A Sunday Outing

The centre of Marlow

We had several boats pass us during the night, causing us to rock about quite a bit since we were moored away from the bank. All we could see were navigation lights as they swept past in the dark - quite eerie. It was bright this morning as we headed into Marlow to meet Sam, Jamie and Michelle. We managed to find a space to moor in the centre of Marlow and went into the town to explore and to pick up a few provisions.

Waiting in a long queue for the lock

We chatted to a guy on an adjacent very large cruiser - his boat was bigger in every way, including his running costs - it cost him about £8 to warm up his engines before he sailed away at 1 mile to the gallon! Sam, Jamie and Michelle arrived and we set off, heading towards Henley. The river was really busy today with loads of cruisers and hire boats. We joined a queue at a lock, behind a cruiser which was following a hotel boat called Baglady! The lock keepers were doing a good job a squeezing as many boats as possible into the locks which required careful navigation to avoid scraping the shiny white boats.

 Sun worshippers

 An ice cream boat

 A high-tec pedalo

We came up behind what appeared to be a kayak moving without a paddle. It was a pedal operated kayak, and it was moving almost as quickly as we were without much apparent effort.

 A cute dragonfly

We stopped at the end of the Henley Regatta course, and had tea. It had clouded over by this time and so we were inside when it happened. A full size dragon fly flew into the boat and started flying around us in the saloon. Neither Sam or Michelle like fluttering things, and the dragonfly induced considerable panic and squeeling! Angela captured it in a colander and it then posed for the camera, before we released it.

 All smiles as we return to dry land

We returned back to Marlow after a really nice afternoon, and moored up in a spot labelled NO MOORING to say goodbye to Sam, Jamie and Michelle. We then set off in search of somewhere to moor for the night. We made it into Marlow lock as the church clock struck 7 and the lock keeper finished for the day - phew.

 A castle like house

All the official moorings around Marlow were full and so we headed downstream looking for somewhere we could tie up for the night. We covered a few miles before we happened across an almost perfect spot.

Sunset from tonight's mooring

We are moored in Bourne End, against a decent quay with mooring rings and a nice view. The only down-side is that there is a railway about 30 yards fom the boat! Trains have been passing all evening, hooting as they pass the nearby crossing - we are hoping that they will stop for the night soon......