Easter - Off for a proper trip!!

So, only 4 days at work. We return to Deep Thought on Thursday afternoon, a proper long trip this one, we're heading upstream towards Oxford, no particular goal in mind, just cruise along and see what life brings us!

I'd deliberately left the shore line unplugged and the fridge / freezer running last week. Good to see them still running and the battery at 100% Makes the investment in the additional solar panels and charger worth it!

It occurs to me that following the build process I need to write up a bit of a summary on what worked, what didn't, what we might do if we went through the process again, we won't, but it might help somebody else, so next post I'll have a go at it. Right, where were we?

Oh yes, Thursday afternoon, we have daughter Tash with us, she's going to check out the guest facilities, oh, and the cat (with us, not being checked out!!)!! Can't recall what time we set off, but it was sometime mid afternoon, we had a quiet cruise up to the moorings below Whitchurch lock, plenty of room and not too many boats on the move.

Friday, another quiet, uneventful cruise as far as Wallingford, from previous experience we don't usually find a spot on the moorings here, but there is one and we decide to stop, at least for a few hours, you only pay if stopping overnight, as it turns out we stay the night. I also think (note the word 'think' here) that I'm getting the hang of controlling the boat a bit more, seem to manage locks, landings and moorings a bit more confidently, perhaps with the look from the outside that I might know what I'm doing!!

Here we are at Wallingford:

We go and do one of our 'Treasure Trails' treasure hunts, we find them a good way to explore bits of places that we might not otherwise find, it also forces us to go for a bit of a much needed walk. We have a drink when we finish in the lovely looking 'Old Post Office' Pick up a few bits in Waitrose and spend the evening practicing our CEVNI test signs.

Weather is pretty good for mid April, sunny spells but not as warm as last weekend, we continue our journey and soon encounter Benson lock:

here we are at Benson Lock:

Again, not so many boats about, those that are seem to be of the 'Le Boat' variety we pass through Days, Clifton & Culham Locks and arrive in Abingdon to find plenty of free moorings.

We go for a bit of a walk up around the lock and make the compulsory visit to Waitrose. The weather is superb. We decide not to stay the night and trundle back downstream to moor above the lock at Clifton, it's very quiet and we only see 1 or 2 more boats this evening.

With 26 hours on the engine, it's time to change the gearbox oil (first change due at 25 hours), so I set about doing this (I'm well prepared and have oil and all sorts of stuff to deal with this). Pumping out the old oil is pretty simple, except for the leak on the pump that makes a small puddle in the engine bilge. I pump it into an empty 5l container for disposal later. The puddle is easily cleaned, but will be a bigger one when the 13 litres of engine oil is changed, I'll try to get it looked at and fixed. However, filling up with new oil is a bit more problematic! The filler is quite tricky to get to, so I end up taping some tubing to my funnel, measuring 1.5l into my jug, and in it goes. Now to check the level, this is also a bit tricky as I can't see any oil on the dipstick, I try twice but still no oil, so I pour a bit more in and this seems to do the trick, just the right amount. I do everything up and briefly run the box in forwards and reverse to make sure all the pipes are filled, then check the level again, all is now well, just got to clean up. First maintenance task complete.

On Sunday we cruise to Goring, we stop at Wallingford for lunch and to buy some milk, arriving in Goring around 3 or so, again plenty of free moorings. Emily & Gareth bring new Granddaughter Charlotte over to see us, and we have a nice roast lamb dinner. It was interesting to note that in both Wallingford and Goring we could not get our dish to lock on to the satellite, I suspect due to the large amount of surrounding trees.

It rains a bit on Monday morning, most definitely the worst bit of weather we've had in our limited cruising on Deep Thought, it soon stops and we set off on our return to Caversham. We have both Whitchurch and Mapledurham locks all to ourselves, but encounter a queue at Caversham, outrageous!! We're soon through and before we know it we're all tied up on our pontoon, probably my best effort at it to date!! I really do feel that I'm getting the hang of how to make the boat go where I want it to now, just hope it continues!!

We have a good clean up on the inside (the outside can wait until next weekend), pack our gear and the cat into the car, have a brief chat with David & Angie on Steel Away and head for home.

Our first proper trip out, goodish weather for the time of year, most enjoyable.