We just can't keep away..

And there was me thinking that was our cruising done for a couple of weeks!

So to start with, as planned, we visited to do the 50 hour service on the engine and to get the waste tank emptied.:

Before we cruise over to the pump-out in T&K marina, I check with the office only to find it isn't working so well, and therefore not available to us. Never mind, out onto the river we go and upstream the few hundred yards to Better Boating. The pontoon there is empty and we maneuver alongside and tie up. It takes an age to empty the tank, but it is 1000 litres, a bargain for £16.50

Back into Dreadnought and now we are nicely warmed up, time to do the oil change. This goes pretty well, I also check belt tensions, nuts and bolts and stuff, the small alternator belt needs to be a bit tighter, so I adjust it and all is done until we get to 300 hours, wonder how long that'll take?

We go to Tesco to stock up with 'dry goods' for the forthcoming 3 week trip, funny how there seems to be a lot of 'wet goods' too! We have a bit of a clean and tidy then back to the real world for a few days.

And there I was thinking that was the cruising done until the hatham trip! The following Friday we're back again and heading upstream towards Beale Park. It's pretty quiet on the river and we have an uneventful trip to the park, we even get to tie up on the bank nearest to the path to the entrance.

A quiet afternoon / evening, then the following morning Emily, Gareth and Granddaughter Charlotte arrive for baby's first boat trip. We load up the required equipment for the day trip, I remembered it being a lot, and yes, it still is a lot!! We head off further upstream and see 'Steel Away' coming downstream, (memo to self, take pictures!) Up through Goring and Cleeve and on to Wallingford where we stop for lunch.

During lunch Trigger and Julie from 'Tickety Boo' come over for a chat, we learn they are soon to be owners of Piper Barge 'Mimosa' we wish them well and suspect we'll see them in Henley in September.

We turn around after lunch, wishing we had time to go see the food festival which was taking place on the other side, but alas, maybe next time. We have the same quiet, uneventful (I quite like uneventful) cruise back to Beale Park where we unload the passengers and say our farewells. Myself and Penny (at Penny's insistence) take the walk to Pangbourne so we can take a look at the woolen artwork which is on Whitchurch Bridge, and quite impressive it is too. We drop into the Coop for some superglue which I hope will stick my broken glasses back together (it does) and return to Deep Thought for the evening.

A lazy Sunday morning and another quiet, gentle cruise back to Caversham where we laze around until we force ourselves to pack up and go home, interesting point, where is home these days?

Gone Boating!

It's been a few weeks! Understandably we've been enjoying the boat!

We had two friends drop in on Friday evening for a look, we went for a quick spin down to Sonning and back then had dinner and wine, or was it the other way round, or was it both?? Anyway, a most pleasant evening.

The rest of the weekend was spent cleaning and stocking the boat for our coming friends and family weekend, The external cleaning was not as bad an experience as I thought it was going to be. I'm one of those guys that loves a clean shiny boat, but hates making it so!! We have a sort of brush attachment for our hose, meant for cars, this seemed to do a reasonable job of the cabin, the angle was a bit shallow which was causing my back to ache a bit, something to think about. But the end result of a few hours work was a lovely shiny boat. Imagine the look on my face when I'm told they're going to jet wash the pontoon!! As it turned out we weren't there when they did, but I actually layed awake at night worrying about all the cleaning work going to waste!!

It's going to be a busy few days. To start, we are off to Bisham Abbey RYA training school for some boat handling practice and the further objective of getting our ICC's (International Certificates of Competence) which are required for operating the boat in Europe.

So, on Wednesday, we head for Caversham, load up and set off downstream on a very quiet river bound for Marlow. Out of the six locks we pass through only Marsh (Henley) is manned. It rains a lot as we get to Hambledon so we hang about on the landing waiting for a break. It hails between Hambledon and Hurley, and in about 5 to 5 1/2 hours cruising we are tying up in Marlow.

View from the stern this evening:

A quiet evening mostly spent reading the RYA CEVNI book (both me & Penny) and the ICC book (just me).

A very leisurely start to Thursday, more revision of the above books and a gentle stroll around the park, then just before 9 we set off and cruise up to the RYA training centre at Bisham Abbey. We tie up alonside 'Le Coq' and go in to see what's happening. We are introduced to Tim Allen who is to be our instructor for the coming 2 days.

We start off by having a chat with Tim about our expectations for the 2 days. These are:
Minimum, learn a bit about boat handling and Tim gets an inland ICC.
Maximum. learn a lot about boat handling, Penny gets an inland ICC and Tim gets a coastal ICC.

The boat handling stuff follows the syllabus of the inland helmsman certificate, so we spend Thursday morning driving up and down, coming to a stop and holding position, turning round and coming alongside to moor, all basic stuff and not too challenging.

