Henley

Before setting off this morning we had to weigh the anchor.  I dropped it last night as the current was quite strong and the mooring by the park had the potential for late night troublemakers.  Then if someone should decide to interfere with mooring lines we wouldn't go very far.   Once done I let the current turn the boat half way and then we were off.  Our first lock, Culham, is deep and "manual".  Pat says it took 40 winds of the wheel to open the gate and 70 to close it.  Paddles take a lot of winds too!   Nevertheless we were through in about 20 minutes.  Therafter we had either automated locks, or lock keepers.  At Benson we joined another narrowboat and stayed together till Reading.  Pressing on we are now looking to catch the afternoon tide on Saturday.   Passing to the west of Temple Island we were the target of abuse from a biker (probably assocaied with rowing club) shouting at me to tell me that I was going down the wrong side of the river.   Nicholson says to use the west side to avoid rowers, there is no sign, there is no such thing as the wrong side, only the obligation to avoid collisions by passing port to port if circumstances allow.   Coming upstream there is a sign to keep right, but not downstream.   We moored just downstream of Temple Island.