Chertsey to Wraysbury

Chertsey to Wraysbury : 8 miles, 3 locks
To date : 438 miles, 260 locks

I was up early this morning and the sky was blue!  Pity it didn't last.

Today was Mick's birthday but he'd rather not discuss it.  Barry and Carol were having none of that and came knocking on the hatch bearing gifts and cards. They'd found the perfect birthday card too - to remind him of his paranoia about our batteries reaching 100%.  Mick's other boat obsessions are "hoovering" the floors and finding somewhere to dispose of the rubbish bag each day so he got a "Henry Hoover" and a waste bin from Barry and Carol.  Very appropriate.  Andy and Jean... Mick says thanks for thinking of him on his birthday.

We headed off today with a lot more confidence.  The locks are a doddle despite the wind.  We shared them with some enormous cruisers today.  It's interesting seeing so many different types of boats around.  As usual there were many fantastic properties along the way.

 

 

 

We arrived at the planned moorings but it wasn't so easy to get a spot.  There was a section with an underwater obstruction, a section so shallow we couldn't get near it, and another section with no mooring for 40ft.  The only possibility was at the beginning of the moorings.  We tied the stern of nb Winton's Folly to a tree and the bow to a fence.  There was a little clearing between a couple of trees that previous moorers had obviously used as access.  Although the bow of the boats was well out from the bank it worked ok.  A tree branch hung over so far that we couldn't put the window in our pram cover.  Barry quickly grabbed at it and showered Carol with little bugs.  Unimpressed with his efforts she took over the proceedings and eventually managed to break off the end of the branch.  Problem solved.  We are right under the flight path from Heathrow Airport which is about 3 or 4 miles away.  The planes haven't stopped since we arrived.

Before dinner (Carol cooked another birthday dinner for us) we went for a drink for Mick's birthday at the pub beside our mooring.  It's called The Bells of Ouzeley.  Carol and I thought it was pretty exciting to sit on a sofa for a change.  I don't think we've sat on a sofa since we were at Lynne's before Christmas!

 

PS.... added February 2014... it was Mick's 50th Birthday but he wouldn't allow me to say so at the time.