After lunch we both take our CEVNI tests, Penny gets 25/30 and I get 27/30 which are both pass marks, hooray!! Then Tim gives me the coastal paper to do while he carries on tutoring Penny with further mooring and other things. The coastal paper is a bit like the test paper at the end of the day skipper theory, a question on course to steer, some buoys and lights to identify, a sound signal question and a final one on pilotage, not too difficult, but it was a good job I read through the ICC book the evening before! And guess what? I passed.

We spend the remaining part of the day being shown how to use bow and stern springs to help with mooring and setting off, quite interesting for me as I've only ever read about the theory, now I've had a go at the practice.

We spend the night at the training centre tied alongside 'Le Coq'

Friday dawns and Tim soon arrives for our second day. We have a bit of a warm up cruising up and down, turning and stopping, then it's off to complete the 'lockwork' part of the course. I take us through the unmanned Temple Lock and Penny takes over for the manned Hurley Lock. We carry on up the river a bit and stop to play with the anchor, I've never anchored a boat before so this is good interesting stuff. We anchor in the reach at Medmenham, and of course manage to raise it again.

We return through Hurley & Temple and spend the next hour or so doing 'man overboard' drills, important stuff that gives you a lot to think about. Finally, as I'd been discussing it with Tim, I had a go at downstream mooring alongside 'Le Coq' it's really upstream mooring but we're reversing to come alongside. Tim disappears to get our paperwork signed and returns to congratulate Penny on her ICC inland and me on my ICC coastal, all in all a very interesting and successful 2 days at the centre.

Now for the second part of the trip!

The early May bank holiday weekend was to be our 'show' weekend for friends and family who wanted to see the boat, so fully laden with RYA paperwork, we passed through Temple and Hurley for the third time today on our way to Henley.

We arrive around 6.00pm to find plenty of mooring space. As we're tying up, Clare & Jeremy (Happy Chance) come by and invite us along for drinks, which we accept and go and spend a pleasant hour talking boats. On our return we set about getting ready for our weekend visitors, here we are in full show mode:

On Saturday morning we take a stroll into town for a few last minute supplies and to try to find a new phone for Tim (No, it didn't go into the river!) as it finally gave up when it fell off the wheelhouse table on Friday. The mooring warden comes by and relieves us of £30 for the 3 nights mooring!! We get the boat all tidy and wait for visitors, who eventually arrive in the early afternoon pretty much all together. Nibbles and wine etc ensue and there are many tours of the boat, a good time being had by all. A bit later, Patrick & Sue (Eadlin) invite us for drinks (they are moored a few boats further up) so we go for a natter and some rather generous glasses of white from Patrick, before we get a call from my youngest son asking where we were (he was coming over for dinner). So we return to find David waiting for us, with more wine, a good natter and an excellent dinner from Penny.

Sunday is a kind of repeat of Saturday, we stroll in the other direction though so as to find Tesco and we've already paid for the mooring!! Fuel boat 'Merchant' shows up and I decide to top up the tank, 295 litres later (how much?) we are full, I'm kinda hoping that the tank wasn't quite full to start with, I thought we should have used 150 litres or so. After a sit down to recover we tidy up again and in the afternoon everyone shows up, you get the idea! After another pleasant afternoon our visitors depart and Daughters, partner & granddaughter duly arrive for a Sunday roast, Oh, and it's Emily's birthday. I walk them back to their cars around 9 and we settle in to watch the last episode of 'Line of Duty'

Monday, well, we tidy up, walk in to town to see what the Mayday celebrations were all about - not too much! and returned to await visitors as before, only 2 today, although I understand some others were unable to get parked so gave up on us. Then sometime between 2 & 2.30 we started to get ready to leave for Caversham.

After all of the weekend hustle & bustle in Henley over the weekend it was quite a surprise to find the river very unbusy!! The exception being the twat in a day launch that overtakes us above Marsh lock, pulls in front of us, then stops!! If it wasn't for Penny pointing this out it would have been an ex
day launch. Some people shouldn't be allowed out!!

We pass Happy Chance at Wargrave and at about 5pm return to our mooring, a wave to Dave & Ang (Steel Away) & a bit of a chat with Cindy (Emily) our new neighbour, a feeling of relief that the pontoon has been jet washed while we were away, and we set about tidying & packing for our return home. Only forgetting to turn the heating off which I returned to do on Tuesday. Doh!

We have no plans to cruise anywhere in the coming two weeks, we want to make sure we're in good shape for our departure for the Chatham rally on the 19th. We'll visit next weekend as the engine 50 hour oil change now needs to be done, we also need to get the waste tank emptied. A few things to get and sort out our dry stores for the trip, so our next post's will most probably be from the trip to Chatham, see you then.

