After an amazing thunder/lightening show throughout most of the night, we woke to rain (of course), although I really wanted to believe the weather app, which claimed that it would be a dry somewhat sunny day.
We left Sonning at 10:15, aiming to get as close as we could to Goring, as we heard it was so pretty and lovely moorings. We also had friends coming from north of Oxford who would join us as soon as we stopped somewhere. We just needed to let them know where we were moored up or headed to and they would drive to that spot. This was becoming a regular and easy thing to do – post your position and friends find you. So lovely.
Patrick had some “intel” (he read it in the River Thames guide book) about a fuel berth at Caversham, not too far up the river. So that would be our first stop.
Besides needing fuel, I was getting a little concerned about the condensation inside the boat. The outside temperature was dropping most evenings and the boat was getting really damp inside at night. I was wiping down windows and ceilings most mornings now.
This was not a new problem on the boat as winter approaches. Almost all boats have an issue with condensation, particularly with cooking, showering, breathing, (snoring in Patrick's case) etc. The problem of condensation and damp is best resolved by using a dehumidifier. (I am still working on the snoring problem). We hadn't brought our dehumidifier with us as it was just too large and difficult to store away when not in use, but it worked a treat when we used it. So I started an online search for stores that sold small but effective dehumidifiers and if any of these stores were within walking distance from any stops/moorings along our route.
I found one at a store in Tilehurst, Reading AND there was a marina right there. So the plan was: fuel at Caversham and dehumidifier at Reading and then onto Goring to meet friends. Sounds like a simple and easy day.
We found the fuel berth easy enough, as the sun came out. The clue was the large petrol pump on a wooden pontoon. Oh, and a big sign that said “Fuel”. Another boat pulled up just as we started to fill up – we have two fuel tanks, port and starboard, and we wanted to fill them both. I hoped there would be some fuel left afterwards - we were looking at taking on board 300 litres!
I went back on-line to make sure the dehumidifier was not only small and effective but also really really cheap.
The fuel pump was slow so we had a good chat with the owners of the other boat. “Boat people” are so lovely and even if you have completely different boats, you will have shared experiences. So, for a few minutes you get to know so much about each other, only to probably never see them again. Once we were done, Patrick added diesel-bug preventative into the tanks, we paid and we said our good byes.
Off to Reading to get the dehumidifier. We came across the marina easily enough, although it was more like a working yard compared to the marina we had stayed at earlier, in Windsor. There was a wall in front, on the water, where boats were tied up but it didn’t look like there was space for us and there was no obvious visitors mooring.
There were, however, spaces across the river on the bank on the right hand side so we agreed to stop there and decide what to do - it is so hard to make decisions while the boat is moving.
The marina (and the shops) were on the left of the river but as there weren’t any open spaces for us, our only option was to haul out the dingy (tender) pump it up and row across. Perhaps we should move on and look elsewhere for a dehumidifier.
A man shouted across the river from the marina side, asking if we were planning to say there, on the bank. Patrick shouted back that we only wanted to stop for a while, to go into the town for “provisions”. The man, Phil (who we later found out owned the marina yard as well as all the moorings on the wall and directly across the river), replied that we could come across the river with our boat and tie up/raft up along side a large barge/canal boat that was tied up against the marina wall. We could stay there for about half an hour if we wanted….. Yes please!!. So we untied from the bank and Patrick did a turn in the river so we could come alongside the barge (called Bobbin-Along).
Rafting up is something we had done many times and Patrick asked me to throw a rope as we come alongside and try get it (loop it) over the cleat on to the front of the badge, bring the rope back onto our boat and tie it off – the line shouldn’t be too tight - and then see if I could get a centre line over the cleat in the centre of the barge. These are always on the roof of a barge or narrowboat. He is usually in neutral at this point so we go really slowly. He would then motor against the tied on ropes and the back of the boat would come in alongside neatly. This is a system we often and somewhat successfully do when mooring up.
But it all went wrong.
As Patrick slowly brought Deux Poissons along side, I was on the bow of the boat, ready with the ropes, but our boat “overshot” the barge, so I couldn’t throw anything. At the time I wondered why he wasn’t slowly creeping forward in neutral. I waited for Patrick to correct this, as he normally does, by reversing. In a worst case scenario, he would just circle back round and I would try again. But our engine cut out, just stopped, but we were still coasting forward. Moving toward a motorboat tied up in front of Bobbin-Along. Patrick restarted the engine but it cut out immediately. He then came out onto the deck to grab the side of the barge to stop our boat from crashing into the other boat in front of us. Which he managed. (I have no idea how, really no idea). Our boat is heavy! Then he took the rope jumped onto the barge and tied off the front line. He grabbed the centre line and got that onto the barge. He then scrambled down the side of the badge and took the aft line. Finally we were all tied up and could breathe. What the hell had happened? I just kept quiet.
