Saturday, July 24, 2010

On our side to Pangbourne

We left early this morning and the first problem we had was how to manually work the electric locks as the lock keeper was off duty. The second problem was while coming up in the locks one of the ropes got jammed and nearly tipped Derwent6 on it's side. Luckily we managed to suss out how to close the sluices in time but the knife was at the ready.

Still after we got through we were on our way.
It was all open water on the way to Reading and not much to see but we soon got to the entrance of the Kennet & Avon, (something we will do another time with our gold licence for the Thames) and then cruised through Reading.

Our luck soon changed when we managed to get a mooring right outside Tesco's and Al stocked up all the cupboards. We were also able to get on the diesel point at Better Boating which was recommended by other bloggers (thanks guys)
We then got into the countryside again and for the first time on this trip we had to queue for the next lock. This is the first weekend that the kids are off on their summer break and it has been very busy. We got to Pangbourne where there were no moorings on the meadows, but we did manage to squeeze Derwent6 under a tree.
After a bit of lunch, we walked down to Pangbourne station as Al was going down to Whitstable in Kent to her friend Zoe's hen party.

Del came back to Derwent6 and did some touching up to the paintwork. We have been battered about a bit on the Thames as the moorings at locks in general have been very high.

No comments: