Last evening, after supper and the washing up done, we settled down to listen to some music quietly and read our respective kindles. It was dark by then. A cruiser came by at such speed that the boat was thrown into wild pitching and rolling grinding against the side. The nearest we have experienced that before was at Teddington when the lifeboat passed, blue lights flashing on its way to Kingston Bridge for a jumper, or tied up to a dolphin on the tidal river near Limehouse with trip boat wash bashing us up and down smashing crockery. Well this time nothing was broken, but when I went out to check the mooring before retiring for the night it appeared that the wash had come right over the counter, sloshed over the engine bay deck board and up under the rear doors (which were closed thank goodness). In the night I suddenly thought about the exhaust pipes. Would a lot of water have gone in there and interfere with the Eberspacher more particularly? So that was first check next morning, but nothing seemed amiss, apart from some water in the engine hole.
We passed two locks self service, Bray and Boveney and almost got out of Romney Lock before the lock keepers arrived. Pat then got an earful for not having Alfie on a lead. Laugh. Alfie has done more locks than - well hot dinners spring to mind.
Yet Romney Lock will be our nomination for best kept lock. Shepperton comes a close second. Our target today was a mooringthat we had spied on the way up river. Upstream of Staines Bridge is a recreation ground with some rings on a clean wall. It was free and we stopped there. Ashby Recreation Ground. Nearby is the "London Stone", a replica of a monument set up to mark the end of the tidal river in the 13th Century when the King (Richard I I believe) sold his rights to the non-tidal river to the city of London. The stone marked the boundary. Apparently the actual monument has been moved about a bit and the marker on the river bank is now a replica. Anither thing I learned today is that Staines is at the southern end of the Colne Valley in which Harefield sits.
Comments