Has Winter Gone?

Here we are half way through February at the start of this blog and we have had a whole week of fine weather with temps up to 12 degrees so life and activity on the marina has come alive with owners coming to get their rigs ready for the promised spring and summer weather to come. Engines have been running and a steady stream of craft have been making their way to the fuelling depot, pump out stations and to the fresh water pick up points - including us.

Since our last news we had floods which lifted the levels of water on the Thames and in the marina to such heights that many on river berths were just flooded and people couldn't get to their boats and in the marina the water rose to within a half meter of the ring road which made us all a bit jumpy as to whether we needed to move our cars outside the perimeter fences or what. The ramps ran up hill to the fingers which was quite odd after all the time getting used to them being down to the fingers. Not good if one had had a few too many tipples while off the boat. After about 8 days the water started to drop and the authorities in charge of the Thames began allowing more and more water to drain out to sea while ensuring that more flooding of city areas did not take place as there are a lot of flood plains between us and London central.

Rhonda's Comment: Hayden had such a good party but could not wait to get hold of the Smarties on the cake. It was a race between him and me!!!

February 15th. Rhonda had planned to go home for a rushed visit to see Michelle, Tom and Hayden who was about to have his first birthday so away she flew for 10 days leaving Harry and me to batch. We managed really well and found our way to the two local shopping centres and home again much to every one's surprise I think.

Rhonda's Comment: Hayden in his new Tonka Truck.

Rhonda had a wonderful if somewhat rushed trip to New Zealand finding the hot summer weather almost too much to handle, however, her complaints to me fell on very deaf ears as it was minus two the night she left London. She flew home on Air New Zealand with just a 2 hour stop in Hong Kong making the trip about 30 hours long so as you can imagine she was well knackered by the time she landed in Auckland and it just happened to be the hottest day Auckland had on record - 32 degrees with 100% humidity. As you can imagine she was very excited to see Michelle and Hayden and Tom plus a number of our old friends but missed many others just through lack of time but did see our son Kim a couple of times and much to our joy he seemed to be doing well and is enjoying life despite the recession which affects his work.


Rhonda's Comment: Ken missed telling you about the shopping list he had given me. On my return my bag contained such things as an angle grinder, 2 automatic lifejackets, hose fittings, VHF radio, grinding discs, flags and 12 magnetic flyscreens for the windows of our barge!!!!!!!

Harry and I were fine and thanks to a great couple here also living on board their barge, Lindsay and Mike had us over for a very special and welcome home-cooked meal one night and good old chat etc along with a couple of wines. As we had purchased a 32" tv for the saloon another friend John, another live-aboard mate, also called over to watch a couple of afternoons of the 6 nation rugby comp. He is a very strong Ireland supporter so of course I had to barrack for the opposition just to get the rivalry fired up. Great fun and a neat way to spend some time while on my own.

Well, the 10 days seemed to take forever to pass, we were fine however and used the time to clean every part of the barge etc and to pack up a bit of stuff ready for our soon to be trip down river as part of our trans channel crossing next month. I was so looking forward to Rhonda's return and as the day dawned for her return, John had agreed to come out to Heathrow as my navigator so as to surprise her on arrival to save her catching the bus to Staines where I was to pick her up. We waited at the arrival area for over an hour for her to come through without luck so as you can imagine all sorts of doubts crowded into my mind ranging from her missing one of her connecting flights from Sydney or Dubai to us just plain missing her as she cleared customs and came through. After checking with authorities as John is an airline contractor, we headed home to find that I had misread the arrival date. I was a day too early and as John couldn't accompany me on the Friday I had to wait at Staines for her to arrive by bus. Another hour of travel added to the home journey. My Brownie points are not at any civilised level even yet.

Rhonda's Comment: He must have really missed me.

You will recall my comments on the Air Force Memorial where some 20,000 men and women who perished without burials is recorded and honoured. At the time the weather prevented any photos but as we had a day which was fine last week we revisited the sight and recorded the photos as shown.

While in the area we also visited the famous area called Runnymede where the original Magna Carta was signed in 1215 by King John in answer to the pressure being applied by the Barons of London demanding more freedoms for themselves and the people in general. It is the basis of all English law and is fascinating to read in some detail. Thank goodness for the Barons.

