Wraysbury to Windsor

Wraysbury to Windsor : 6 miles, 2 locks
To date : 444 miles, 262 locks

Today's destination was Windsor.  We had deliberately moored so we didn't have too long a trip to get there in the morning.  There was a long stretch of river that bounded the edge of the estate.  The edges were immaculate and there was "No mooring" signs all the way along.  After a while the sight of Windsor Castle appeared beyond the trees.

Our second lock for the day was Romney Lock - one with side sluices.  The water comes into the lock from all directions and pushes the boat away from the lock side.  We all stand in a row clinging to our ropes.  With me on our bow, I can look down the row at Mick, then Carol and Barry.  I wish I had my camera to take a photo.

I'd googled "Thames river moorings Windsor" and stumbled upon a photo of nb No Problem moored on the sole free mooring in Windsor back in 2009.  We didn't know if it was still a public mooring but I looked out for the buildings I'd seen in the photo.  There it was..... with a plastic cruiser moored at each end and about 40ft available in the middle.  No use to us.  We went on a little further and on the left beside a grassy bank and in front of an ice cream hut we could see a vacant mooring on a bit of a bend.  We were thrilled to find we could fit in the space and as we pulled in I noticed that the boat in front was nb Valerie.  We sorted ourselves and I saw Les and Jaq emerge for a walk so we had a bit of a chat.  As they walked away I noticed two boats ahead of them was another familiar boat. It was nb Betty Eccles.  We've been leap frogging them since Brentford when they breasted up waiting for the lock.  They said they'd been moored here since yesterday and nobody had come to collect a mooring fee.  Fingers crossed that situation will last another day!

We decided to go and have a look at the high street shops.  Oooohhhh... a Yo Sushi.... and it's Monday!  How could we resist.  After doing a bit of a browse around the shops we went back for a lunchtime treat and then on the M&S for a few groceries before returning to the boat.  There were dozens of tour buses in a huge carpark beside the lovely park where we are moored.  You've got to get a giggle out of watching adults trotting after a woman holding up an enormous red flower!

I sat down to some work in the afternoon.  Barry and Carol had gone out earlier and Mick went off for a walk and to post some mail back home.  It's a bit like being at Stoke Bruerne with a constant stream of people walking by the boat... and talking about the boat... and taking photos of the boat.  The difference is that at Stoke it was canal and narrowboat enthusiasts but here it's mainly tourists come to see Windsor Castle.  This evening we've had kids knocking on our windows!

While sitting at my dinette desk I had view right down to the bow of nb Valerie.  I glanced up and saw a dog leap onboard.  Les had mentioned that nb No Problem would be coming to Windsor tomorrow and the dog had a lovely black and white tail... Meg.  A while later when Mick had returned we saw through the dinette window that Sue was approaching with the dogs.  How lovely to finally meet Sue after reading her blog for the last 6 years.  We had our dose of puppy love through the open side hatch and Sue came in for a chat.  Meg and Pennys had worked their way off their doggie mooring as Sue was heading back out of the boat and they came to say farewell... such lovely girls they are.  Oh, how we hanker for a new dog in our lives.

We noticed another Crown narrowboat has come up for sale with ABNB.  We saw nb Rhapsody in Blue when we spent a night at Swanley Marina.  Lovely boat.
http://www.abnb.co.uk/boat_pages/2462web/2462abnb.php?BoatID=2462