Tuesday, July 24, 2012

All Day to Day's

We woke up on Sunday morning with the current still rushing past us, but we made the decision to go for it. The boat in front of us went first which gave us enough room to get the bow out into the current and allow the stern to clear the other boats as we got pushed along. Once we were in the flow there was no stopping us. We tried to get on the lock moorings but they were full and holding was out of the question, there were also a load of canoeist's about. As we were being swept in by the weir we were lucky enough to have the lock gates open so we just opened the throttle and went straight in. The other boats weren't too pleased, but understood why we had to do it. A big shout of "Sorry" and "Thanks" did the trick!!!
Once we were through this lock and past the turn at Folly bridge in Oxford we were clear to go, as the stream evened out.
It was just great to be back on the Thames as we cruised through Isis and Sandford locks, and we are loving again the locks being done for us. With the engine at idle we were still doing six knots as we approached Abingdon.
With all the Sunshine and being a Sunday it was packed with boats, swimmers, and BBQ's. We hadn't planned to stop there so we pressed on doing seven locks and seventeen miles and finishing at Day's Lock at Dorchester. We manage to find one of our nice in between the trees moorings, free of course....

We got there just in time to see the sun set over the Old Iron Age village of Dorchester.

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