Patrick went back onto Deux and started her up, she started but immediately went forward. He put her into neutral and she kept going forward. Reverse and the engine cut out, stalled. I thought it was faulty fuel – diesel bug? Fuel problem? Why would the engine cut out? Patrick said no – is seemed like a gear box problem. She was stuck in forward, and as soon as he tried to reverse, the engine cut out. This did puzzle us as we had the gearbox reconditioned about 3 years ago and we haven’t used the boat much since that time. Patrick estimated less than 100 hours. It should not have broken.
Phil, the owner of the marina, came over to see what was happening. Patrick explained and showed him what was happening with the engine and he agreed that it was possibly gear box. Unfortunately we couldn’t stay where we were – tied up on Bobbin-Along - as the owner would be back soon (he was also out shopping) and the barge needed to move. Bobbin-Along had a permanent mooring across the river and the space he (we) were taking up was reserved for other boats that would be back either that day or tomorrow. God, what a mess!. ~
But Phil was so lovely. He offered to tow us across the river, back onto the bank that we had first stopped at and we could stay there. He had a small little “ferry” boat he uses to shuttle people around the river, so he could tow us over. He also has a son who was the marine engineer at the marina and so he would arrange for him to be down to the marina early tomorrow and to come over and check out our engine/gearbox and we could take it from there.
So we off-loaded our bikes from the boat and locked them in the yard and got back on to the boat. Phil and friend John towed us over to the bank and we secured our boat up there. They were both so lovely and kind. We later found out that John owned the boat in front of Bobbin-Along, that we nearly crashed into and he often loves to just come down and stay over on in, enjoying the river and nature. If Patrick hadn’t stopped our boat, it would have made for a very different ferry ride back to our boat – I would have been mortified. As a reminder; our boat has a steel hull and a very sharp bow. John’s boat is “plastic”.
We quickly called our friends to let them know what had happened and they agreed to come down to Reading to see us but they would be a few hours still. We grabbed some grocery bags and got John to ferry us back to the marina so we could take our bikes into the town to do some grocery shopping. As tempting as it was to pull into the first pub and stay there, we were sensible and headed to the supermarket. We piled up as much beer and wine as we could into our grocery bags, secured them tightly to the back of the bikes and slowly cycled back to the boat yard/marina. We locked up our bikes again, as it appeared this would be our mode of transport for a while and John helped us load our provisions into the ferry boat and took us back over the river.
So for now we had a place to stop and stay. How long, we didn’t know. Our pressing concerns were …. power and water. Patrick works Tues, Wed and Thursday, on a laptop so that needs to keep charged. We have solar panels which will keep the fridge-freezer going, so the beer and wine will stay chilled. We have a little portable camping gas hob, so we could boil a kettle or a pot/pan, so we are unlikely to starve, although our shop earlier hadn't focused much on food!
We hadn’t filled with water when we did the fuel stop, so we were getting low on water. And the biggest crises was the dishwasher was half full and would need to go on at some stage. Or I would need to hand wash :(.
But our friends had arrived and were standing on the bank waving at us, with a HUGE basket of goodies. John appeared out of nowhere and bundled them up into the ferry boat and brought them over to us. I was thrilled to find that the basket not only contained home made scones and all the bits that go with them but also bottles of prosecco.
It was lovely to have friends over and we re-lived the drama of earlier, by explaining what had happened and hashing out all possible causes and solutions. The related trauma was significantly dampened with each sip (gulp) of prosecco. They stayed for a few hours and then were bundled back into the ferry boat and waved goodbye as they set off back home.
We tidied up the boat, something I have to do a couple of times a day otherwise it becomes so cluttered and feels overwhelming. We had filled up on scones and prosecco, but agreed that a little dinner was needed. So we ran the generator for a while, charged up the laptops and phones and I got us some dinner done using the airfryer. We forfeited our showers for the dishwasher, but if we were going to be staying here for a while, we were going to need a way to get water onto the boat. Using plastic jerry cans would be our best bet.
It was an early evening, and despite all that had happened we were in a lovely spot for the night – what felt like right in the middle of nature, as long as you only looked out the starboard side windows!
As we settled down for the night I remembered that we hadn’t bought the dehumidifier. With the words “broken gear box / repair or replace / lift the engine out / very old gearbox / no idea what could be wrong / no idea of costs / recently reconditioned” all running around in my head, it didn’t feel the right time to discuss the purchase of a dehumidifier, even if it was in the store just round the corner of the marina.
So I thought I would sleep on it and bring it up at a later stage – choose your battles and all that.
