Even after an 11 hour flight and all the airport waiting time before and after, we still felt energised to get the boat back to a liveable state. The boat cover and the winterising procedure carried out by the marina left the boat completely dry and “key-start ready”, as promised. However, moving back onto the boat always takes longer than we thought it would take, so after two solid days of unpacking and “refitting”, we were ready to finally relax.
The river flow had subsided and the sun even threatened to show its face for more than a few hours. After 6 months in sunny Cape Town, we could live with the cloud and occasional sunshine for now, but we were so happy to see no “red boards”.
We decided to go for a day run up to Pangbourne and back, just to check that the gearbox was all happy. It also gave us (me) the opportunity to activate the muscle memory necessary to work all the ropes at the locks. All in all was a good day and fortunately the muscles required to lift wine glasses are the same muscles used to throw ropes, so it was also a successful day.
We got back to our mooring at Reading and started planning a longer run in a few days, possibly 4 days up to and back from Goring. We will buy a river licence at Goring, for a month, which will allow for a separate run to Oxford and back down through London and onto Medway. We are also going to apply for our long stay visas for France and this travelling can fill the time while we wait for the visa outcome. If all is well …….France here we come!!
We are back...
