After an evening of tasty snacks and even tastier wine, 10h30am felt way too early; but off we went – into the fog.
We passed more beautiful huge houses, impressive, with boat houses we could live in.
At Marlow lock we dropped our mast as we had a few low bridges ahead and the mast wouldn’t make it.
As we made our way to our next stop, Sonning, we shared the river and the locks with the same boats, travelling in the same direction. This almost always what happens; boats travel at the same(ish) speed, so you arrive at the locks together. If the locks are busy, you tie up outside the lock together and wait your turn or together work the lock. Then you enter and tie up inside together and wait for the lock to fill before you can continue with your trip. So there is a lot of chatting and “hello again”. You have time to learn about each other and share stories and advice. You just pick up where you left off at the next lock and for a while these are “your people”.
And then you go separate ways. You stop and stay somewhere and off they go, or vice versa. There is this strange joy when you see them a few days later, possibly tied up somewhere and you wave madly, like you have seen an old old friend. If you’re lucky, you meet again in a lock and can finally hear what happened to Aunt Susan on the hike in the woods or if Uncle Gary did win a prize in the vegetable growing competition. Today our friends were the owners of a sweet small day boat called Little Annie, who they purchased in Poole – our old sailing ground. The beautiful varnish made me quite envious and every time I looked at Patrick he was giving me that knowing/accusing stare – yes I needed to get on with my varnishing so Deux Poissons gleamed like Little Annie. (I think the clue as to the discrepancy in our varnished woodwork lay in the word “Little”).
We also shared the locks with Princess Marina, a very large old tourist boat. Today her guests were happily sipping cocktails and sparkling wine on the foredeck in the sunshine while some friendly ladies were cooking up a storm in the galley, which was in the aft section, with large windows. Princess Marina went into the lock first, every time, and we managed to squeeze in behind her. The first time I made a comment about the sliding windows in the aft section / galley being perfect serving hatches - we all just “laughed”. The next lock I greeted the ladies again with the normal somewhat “cheesy”… here we are again ladies. This time they held up chicken hamburgers and asked if we would like one? Mmmm. YES PLEASE! I was starting to regret the tasty wine from last night and hadn't had a chance to grab any food yet. I was starving.
I almost threw Patrick onto the bank to grab those burgers before the lock opened or someone intervened (like the captain or whoever was paying for the trip). The boat, however, was too far from the edge and Patrick couldn’t reach the prize, but he took one look at my face and quickly instructed the ladies with a plan. Using an oven tray they created a “bridge” and Patrick was able to secure the goods. Best tasting chicken burger. EVER. Thank you to the queens on the Princess Marina.
We passed through Henley-on-Thames which was really pretty. It was quiet with a few row boats practising but it was easy to see how crazy it would be here during the Royal Regatta in July. Established in March 1839, the regatta lasts 6 days and about 300 000 people attend each year.
We passed through Marsh Lock at 13:50 and got to Sonning about an hour later. We found a space on an Environmental Agency bank and grabbed it, which was lucky as there was a constant stream of boats for about an hour after, slowing down and looking for a mooring. We seemed to have got the last one. Princess Marina turned around before the lock, so we had said our goodbyes and thank you. Little Annie came through through with us and went on ahead. I am sure we will see her soon as they were headed for Abington which is where they lived and they were looking to take a few more slow days to get there. We are headed in the same direction.
My daughter, Amy and partner Tom drove up and joined us for a delicious dinner at the pub nearby, Bull Inn – was delicious, although the Princess chicken burger still rated 10/10 for me.
It wasn't too late to bed and as we settled down, the thunder and lightening started. It went on for ages and was amazing to watch and see. I did hope that this wasn’t the start of the rainy season just yet, as we were having such fun.
