Friday, August 03, 2012

Moorings, locks n towns (2)

 
It was at the last lock of the day at Marlow that the incident occurred. We had gone forward as in the previous lock but the bow was against the corner of the lock, the gates being narrower than the body of the lock. As the lock emptied the bow stopped going down and the boat started to tip over. I quickly started the engine to pull back as Ann was yelling. The lock keeper also reacted quickly to let water back in, stopping the boat going down further. Suddenly the boat leveled off. After a while we recovered from the shock and the lock keeper came over to investigate. Nothing under the boat but probably the boats base plate had dug into the wooden lock fender. The lock keeper then let us go down slowly as we pushed off from the side. Both boats moved out to the landing and we checked inside. Some crockery had dropped on the floor but not broken. Things inside cupboards had tried to escape!
Then we set off for moorings at Bourne End. An excellent spot with ring to tie to, mowed grass and benches provided by the Thameside Preservation Trust for which we paid £5 for one night.
After a late lunch we all walked along the Thames path past the boats to get to the shops. That evening George n Ann went off to get Fish n Chips for dinner. 

Next day we set off for Maidenhead where we found moorings against a concrete wall. While we had lunch huge boats were passing making us rock with their wake. We all decided not to pay for the mooring here so moved on down river heading for Windsor.

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