Wednesday 18th October 2023

Two drowned rats and a cuppasoup, after a long journey that should only have taken four hours! Are we glad to be moored up in the dry,  on the calmer waters of the Kennet & Avon canal,  after  experiencing the Thames, with its swollen river strem. We had hoped to go further up the Thames for another week of cruising,  but the weather forecast put paid to this plan,  as there looks to be heavy rainfall in the next few days.  Once the red boards go up on the Thames,  they can stay there for months, so a boater just has to moor up where they are and wait.  Leaving a boat unattended,  with the water levels rising and falling,  is not a good idea,  so we have taken the sensible course of action and returned to the relative safety of the canals.

Today was fairly stressful,  as I thought it would be.  A loss of confidence in the boat, as the result of a recent breakdown,  leaves one wondering what is in store next.  Travelling along the wide, fast flowing river,  I found myself on the lookout for possible places to moor should the engine stop running! I kept close to the towpath – fortunately the Thames path runs adjacent to the river at this point in the Thames (not always the case), so although the boat view was of dense trees, I soon realised we were not far from help should we need it.  I wasn’t sure how close the nearest road was, in the event of calling out an engineer!

As we turned right,  into the mouth of the K&A, the engine spluttered and died, yet again! R managed to start it briefly, again and again, with me steering as best able, until we reached the lock. Phew. How grateful I was this happened off the Thames. We pulled the boat into the lock and out the otherside and moored up.  There was no alternative than to change the fuel filter ourselves – a daunting task as we’d never done it before,  but with Archer’s voice ringing in our ears, we set about it with gung-ho. Seemingly simple,  the deed done, I turned on the engine and diesel sprayed into the engine bay.  A second attempt was no better.  Incredibly difficult to get the rubber seals correctly positioned. The lock keeper arrived to investigate why we were still moored up. Two further boats moored up, with helpful young men who could advise us but not solve the problem. R decided to give it one last try, pushing the seals into the cut grove as best he could before setting the filter in place.  Bingo! The engine then revved into life (without us needing to do any bleeding – a technical term we heard branded about and wanted nothing to do with!), the diesel no longer leaked out and we were off. 

The K&A is not without its challenges,  one being us getting grounded as we went through the centre of Reading due to a large dumped immovable object under the water.  We had already scooped a large shopping trolley onto our boathook, which was too heavy to lift out of the water,  so another beleaguered boater may well encounter the same obstacle.

Along the K&A, through the traffic light system in the centre of Reading (where sometimes you have to hover for ten minutes waiting for a boat to come through in the opposite direction,  no easy feat on a windy day) and our first lock without lock keepers in attendance (they are courtesy of the Environmental Agency on the Thames). Although only a foot deep,  the lock gates were extremely hard to open because of the volume of water and the over full weir.  The really challenging lock was yet to come – we had been told to get beyond it before we even thought of mooring up for the night.  The canal climbs the Kennet river by putting weirs in place and building locks and canal channels between the weirs to enable boats to pass through. So the boats are still at the mercy of fast flowing water when there has been heavy rainfall and some of the weirs produce strong currents of water which boats have to fight against in order to enter the locks without mishap. Mercifully we managed to navigate safely to the Cunning Man pub, our destination,  but it took much longer than expected and the rain started to fall in abundance ahead of our arrival!

Erecting the stern canopy was almost our first priority – we could then dispense ourselves of our wet gear,  hang it undercover before entering the boat. A big luxury – a previous boat had no such option and wet clothing was a nightmare to cope with.  R lit the stove  and before long, we were as warm as toast. A shortage of fresh food aboard gave us the excuse to relax in the pub and eat a meal prepared by someone else.  Seven hours travel had left us a bit shell shocked.  The good news though – looking at the map we are a twenty minute walk from Reading West services, where there is, among other things,  an M&S food,  an outside laundrette, toilets and free showers! The bare essentials to warm the heart!

PS It’s now Thursday evening and we found our way to the services, so discovered the laundrette! Along our canal path we also found this signpost showing that we are on the pilgrim route to Santiago (Camino), which was of interest to R because he wants to walk part of it in November! He could start now!!

Pps I meant to say R is up to his old tricks of collecting firewood and using me as his packhorse!!