, to purchase some brown sugar cubes. Had the river to ourselves, until we reached the lock, when 4 boats came piling out at top speed. 2 holiday cruiser boats were trying to overtake 2 Narrowboats. They were so far across the river, we had to take evasive action. The owners of the narrowboats smiled, and rolled their eyes, in a "what can you do?" type of resignation.

Happily for us, we didn't run into the bushes, and the free 24 hour visitor moorings were almost vacant. We were able to find a lovely spot next to a convenient bench. Last time we came this way, they were overstuffed with massive holiday boats, causing a bit of tension for people queueing to enter the lock.

We found the required condiments, and pootled ourselves back to Bourne End at just over tickover. Got overtaken by some canoeists who'd snuck up behind us. Managed to moor up without even bumping the boat next to us. So, another enjoyable day out. Sumo liked sniffing around Marlow park, too.

Boulter's Lock

On our way down to Boulter's lock, it started to heave down with rain. So we decided to shelter under some trees at Cliveden, until the worst of it has passed. Our first experience of Au-natural mooring (aka: 'Ramming the bank') went really well. We didn't drop the mooring pins or sledgehammer in the river. And we managed to nudge ourselves gently into this little patch of lovely loveliness, without running ourselves aground. No people. No traffic. Silence. We both felt very lucky.
After the rain cleared, we enjoyed a nice cup of tea in the sunshine, before deploying the boat pole to push ourselves off from the bank. Not sure if that's the correct health and safety approved way of doing things, but we managed to ensure the prop was in deep water before we started the engine, and gently punting 12 tons of steel was great fun.

Going down through Boulter's Lock was easier than we'd imagined, from reading about it. It's deeper than Marlow lock, but that makes very little difference when you're going downstream. It has bench seating for 100's of onlookers, but thankfully there were very few of them out today. The visitor moorings in Maidenhead were all taken, which was a shame. The place hardly screamed "WELCOME BOATERS!", but it was a rainy tuesday and everybody was in a rush to get home.

On the way back, Sheena was extremely relieved we hadn't crashed into Maidenhead's 16th century roadbridge.

Had to operate the locks ourselves, as it was after 5 'o' clock, and the lock keeper had gone home. But we shared the job with a family who'd cashed in their tesco vouchers for a weeks hire (£1400), and chugged our way back up to Bourne End without incident.

Boulters Lock Wiki