7 days onboard Rangali.....a taste of things to come!

We left Caversham Marina the morning of Friday 3rd May, aiming for Henley.  First trip of Kev's retirement, 3 days in.

Kev is a happy chappy!

Kev's leaving card from Nissan, a great likeness.

We want to get to Henley before other boaters get there for the bank holiday weekend.

Just come through Henley Bridge, if you look on left you may see a camera crew and Matt Baker from Country File, maybe we will be on the TV programme, fame at last!

We had a lovely trip down, no dramas and managed to moor up at our favourite spot at Fawley Meadow.  It costs us £8 a night there, if we decided to stay here over the Henley Regatta it would be £3,000 per night for the same spot!  We wont be doing that!

Marion and Phil joined us a few hours later on their Piper boat Jean Audrey.  So we have another great mooring for both boats.

We plan to stay the weekend, we have dinner booked at Villa Marina for the evening, in the centre of Henley about a 20 minute walk.  Lovely and sunny walk there and a fabulous meal, with great company.

BBQ planned for Saturday, and then we have friends Martin and Olwyn coming to see us Sunday lunchtime, first time for them to see the boat, we had a lovely afternoon with them.  Walk into town through to Marsh Lock after they leave to stretch our legs, back to Phil and Marions for another alcoholic, fun evening.

Marion and Phil leave early Monday morning back to the marina, we are off further down river, Cookham for Monday and Tuesday night.

Cookham

My sister Jane drove over to Cookham on Tuesday to take me out for the day as an early birthday present.  We take our bikes in the car to The Great Windsor Park and have an amazing day, so warm, not a cloud in the sky.  Is this summer? No!

my lovely sister Jane

Windsor Castle is in the distance

We see Archangel another Piper Boat, Nik and Tony are off to France making their journey to London and then across the channel.

Not all Piper boats are blue, it just seems like it!

Wednesday we make our way to Old Windsor, to meet our pilot Stefan Fritz, who will take us over the Channel, all now booked for 12th July or there abouts, depending on the weather.  We sail past Great Windsor Park where there is a horse showon and see a lovely sight of horse drawn carriages, poetry in motion.

Thursday 9th May (my birthday!)  We make our way to Marlow, strong winds forecast so we leave at 8am, we get moored up just in time before the worst wind strikes, the river has waves on it its so windy. Lovely meal in Marlow.  Really windy during the night, but a little quieter the next day.

Back to the marina on Friday 10th May, great trip again, although Sonning Bridge caught us out and we had to re adjust our angle to get through, heavy reverse mode, no contact made but hearts were fluttering!  All good experience, you are only as good (or bad) as the last time you were out on the boat we have come to realise.