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 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.
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