Shepperton plus up date at bottom of blog re crossing

Wednesday 17^th July

We are now moored just above Shepperton Lock in a lovely spot.  We topped up with water at Chertsey Lock, so full again, we hadn’t used much but we want full tanks for our crossing.  We had an easy, short trip today, beautiful weather.  

Waiting for Bell Weir Lock at Egham

At Bell Weir Lock by Runnymead Hotel
you can see the M25 and morning traffic behind Kev

Once we’d moored near Shepperton we walked along Thames to Thames Court, a very busy pub by the river, 2 large cold ciders, and light lunch, we then walked to the Chandlery by the lock for a life buoy, as the one we’d recently bought had independently self inflated (exploded) so we have gone for a normal horseshoe shaped one now.  Unfortunately the chandlery didn’t have any for sale but we were told their larger sister store at Shepperton Marina had a good choice of lifebuoys.  So we walked the 2 miles there, mad I know as we have a boat, but we didn’t want to lose our lovely mooring spot and we didn’t have anything else to do!  We were very hot and sweaty once we’d got there as it was the hottest part of the day.  We passed a WLMG Nissan dealership not far from Shepperton Marina and we cadged a lift back to the boat!  Cheating I know but it was so hot and my flip-flops had flopped..  

Kev cadging a lift.....thanks Simon (Rutherford) from WLMG Nissan

One of Kev's birthday pressies from me - a four day weather forecaster, hard to believe this is UK forecast

The temperature in the wheelhouse when we got back was 47 degrees, cooled down after we opened the windows and doors to 41 degrees! It was only 29 degrees in the saloon, positively chilly!

After a lovely shower we are now sitting on the back deck relaxing.

We spoke to Mark this evening and it looks like its going to be too windy for Friday and weekend, Mark has commitments next week on Monday and Friday so we are hoping the wind dies down for Tuesday/Wednesday crossing.   

Not Cookham!

Tuesday 16^th July

We are no longer at Cookham….hurray I hear you shout!  We moved on yesterday, we are glad we stayed where we were, it was a fantastic spot, amazing weather, great for walking, a) Walks for pleasure, beautiful area  b) Walks for getting to the local shops for provisions, and c) Walks to get to the local railway station or to catch a bus.  

Another reason we decided to stay at Cookham was that we felt it was safe to leave Rangali there as we had to be in London for an event and we were staying there the night.  All was well when we got back.  A very strange feeling leaving your home tied up to the riverbank!  So off we went with a wheelie overnight bag, walking about a mile on a footpath by the riverbank to Bourne End to catch a train to London. (if Kevin’s Nissan chums could see him now!)

Bus trip from Cookham to High Wycombe, we didn't think we'd be going there for a day trip!
We needed a new Zoom lens as I'd dropped ours and it's not very well.  We bought a handy 18-270 zoom
which saves changing the lens and hopefully prevents me breaking another one!

Fellow Piper barge owners, Simon and Stella, arrived with Grizzled Skipper (fantastic name – it’s the name of a butterfly) We were especially impressed with their shiny fenders, we must get cleaning ours!  They kindly invited us over for drinks on Sunday evening, we caught up on each others plans, they are off to France too in August. We had some laughs about reading other peoples blogs, and emails and finding that we need to buy yet more stuff for the French canals.  Its costing us a fortune!  Kev came back from Marlow on Saturday with yet more hose pipe, (a little girl asked her mummy "Whats that?!"  I suppose its not what you usually take with you on a walk along the Thames footpath) we also looked for bungs in every hardware shop we came across all week, and Simon is after a longer gang plank. …thanks Tony!  (Kev was able to re live a Ronnie Barker sketch when he went in to the local hardware store and asked for "O's" Luckily we didn't need 4 Candles!)

We left Cookham early Monday morning and had a great trip to Egham, for those who know the area, driving from Cookham to Egham should take around 30 mins, it took us 3.9 hours engine running time but in total 5 hours which includes stopping at locks, and we filled up with water and fuel.  We were told the locks were really busy on Sunday, Romney Lock had 250 boats through it with long waiting times, another reason why we didn’t move over the weekend.

