Saturday 14th October 2023

It’s been quite a day but first, a swift look at yesterday. Lord Toad arrived at 11am sharp and we left the pretty town of Marlow and chugged our way upstream, against the water current, with the motor boat roped to the side. Luckily, the locks we encountered easily accommodated the two boats side by side and by mid afternoon we were moored in the picturesque town of Henley on Thames.

We had managed to dodge most of the rain and the sun was shining as we welcomed an old friend from home, who had moved to Henley a few years ago. Her name popped up on my Google map and it was a surprise to see she lived about 100yds from our moored boat. Due to my lack of warning, there was only time to see her for a quick cup of tea. My other thought had been to see her early this morning but she told me she was rowing on the river from 0730 – not bad for a lady in her late sixties. We had just missed seeing her cold water swimming in the river, another hardy pastime! As she left us, my childhood friend and his wife, who live locally, arrived and we had a good catch up session, first in a tearoom and then progressing to one of the many picturesque pubs. An early night called, as today we knew we’d be travelling for at least six hours, which turned out to be seven, on our feet all the time.

Lord Toad wasn’t with us, as we all thought, after our seamless journey yesterday, that we could manage alone. However, we hadn’t taken into account the increased water level, the result of yesterday’s rain coming down the river. I assessed the journey solely through my weather app, which showed a smiley sunny face all day, so at 9am we were up and moving towards the nearby first lock. There was a strong current by the weir which buffeted the two boats towards the left so R was busy telling me to rev the engine, when the lock keeper started gesticulating. This slightly put me off my stride as I wasn’t sure if he was telling us not to proceed forward. However suddenly the lock gates opened so we could enter the lock. He remonstrated with me that our boat was not powerful enough to tow another boat and that it was incorrectly attached. As he was not the senior lock keeper he was stressed by the situation and handed us a ‘yellow card’ basically warning us that the river was dangerous and that we could not proceed with the motorboat attached. Furthermore, we were to leave the boat on the lock mooring, to remove it as soon as possible and that this was our full responsibility. I explained that we were towing it because it had no engine and we were helping another boater. He had no reply to this, just reiterating the boat was our responsibility as he took down our details. When I suggested he noted the name and address of Lord Toad he refused. Another boater, in a beautiful cruiser, who was waiting to come down the lock, heard of the situation and tried to intervene on our behalf, even going as far as to give me his name and telephone number in case we needed a witness in due course. This boater stated that all we had done was a good turn and that the lock keeper was out of order. The lock keeper remained adamant on his view, ordering us to uncouple the boats, leave the motor boat behind and leave the lock as soon as possible, as we were an obstruction. All this I relayed to Lord Toad, who contacted the Thames Authorities, who in turn said the lock keeper had no right to ban us from towing the boat to a ‘place of safety’ as the Thames was on a yellow, not a red warning. The upshot is that they may now tow his boat free of charge to his mooring. So good may come out of it! To be honest, with the change in river conditions, I was relieved not to be towing anything as we battled the current, at times having to increase the revs to 18knots just to proceed forward at a reasonable pace.

All went well until I felt a slight loss in power entering one of the locks. Then after about an hour, the engine cut out as we were passing some houses with private moorings. Trying to restart the engine long enough to moor up proved very tricky but after many false starts we were able to direct the boat into a mooring space, with quite an audience of onlookers! Unsure as to why the engine was cutting out, I was loathe to go on. We checked the weed hatch, which was clear of any debris and after ten minutes restarted the engine, which ran as per usual, so we ventured forth once again. The next lock was fairly close and then our destination was only another half an hour of travel, so I kept close to the Thames path side of the river in the hopes that should we break down, we could easily reach the river bank for safety.

Lord Toad’s able mechanic Ar, who we had met when he had been in charge of the motor boat, happened to be nearby and as we moored up at Pangbourne, he miraculously appeared and gave our engine a once over. A dirty fuel filter is the most probable cause of the trouble (once he ascertained there was no fishing line sneakily hooped around the propellor) and he advised us on how to change it – he had a three hour journey ahead of him to his boat in Barking and was keen to get back in daylight to be with his wife, who feels the mooring is unsafe after dark – they have had locals walking on their roof when they have been in the boat! So our next challenge is to change the filter and bleed the engine before we start on our travels again! It’s another reminder that boats have a mind of their own and we can neither get complacent or have too tight a time schedule. Breakdown time needs to be factored in along with weather conditions. It’s all a learning curve!