An extra day at Pangbourne

We had a change of plan overnight; we’d originally been aiming for Sonning for tonight because we thought we needed to go further on down to Shiplake to pump out, but during the week we’d been reminded that a) Shiplake pump out is closed and b) there’s a new one at Mapledurham, between here and Reading.

So we’ve stayed on this pleasant meadow mooring, doing a bit of shopping in Pangbourne and washing the roof of the boat. Odd bits of work have been done on various editions of the Newsletter as well.

The only down side is that the river has been dropping a bit, and Sanity Again kept heeling over as her stern grounded. All this was sorted thanks to the arrival of So Far, Peter and Gillian Bolt’s boat. Their arrival was heralded by another blue shirt stalwart pair, Dave and Beryl Chapman in Peddler, who told us that the Bolts were looking for an overnight mooring.

Not long after Peddler had gone on, So Far appeared and tied outside us. Whilst giving them a cup of tea and showing off Sanity Again, we realised that it would make far more sense for So Far to be inside Sanity Again. They draw less, they don’t want to leave as early as us, and they have two dogs, one quite elderly and infirm.

So we’ve done a shuffle; So Far cast off and did a circle round, whilst I motored the stern of Sanity Again out, Sheila meanwhile holding her bow in. So Far came in and slid up between us and the bank, whilst Sheila paid out the bow line until the boats were parallel.

We’re now quite cosy; Sanity Again is floating well, the Bolt’s dogs can come and go, and we’ll be able to leave in good time in the morning without disturbing anybody.

And so to Pangbourne

It’s been one of those days when things largely went to plan. We set off just on half nine from Goring, and had a steady run down river in pleasant sunshine, amongst a lot of traffic.

Things got interesting above Whitchurch Lock, where we had to hover in mid channel for quite a while, there being a queue on the not very long lay by. It took two lockings before we got onto the mooring, then on the third the lockie squeezed us in behind a large smokey cruiser.

Once down, we found lots of boats tied on Pangbourne Meadow, but recognised Slow Gin amongst them. A brief shouted discussion elicited the information that not only were they happy for us to tie outside them, but that they were going after lunch, so we could take over the space.

Di and Reece on Wandering Whimbrel were just in front of them (truly, the clans are gathering), so we’ve spent much of the afternoon nattering and showing off Sanity Again. There has been time, however, to polish the port side portholes and Incralac them, thereby completing the major lacquering jobs. There’s stuff like the tiller bar and fiddly things like door knobs to do, but they will keep for a bit.

Tomorrow, we’ll go on down to Sonning, then on Friday come back up, shopping at Tesco and pumping out at Mapledurham on the way.

A great weekend to recover

What a good weekend that was: Jane got away with no trouble on Saturday morning, and then we had the rest of the time on the unrestricted bit of the Pangbourne Meadow mooring to chill out in pleasant weather, stroll around the riverside and generally feel like relaxed boaters again.

We used a bit of the time on Sunday to rearrange some of the stowage. We had too much stuff under the side berth, a lot of room in the less-easy-to-get-to bit under the head of the double berth, and nowhere to store recycling.

We shifted a couple of plastic storage boxes from the side berth to the double, one with the best glassware in it, and one with various books, files of papers that need to be kept but probably won’t be needed, and a load of photos and slides from the first half of our marriage.

We also gave the boat a sweep through and generally tidied up a bit. The liberated space under the side berth now holds a folding crate for paper and glass recycling, and a waste paper type bin for cans, which tend to dribble.

At four, we went to have a drink with Derek and Sheila on Clarence, who were moored further down the meadow. They had to rescue Clarence from their boat builder when he went bust eighteen months ago, and they are still completing the fit out.

It’s well on the way, now, and is already lovely to look at, but it’s meant a lot of hard work.

They were full of praise for their shell builder, Jonathan Wilson, who stepped in and helped with the necessary paper work so that the boat could be licensed and used on UK waters. Wilson Tyler don’t have a website at the moment, but there’s a useful owners club one.

