Saturday
We left the moorings at about 20 to 9 this morning, just right to catch the first lock at 9 am when they opened for business. A hire boat pulled into the waiting area behind me but managed to do a 180 turn as he tied up leading the next boat to think he had just come out and sailed straight into the lock behind us. The day has been fine with a bit of sun this morning but generally cloudy this afternoon. We have seen an awful lot of canoes about and a few more cruisers, being the weekend we expected to see a lot more, but overall things are quite quiet. Above Reading I could hear a steam train approaching, the railway is only a few yards from the river, but because of the location I was unable to see it for the trees, a little later and it would have made a good photograph. We had to queue for a couple of locks because there is no consistency in their size, you pass through one lock that will take 4 or 5 boats with ease and the next your down to 2, our longest wait was above Marsh lock, just above Henley. Once through the lock we continued down stream under the bridge and through the length of the regatta course which is reserved for the racing sculls during regatta week, The area to the east of the course is reserved for the boats exhibiting at the Traditional Boat Rally once we reached Temple Island we turned and retraced our steps back past the rally site, we received a toot from President's steam whistle as we passed and I replied with a blast on the horn. We continued upstream through the bridge and have moored for the night opposite the Henley Rowing and River Museum at 1530 hrs. Moorings here are free from 10 am to 3 pm but then £8 50 a night. It works on a pay and display system and you buy your ticket from the carpark pay and display machine. I don't know how well they police it but walking the dog I would say that only 20% are displaying a valid ticket or any ticket at all.
You will find our latest position athttp://tinyurl.com/Harnser-s-route
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