Positioning for the Thames Dash

The list got very much worse this morning as Reading Marine hire boaters filled the lock in readiness to beat the Aldermaston Bridge rush hour closure and drained the pound down.   So at the first opportunity we moved the boat off the rock or whatever the centre was sitting on and took up position nearer the lock.  Armed with walkie talkies we established a procedure for exiting the lock across the strong cross stream, as the river joins here, and making sure the swing bridge is open.   The strong current makes a good procedure critical and as a single handed boater, this is a spot to avoid if a prolonged obstruction to the traffic is to be averted.  We were joined for this by another Reading Marine hire boat, but whereas I moored up below the bridge to pick up Pat, this skipper just sailed on leaving two of his crew to run all the way to Aldermaston Lock.  Perhaps this was normal for them.  They didn't seem put out at all.  A stroke of luck!  The large Aldermaston Bridge on the A 340 was being serviced, so the workmen took the opportunity to work it for us.  We hate doing this ourselves as the motorists are so impatient.  Carrying on past Aldermaston the tone of the canal changes.  The locks have seen little of the lockgear modifications troubling us on the rest of the canal and most of the traffic disappears leaving only a few "long distance" boaters coming off the Thames.  We moored up near Fobney Lock in a place shown to me last year by Terry & June (Pluto).   It has started to rain.   Lets hope we have a wet weekend for the Thames which might keep the lock queues shorter.  We will have Henley to contend with as it happens, but the aim is Teddington in 2 and a half days.