BOATING ON THE THAMES

It's amazing how much you can pack into a weekend when you have a boat. We set off from Wargrave at 4.30pm and moored up in Sonning where, after a glass of wine on board, we walked to The Mill at Sonning for dinner and an Agatha Christie play: Love From a Stranger . (It's £42 p/person including a two course dinner and your theatre ticket, which I think is very good value for money.) On Saturday morning we headed to Pangbourne for the first time. The stretch of the Thames between Sonning and Pangbourne is quite dull but, on the plus side, there's a Tesco by the river in Reading which allows you to moor up, shop and go. Fantastic! We arrived in Pangbourne around lunchtime and headed to the high street for lunch: a deliciously fresh & crunchy salad at The Ditty. We then decided to walk the 8 miles to and from Goring along the Thames Path. It's a really lovely walk - but be prepared for some steep climbs! After a much needed half a pint of cider a...

We went out on Happy Chance for the first time this year and it was idyllic: warm sunshine and not a cloud in the sky. And when you run your own business ( findatvexpert.com ) it's the perfect weekend away: no phone, no TV, no computer, no internet & no email. All I have to think about is what papers I want to read, which post I need to moor up to and whether or not I should put on sunfactor (which I did last weekend as it was so warm.) We were hoping to have a stereo installed but there's still some wiring to be done. The new cockpit lights are in though and they're fantastic: warm white LEDs. I like them because they give off a warm glow (instead of that cold, white LED light) and Mr J's happy because they don't use much electricity and, as a result, don't run down the battery. Re the trip itself, we went to Henley, moored up, had a friend join us on the boat for cocktails at sunset and then headed to La Bodega for dinner. For some r...

Mr J and I went to the London Boat Show yesterday and spent six and a half hours looking at ropes, boats, cleaning products, lifejackets, etc. Happy Chance is still out of the water but it won't be long before she's back in it and we can start enjoying weekends on the River again.

Mr J read this blog yesterday and said it was 'boring'. He thinks I should include details of what we see on the river, names of the locks, distances between the locks, etc. So I'll start with the locks, which are all very picturesque and manned by friendly lock-keepers. There are 4 locks between Wargrave and Marlow: Marsh (at Henley), Hambleden, Hurley and Temple (just before Marlow if you're going down river). And there's one lock between Wargrave and Sonning: Shiplake. It seems strange to think that we won't be on the river again until next year. Roll on the Spring!

I've just unpacked our bags and realised that I left the milk & cheese in the fridge - along with the grapes & bananas. Un-be-lie-va-ble! So it's back to the boat tomorrow, which is much earlier than expected. But I'm glad I remembered. Can you imagine what the boat would have smelt like if we'd left it there until March?

This was our last weekend on Happy Chance as she's coming out of the water over the winter. So with the sun on our backs we headed down the river to Marlow . It was the first time we'd been to Marlow and the first time we'd operated the locks on our own. (The locks are manned most of the time but between 1-2pm during the day and after 4pm in the winter it's 'self-service'. And as there were so few people on the river we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to figure out how it's done.) Luckily the instructions are very straightforward and (apparently) there's no way you can flood the river or cause a major catastrophe, which I was very relieved to hear as I was operating the lock. Another first was dinner at Villa D'Est e in Marlow - a great Italian restaurant. It's not cheap but it serves delicious food, has a buzzy atmosphere and is packed with lovely people (walk up the High Street, turn right at the top and it...

We've only had Happy Chance for three weeks but I'm pleased to say we've got the whole mooring thing down to a fine art. What we've discovered is that you don't have to shout wildly or gesticulate madly. (Because the truth is that if I'm at the bow and Mr J's at the stern we can't hear or see each other.) You just slow down, put the engine into neutral and glide in! And now we have a system: I secure the stern first and then sort out the bow. Simple, easy and stress-free (thanks to the bow thruster!) All I have to do now is get a hang of throwing the ropes over the mooring posts!