Would we have done anything differently?

A good question I hear you ask!

Well, would we?

I'm not sure we would definitely do anything different, but we have discussed a couple of things that we might!!

There's a bunch of minor stuff - hooks for coats, lifejackets, keys, guest towels / washbags, cooker splashback, bathroom / guest room mirrors, pull-out bin under the sink, permanent power supply to the radio, you get the idea, a bunch of things you don't really notice until you're away using it all for real.

I've hung a few more fenders, got a second set of mooring lines to save swapping sides at the last minute, all minor,operational stuff that doesn't really affect the build.

With hindsight, we may have considered:

Having our guest cabin as a permanent bedroom.
Getting the builder to fit a bin in the under sink cupboard.
Having the side of the saloon at floor level 'sloped' to match the angle of the bottom of the boat rather than it be boxed in.
We need more 230V sockets (with USB) in the wheelhouse.
And a tiny, annoying thing, the light switch for the guest cabin is on the outside of the cabin, we would prefer it to be on the inside.

And a few post launch issues:
With a full water tank we sem to be a bit 'bow down' causing the shower to have a small drainage problem.
Now we're on the water a couple of gaps have opened up a bit on one wall and the floor in the bathroom.

But, having said all this, it's pretty minor, petty stuff. We're very pleased with what we have and are looking forward to getting some hours on the engine!!

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.

It's going to be a lovely weekend....

So lets go for a boat trip!

I've had a word at work and am only working 4 day weeks from now on. Not too sure if I'm invading Penny's space (she doesn't work Friday's) but there we go!

We do some necessary work at home (and at Tesco's!) on Friday morning and eventually head off to Dreadnought at about 1.00 It's a truly beautiful day.

We load up our (ever decreasing amount of) gear and (after a bit of lunch) set about stowing and doing a few jobs - a bit cleaning, hanging some more fenders and other such stuff.

A few pictures from this evening:

Saturday soon dawns, exactly as forecast, not a cloud in sight! So, after a leisurely breakfast we head for Henley, nice and slow, enjoying the sunshine. We trundle along with nothing particularly eventful to report and before we know it we are dropping through Marsh Lock and we are in Henley. We decide to go through the bridge and run down the regatta course before turning back to find a mooring. This we do, spotting Happy Chance moored on the offside, so after turning beyond the island (this boat is ever so easy to turn) we come back upstream and moor a couple of boats behind, intending to say hello. (Happy Chance was the boat that inspired us to have a Piper 49M 2 Cabin)
Steve arrives pretty promptly to collect our mooring fee, I've never moored here before, but I really like it. We head off into Henley for a wander about, and head along the towpath towards Marsh to find Alan and Marianne on Dea Latis, well we find Alan and sit in the sun drinking his beer, it's a great life!! Alan and I have a bit of a chat about AIS, he's trying to get his to work, and I'm trying to understand how mine works!! Marianne turns up after a bit of shopping and we set off back to Henley. We buy a few bits, can't really remember what, but must be important and head back to the boat. Claire and Jeremy are now 'in' so we say hello and they come back with us to have a look at our interpretation of a 49M, drink wine and watch the Grand National (they backed quite a few horses between them)(none of them did anything!!)

Here we are in Henley:

After a leisurely breakfast the following morning we went for a bit of a walk, saw some parakeets, heard a woodpecker, sat in the sun on the back deck drinking coffee, talking to passers by, and eventually, despite some reluctance, decided to set off back to Caversham. We trundled up towards Marsh, and my AIS alarm goes off (after yesterdays chat with Alan I'd read the instructions and messed around with the settings) and the chartplotter tells me that Dea Latis is at Marsh Lock! We arrive (2nd boat behind Alan) and I walk up to tell him the good news. He comes back with me to have a look and asks me what I did, I tell him how I set it up and off he goes, next thing I know, he can see us too!! Success!

We cruise slowly back upstream, passing Alan & Marianne who stopped for lunch near Shiplake. Alan took some photo's and film of us passing. Soon enough we are back at Dreadnought, I did the reversing in manoeuvre again, seems easier to get into the pontoon this way. We clean and tidy a bit and back to the real world - again.

And the next week...

I sneak out of work on Tuesday to meet up with Kinver Canopies at the boat. They are quoting us for a dodger around our stern rail, we've decided to go this way as we are going to have Grandchildren on board before too long and we think it'll give us a little bit more security at the stern.

The week drags on, can't wait for retirement next year, our first Granddaughter duly arrives on Thursday morning and then it's Friday. I decided during last nights hospital visit that I would take the day off. We plan to spend the weekend on the boat doing all of the little jobs I had lined up for last weekend, but we went cruising instead, and if we weren't cruising we were drinking wine! We are also introducing our cat to the boat, should be interesting this!

