Battened down..

We left Henley yesterday morning, the intention being to find somewhere to wait out the bad weather due today. We were looking at possibly mooring on the backside of the The Lynch, or maybe Hallsmead Ait, upstream of Shiplake, but spotted a likely looking bit of bank opposite Poplar Island, less than a mile above Marsh Lock.

Marsh Lock was on DIY, surprisingly for a Saturday morning.
There was a small cruiser waiting to go up, and he was up on the lockside bringing down a narrowboat. When we got in with him there were two or three boats waiting to come up and the controls were handled for us. Good timing.

The cruiser overtook us steadily on the reach above the lock, and I was interested in comparing wake patterns. The cruiser has a 22 foot planing hull, probably weighs in at less than a ton, yet produces considerably more wash at the same speed than our 18 ton displacement hull.

Motor boat Serendipity passing alongside


Looking back, comparing wash.

And our bow wave.

It seems to be a general rule; we were bounced about big-time by a very nice slipper launch passing yesterday evening, but a large Dutch barge a little later didn’t affect us at all. I don’t know why, though.

Here’s where we ended up.

The path along the water’s edge is very overgrown though. My legs and arms have been thoroughly stung.

We were visited by an Egyptian gosling yesterday afternoon…

…and an adult was having a salad lunch across the way today.

Spells of heavy rain, interspersed with drizzly stuff, have been the norm this morning, but we’re getting a bit of sun this afternoon. It’s still breezy though, so there’s a good chance of more showers blowing through.

There’ve been a couple of bedraggled canoe groups go past, the rest of the light traffic is made up of cruisers, canopies up. Only a couple of narrowboats, unsurprisingly.

Today’s task was a repair to my headphones, the ones I use with my iPod when I‘m out running. I use ones that hook over the ears, rather than plug-ins, which I find uncomfortable and too good, cutting out the noise from approaching vehicles if I‘m road running. Anyway, extensive use had led to a broken connection in the plug end and as I’ve any number of pairs of the earplug type, I removed the ends of one of these and soldered the hook-over earphones on instead. A bit fiddly, but it saved me a couple of bob…

Tomorrow we’re heading up to Reading.

Locks 1, miles 1¼.