We arrived at Egham very hot and tired, beautiful sunny day, and we then walked to Egham town centre to Tescos for more provisions this took us around 2 hours, we came back shattered from the heat....remind me why we are leaving the UK?!!  

Lining up for Maidenhead Bridge

Ooops! Close Shave
This looks worse than it is....... thats what we keep telling ourselves!

We spoke to Mark our pilot today to let him know we were at Egham and that we would be making our way to Teddington for Thursday.  He said "so you definitely are aiming for Friday crossing?", to which Kev said "YES", he said "thats a shame as he was hoping to go sailing at the weekend!" So that means he wont push to take us in windy conditions as he'd rather go sailing at the weekend!  Good News?! 

A lovely end to the day

Still at Cookham

Tuesday 9^th July

We are still at Cookham!!  We have had a lovely time here, we needed to stay over the weekend as we knew it was going to be a hectic on the river as the weather forecast was so good.  We saw lots of boats trying to moor here at Cookham but no room at the Inn.  We have had a busy few days reading books, walking to shops, hair done at Marlow, caught train from Bourne End to Marlow, Chinese first night in Cookham, rest of the time we’ve had some lovely BBQ’s, great butchers in Bourne End and Cookham.  They give free sausage samples on Saturday mornings so great for a free breakfast !!

We got a mention read out on the Simon Mayo show on Radio 2 show on Friday 5^th July at about 6.45pm, you can listen to it on play again.  Kev sent a request by text, we’d given up but just at the end of the show they read it out…..we did a little dance on the back deck….we had had a few glasses of wine by then!

Simon Appleyard was moored further down the river and popped along side for a quick chat
He moored alongside on Josephine the next morning and stopped for a chat and cup of coffee

Our pilot Stefan called us on Sunday to let us know he now can’t take us across the channel on 12^th, (he had warned us he might not be able to do it for us) but we now have a another highly recommend pilot called Mark who is going to take us across after 15th.  He has more time so we will probably take 2/3 days to get to France rather than the 20 hours Stefan was going to do.  Means it should be more fun, also as we are going a week later the trip through London because of the tide will be early morning but in daylight.  The wind and weather dictates when we can go so all is very flexible.  We have also heard that some locks south of Paris are due to be closed end of August for at least a month so we may not go via Paris to Auxerre this year.  We can always do Paris next year, again all very flexible, this is what our boating life is going to be like. 

You might see lots of photos of me with a glass of wine in my hand!
Note the very large sirloin steaks behind me waiting to be BBQ'd, they were delicious.

A truly beautiful spot, amazing weather 

Our view out of our Galley window

We promise the next up-date we will be moored somewhere else!

Day One of our Adventure

Tuesday 2^nd July

We were very sad but excited when we left T&K Marina at Caversham this morning.  We are now river nomads, not knowing where we will moor up each time we set off.  As a case in point we wanted to moor up at Marlow this afternoon and spend a couple of days there but it was full, Henley Regatta is having a knock on effect, mooring is so expensive at Henley this week everyone is trying to moor up in Marlow where it is cheaper.  We motored on and have ended up at Cookham, we don’t mind as we love a particular Chinese restaurant here, so no cooking for me tonight!  We are thinking that we might stay here until Sunday as we are pleased to have found a good mooring with lots of restaurants nearby and we can catch a train to Marlow from Bourne End.  Its a 20-30 mins walk to the station, so we will start getting fit now we don’t have a car. I have a hair appointment at Marlow tomorrow, my last English cut and blow dry (ironically my current hairdresser is French!)

D15 our spot at T&K Marina is now vacant.
Happy times spent there

Bye Bye Sonning Bridge, we wont miss you!

Gloriana Royal Barge at Henley
Looks ok, but not very practical, not sure it would cross the channel
and where would you put the BBQ or wine fridge?

Henley marked out for the Regatta
We've been told that if we wanted to moor at our usual spot at Henley
it would cost us £50 a foot (£50 x 60ft = £3,000 a night, it normally costs us £8 for the night!)