Piper barge 'Steel Away' is now here having been launched on Wednesday, looks just as shiny as Deep Thought.

And, yes, we get things done, some coat / lifejacket hooks in the wheelhouse, a hook in the day loo for guest towels etc, we sort out our water hose by managing to roll it onto its reel without too many kinks and go on to fill the water tank - which takes ages! And we eventually meet David and Angela Steel of 'Steel Away'

Now what else? Oh yes we go shopping for some more stuff, plate racks, side plates, another door mat, a coffee table, a mop, many things that we didn't know we wanted!! Then i get to grips with sorting out the gear in the TV cupboard, Satellite receiver, DVD player, tidying away the spare cables and getting the required ones as neat as possible! Everything still works afterwards which is good, we can even get IPlayer etc now using our 4g router which is linked to the satellite box. I sort out manuals, equipment data sheets, tidy stuff away and fit a voltage regulator to the 12V supply for the blind (a phonecall in the week says 12V should be ok, but a regulator should be fitted as the blind motors are a bit fussy!)  And I generally just find home for the stuff we've loaded onto the boat and think that we may need one day!!

On Sunday Penny goes to Newbury to see Daughter & Granddaughter, I rejig the mooring lines and fenders, then sort out my tools into my shiny new toolbox in the engine room. I bump into Chris and Sara who are having a 49M 2 cabin started in May, I show them around and have a bit of a chat about things 49M design! I go for coffee with David and Angela on Steel Away and have a good natter about all things Piper, good to meet them after all this time, our boats built pretty much together at Piper.

Penny returns and we set about clearing up and returning to the real world, I don't really want to go and would happily stay the night and go to work from here in the morning, shame I didn't bring any extra clothes, and the chicken for tonight's roast is at home!!

I do however unexpectedly return on Monday evening, I get a message from David of Steel Away to say that we left our wheelhouse roof hatch open, he most kindly offers to close it, but it's too late as I'm already in the car and on the way to do it myself, and of course to deliver a few more bits of essential gear.

Till the next time... (I really must take some more pictures!!)

And the next day...

Is Friday!

A reasonable first night afloat, one of the fenders is creaking a bit, but nothing that can't be adjusted.

Here we are at our mooring:

A bit more sorting of gear, trying to find the right home for the right bit!! We seem to have plenty of storage space at the moment.

A chap from Reynolds blinds comes along to measure us for our front window blind, a bit of umming about colour and type, but we get there pretty quickly, just a bit of uncertainty about the power supply, we've had 12V put in, so I hope this is suitable!!

Penny's daughter and partner Gareth arrive and we have a spot of lunch, then, with a little trepidation, I can no longer resist the urge to cruise, so off we go, out onto the river and up through Caversham lock and cruise a mile or two, then back to the marina, in forwards this time, and a successful first 'solo' We check out the satellite system as we watch a bit of comic relief over dinner and drinks.

Then on Saturday Penny's other daughter Tasha and boyfriend Simon and one of my son's Tom and partner Laura pitch up, this time we head out and turn left towards Sonning, I'm a bit nervous about the bridge there, but wonder why as we cruise through it, we cruise on through Shiplake passing 'Happy Chance' the boat that inspired us to end up with 'Deep Thought' We get as far as the reach above Marsh lock before turning back, our aspirations for the wheelhouse being a social area are confirmed, plenty of room for all six of us with food & drinks, the sun is shining and we're having a great time. Everyone has a go at steering, Sonning bridge I find a bit more tricky heading upstream, but a couple of blasts of bow thruster saves the day, and before we know it we're tying up (at the second attempt this time) again.

And then on Sunday Penny's Mum and Stepdad John arrive, a real test coming up as we try out the galley with a roast beef lunch!! In some glorious weather we cruise up to the moorings at Pangbourne, just below Whitchurch lock, there's a Deep Thought sized space and all is well. We cook a successful roast beef Mother's Day lunch, just missing a carving fork and a meat thermometer. Piper barge Providence is also there and gives us a toot as she sets off. Not many boats about, just as well as I'm still feeling my way with handling Deep Thought. The keeper at Mapledurham admires the cheapness of our CRT gold licence, It would be so easy to forge one of these!! On our approach to Caversham we spot a familiar face at the lock, fellow John Pinkerton Skipper Steve, who was out for a bit of a walk after a mother's day lunch with his wife and daughter, so we do the only decent thing in the circumstances and take them for a spin downstream. Steve has a bit of a drive and I think he wants one (a barge!) We drop them back at Caversham and head back into Dreadnought for anothe two attempts and getting into the mooring.

What a great introduction to the world of barges!