Friday 25th November 2022

Never has such a short stretch of water taken so long to navigate! 25 days to cover thirteen miles. Since my last blog the River Wey has almost constantly been too dangerous to navigate. The plus side for us is that we were fortunate to be moored up in excellent locations. For ten days we moored at Dapdune Wharf in the centre of Guildford. Car to hand we were easily able to return home. The days on the boat gave us convenient access into Guildford town centre without the necessity of paying for car parking! We managed two trips to the cinema and had local friends come to visit us. The tea shop at Dapdune Wharf is well worth a visit and they have an extensive array of used books for sale.

However, it has been a rather unsettling month, not quite sure when we would actually arrive at our winter mooring. Thinking we would have been moored up by the 14th, I took the opportunity to arrange doctor and dentist appointments, only to find they coincided with the few days that the river was navigable. All quite frustrating. The last couple of days the weather has been less inclement but not totally without rainfall so it was in trepidation that I rang Thames lock this morning to find out their latest update. The lock keeper was extremely helpful and said he would ascertain from those in the know what the state of play currently was. Half an hour later we were given the green light. Our friends T and R joined us with their lovely, gentle, but full size dog and we left Dapdune Wharf just before midday. The trip was just over two hours, although we prolonged it by stopping for a picnic en route, eating al fresco on the stern deck. We could not have asked for a more perfect day, windless, with the sun shining. We had been warned of a couple of low bridges, made more hazardous by the high river. The lowest one necessitated R shimmying along the length of the boat and flattening his wood store. We had barely an inch of head room and had to ourselves duck to avoid the signs forewarning us of the impending danger. Broad fleets of water had formed in the meadows either side of the canal, reminding us of the sheet quantity of water that has recently fallen from the skies.

Arriving at our destination we filled up with diesel, to lessen the likelihood of moisture getting into the tank and causing a problem known as diesel bug. In order to then get to our mooring, we had to go through a lock, turn the boat around and go back through the lock so that we are facing in the right direction to moor up. A tricky enough manoeuvre made more difficult with the fast flowing current in the river.

It feels great being so close to home and my plan is to take the boat and friends out on short trips to either Godalming or Guildford when there are some sunny winter days. If you’d like to come along let me know and I will try and include you. I’m not imagining the rain will continue ad infinitum.