We had a great evening on Clarence, drinking some excellent wine and having a right royal natter, but it did make for a very late dinner, and thus no blog last night.

Today we went into Pangbourne to top up the supplies; there’s a good Co-op, and a brilliant butcher, traditional and yet very clean and modern. It’s the first time for as long as I can remember that the butcher gave me a bill when we’d finished, and I had to take it to a separate till to pay. That way, the butcher doesn’t have to handle the money, with all the risks of cross contamination.

Having stored the goodies, we up anchored (literally) and came up Whitchurch lock to the Beale Park moorings about a mile up river for the rest of the day. A washload has been run, and we can look forward to another fairly lazy afternoon. It's a very poor Vodafone signal here, but no problem with 3.

Pangbourne, and a break

It’s always when the stress comes off that then fatigue kicks in, I guess, but I’ve been feeling cream crackered the past couple of days.

Yesterday was very productive – it just didn’t leave a lot of time to write stuff. We started the day by running up to the Tesco mooring, where there was plenty of room at half eight. My sister lives in Brooklyn, and is a naturalised American, but she was impressed with the size of the store; we should have shown her the Sainsbury’s in Newbury, obviously.

A big restock completed, we had a coffee whilst stowing the loot, and then set off for the Better Boating yard, since we had a full toilet tank, were down to about a quarter of the fuel tank, and much the same with the water. We’d heard good reports of BB, and weren’t disappointed. When we got there, we had to queue on the outside of two other boats, but since the one next to us was Jacaranda with Sandy and Dave Jones, this was no hardship.

Sandy and Dave are key figures in the IWA National, since Dave is Site Director and Sandy is the Admin supremo. We shared a lot of goss about the prospects for this year, then I took Sanity Again out onto the river to wind so as to have the pump out point alongside the jetty when Jacaranda left.

An OK pump out; good pump but rinse out from a watering can down the pump out fitting instead of the proper one, and diesel at 85 ppl domestic. You can make your own declaration, however, so the final price compares reasonably with others around here.

We also stumped up a quid to put some water in the tank. That hose was very slow, so we only got about half a tank, but it will keep us going until we get to Cleeve and the EA supply point.

We worked up Caversham, and stopped on what looked like public moorings opposite the hire base. Shortly a guy came across in a dory to ask how long we were going to be there; apparently they use those moorings to load and unload the boats. Sheila commented that there wasn’t a sign to that effect, and the bloke had to admit that they were in fact a public facility.

Nonetheless, after lunch we took off again; no point in annoying the locals, even if they are a bit cheeky with it.

Time was getting on for a Friday, so we gave some thought to stopping before our original target, which was Beale Park. The locky at Mapledurham told us that the offside moorings just above the weir stream could be had for £5 per night, or there were some on Pangbourne meadow for free.

We tried the Mapledurham ones, and got well stuck. They were shallow, and on a lee shore in a gusty wind. It took us around twenty minutes of increasingly frantic shafting to get away.

Fortunately, there was still space here at Pangbourne at half three, so we’ve settled for the weekend. The ones nearest the bridge and lock are 24 hours, and were all that was available yesterday afternoon. We explored Whitchurch yesterday, and Pangbourne briefly this morning, or I did; Jane took the opportunity to explore more thoroughly; you can’t keep a good American tourist down.

I was brief, as we wanted to grab one of the unrestricted moorings if it came free. Most are quite short, but we've managed to shoe horn in on one with the stern sticking out a bit. There’s a tree alongside, threatening our paintwork, so the anchor has been deployed as a mud weight to keep the stern out; it also has the merit of keeping us in deep water and floating upright.

Jane has now left us; her flight back to the States is later today. She caught the train from Pangbourne station into Paddington, from where she’ll be able to take the Heathrow Express.

We plan on a quiet weekend now, chilling out and pottering about after the excitement of the last few weeks.