Rain
This seems to be the theme of summer 2007, we had more of it today. There is nothing quite like standing in the open when its pouring with rain to make one question some of the choices made in life. :)

We stopped the other side of Abingdon last night, we had intended to stop in the town itself, but the only mooring we could find that was free had a fisherman sitting on it who seemed to think it was his right to sit there. Maybe he was right, who knows, but that and the roving gangs of chavs was enough for us to carry on. The lockeeper let us through even though he was about to go off duty and we found a safe place for the night on a little island by Swifts Ditch - this was the original course of the Thames before some monks altered the channel so it would flow by their Abbey in 1620 blah blah blah - lots of historical trivia on my map of the Thames....

Today was a day for boat spotting - I saw a tug style narrowboat that I went to look at in the midlands (it was too small for me) going downriver and this unusual combo of a pusher tug and narrowboat. The back of the narrowboat had been modified so that the tug had a secure location, looked very interesting (well, I thought so).

I spied narrowboat Bones on the way into Oxford center.

Bones is now writing for one of the monthly waterways magazines, I forget which one. I also saw another one of their columnists moored up in their very nice replica tug 'Nobby' - no pictures of that one as I was steering round a bend in heavy rain and strong river flows.

Speaking of which, I've had to accept that IRIS is not a particularly fast boat, even by narrowboat standards. The flow on the Thames is so strong at the moment that in places we were probably only doing 1-2 mph against the stream. In this picture it looks like the bow wave of a speedboat, but snails were passing me on the bank.

The flow through Onsey was amazing - I was almost taken out by the boat 'Weasel' (see a couple of posts below). It wasn't his fault, there was no way you could really control a boat going downstream. Hope its better next week when we're coming back.

The bridge an Onsey is very low, I'm glad I took the chimney off.

We stopped for lunch at the Trout pub, made famous by Inspector Morse - a TV show apparently. Like a pro, I fell in the river after slipping on a rock and twisted my knee - the same one I did a few weeks ago in Aldermaston. As I limped through the pub the waitresses smiled at me. Nothing like a war wound to make a chap seem more dashing, or perhaps they thought Mary was working for 'care in the community'. Either way lunch was good. Note my technique of tying up to handy bits of riverside clutter, such as fences.

Finally after more boating in the rain we arrived at Pinkhill lock for the night. Here is a picture of the crew (spiders not present) during a rare sunny spell.

Shillingford
Well, just after the crack of noon, the good ship IRIS slipped her moorings in Reading and headed out onto the Thames for our journey to the upper reaches of the river. Just me, Mary and about 400 spiders make up the crew.

Before the off there were a few jobs to be done. I finally replaced the skanky old sink in the kitchen with this stylish number.

Mary painted various floorboards, hatches and deck areas, so between us we got a few things out of the way.

On monday I topped up the fuel tanks (note, I did actually pay for the fuel) and we headed out.

We got past Goring and Cleeve lock before stopping for the night, handily close to a gastro-pub, the Beetle and Wedge, were we had a couple of drinks and watched the sun set.

Today its been raining and miserable, here are a couple of shots of the river,

This bridge was probably built by I.K. Brunel, he made lots of stuff.

By early afternoon we'd only made it far as Shillingford due to slow boat, headwinds and current. As we popped out the other side of the bridge there I saw a mooring and a pub. It wasn't a hard decision to make.

Vikings
On returning to the marina last night, I saw a strange looking boat with the name 'Weasel'. I wanted to get a picture, but it snuck away into the the morning mist....

Tobias must've extended his reach.

Newbury #2
The return journey of the Newbury trip was split over a couple of days. I went back to Iris on the friday evening and picked her up from the dry dock. After confidently reversing out into the main canal from the boatyard, I discovered my confidence was somewhat overated as I struggled to turn around. After a couple of attempts, I decided to capitalise on my reversing skills and go back down the canal to where there was more room.

It was a little further than I thought. So if anyone here was wondering what the narrowboat was doing exiting Newbury in reverse, that was me. I did eventually get down to the pool above the next lock and managed to turn around.

As luck would have it, another boat came along, a very nice traditional style boat with a vintage Lister engine. Martin and Jane were making their way back down to Woolhampton, so we ended up travelling down together, which made all the locks and swing bridges a lot easier. After pretty much shooting the rapids through the infamous Woolhampton lock/electric swing bridge combination, we tied up for the night. Martin and Jane kindly asked me over for dinner and we managed to kill off a couple of bottles of wine on the way. During the course of the evening I happened to mention that it had taken us 14 hours to get from Reading to Newbury the previous week. Martin got that far away look in his eyes that guys sometimes get and said '14 hours eh? Is that some kind of record?' Jane just looked nervous. I bade my farewells and made my way back through the woods to my boat on the other side of the river.

I was up early the next morning and had a nice run down to Aldermaston to meet the others who were on their way out form London. There was a bit of drizzle, but that just added to the whole 'Apocalypse Now' feel.

Everyone arrived from London (Mary, my brother and his girlfriend and Helen and Greg) and we set off into the gloom. A few fairly self explanatory pictures here.

And so back to Reading in the rain, only minor damage done to the chimney after hitting the bridge by the London Street Brasserie, quite a current through there when the Kennett is flowing.

Newbury trip #1
The reason for taking Iris to Newbury was to get her re-blacked in a dry dock up there at All Aboard Marine Services. They'd quoted a price about £1000 less than the local Thames boatyards, so it seemed worth the effort.

Using the trusty canal planner website, I'd worked out that it was a mere 20 miles away. Sure there were a few locks and things, but really, how hard could it be? My confidence was based on the fact that I'd be standing at the back steering and barking out orders to the 'crew'.

This picture shows us leaving the marina in Reading,

...and another one, showing my brother Nick/Eric (two names, long story) who was over from NZ with his partner Sally,....

This is the entrance to the Kennet and Avon canal at about 0830 on the saturday morning,

and here is the lock that separates this from the mighty Thames...

Our trip continued up through the Oracle shopping center and through the other side of Reading. It was interesting as always to see something familiar (Reading) from an unfamiliar point of view (my boat).

The Kennet and Avon canal sometimes has the river Kennett flowing through it and sometimes not. This can make for variable progress between slow and very slow. Still, plenty of time to admire the scenery, as these pictures show....

There were of course a number of locks to go through, about 20 in fact. My brother, his girlfriend and Mary were all lock-novices at the beginning of the day, but by the end of the day, I only had to shout 'lock!' and they'd all spring into action, windlasses at the ready.

Here is a nice shot showing the water pressure in one of the locks,

here I am working hard at getting though a lock....

and Iris almost at the top....

As well as locks, there were also over 10 swingbridges to contend with, some electrically operated and some manual. Here we see my brother earning his keep with the manual variety.

Not shown is the part where I fell over at the lockside in Aldermaston in the rain and badly bruised my knee. Even now, weeks later. I still can't kneel on it. Hopefully it'll be right for the new year when surely my knighthood will be announced.