The area while being of such significance, is not greatly presented considering the importance to the whole 'civilised world'. Apart from two small stone houses situated each side of the main road, one being the typical tea shop, there is really very little to show, however, the Americans paid for a pavilion to be errected on the hillside as they of course use the Magna Carta as their basis for the " Bill of rights" they use. Nearby, is also a memorial garden of one acre which was given to America and is dedicated to J.F. Kennedy so it is all a bit of a hotch potch we feel, however, there are some great easy walks through the fields below and along the River Thames so the walkways are used by strollers and walkers galore along with their dogs who can run free and seem to all get on well together. One can't help imagine what this whole area could be like if given the same sort of attention as so many of lesser important historic places which abound throughout the UK receive, makes one wonder.

Of course nearby is a carparking area which charges for you to leave the car and as we have said before, this is so damned annoying especially when you consider we were out in the countryside. The words, Pay and Display have become our most detested signs in this great country.

On a walk around the marinas one can't help but be drawn to the variety of names people give to their boats and as we had just had the sign writing finished on "Somewhere" it makes you even more alert and some of them are great. You will see some of the more unusual ones in the attached photos.

March 2. Well the day dawned this day in spectacular form so we decided that today should be the day we could make our trip down river to Sunbury where AC Marine, the contracted skipper's company who will take us across the Channel to France is situated before a whole new series of bad weather is due this week. After some discussion with Mike, the good neighbours we had at Penton Hook he offered to accompany me while Rhonda drove our car down to this new hook up area. We had a wonderful trip down through some magnificent English countryside and residential areas where homes lead right down to the waters edge and while the gardens are only now showing signs of new spring life one gets the idea of how beautiful some of these areas are in summer. Due in part to the still rapid flow of the Thames we covered the mileage in just over 3 hours and passed through 3 lock sets where Rhonda was on hand to see or operate the locks for us as at a couple of locks the lock master was at lunch. This was a great experience for us all and due to Mike's experience of this part of the river we learned so much it was great. In addition we had a lot of laughs so boating can be fun as we know provided all goes well.

Upon arrival at Sunbury we had to turn "Somewhere" below the lock and head upstream in the main current which is still quite strong so this took a couple of goes which is a little daunting in the middle of a strong flowing river I can assure you, however, we did it OK and turned upstream to where we had to berth alongside a 200 tonne work barge which is AC's base and workshop. This was quite an experience in itself after having been tied up to marina fingers with no current to being headed into the strong river flow and using heavier lines to tie us up. The barge next door which we have to cross to, has approx 300 mm wide walkways around it so walking to the bow and down the other side to get off onto land via a walkway boarding platform of 3 huge 6 m beams which flex and bounce a bit allows access to the land under the trees is quite an experience. We feel a bit like Robin Hood and Maid Marion once in the forest to use Rhonda's analogy.

We then walk through the bush to another footbridge which goes over the canal to give access to the tow path and roadway. If someone had told us 6 months ago that we would have taken on these challenges in our stride we would have laughed but when you are faced with them as a part of your day to day life, you just have to get on with it.

When we were leaving Penton Hook it was lovely to receive multiple horn blasts from some of our great neighbours (Thomas, Hiliary, Digby and Celeste on Golden Mean and Lindsay on Panacea) and calls of good luck. We also had a tearful goodbye with the young couple who were our immediate neighbours, Jason and Michelle the day before, but as we will be here at AC Marine until the bad weather has passed and final checks on the barge are completed, we will be able to drive back to see them before we cast off for the Channel. We are just up river from Hampton Court so look forward to seeing this great castle as we motor past. Our outlook across the river is interesting as we see the cars on the road and look up to some quite magnificent waterfront properties and landscapes on one side of us and are obliterated by the huge barge that we are moored to on the other.

Rhonda's Comment: Harry will also miss his good friend Max too.

Last night the area was struck by a Force 8 storm which bothered a lot of people but I have to say that while we heard the wind and the rain it did not bother us due I think to being so low down in the water and protected by Elisabeth (The big barge). Today that has all blown past so we seek to shop etc in sunshine and warmer temps, fingers crossed.

In closing this blog issue, I wish to pay tribute to Rhonda who takes my roughly typed stories after spell check has done all it can for me and adds the photos, tidies up the paragraphs along with adding her own comments. We really enjoy and appreciate the comments from our readers however, I just wanted to ensure you that this is a team effort, not just my doing. To you all, take care and we will be back on blog in a couple of weeks when hopefully we will have crossed the 'ditch' and be in France on our way to the BIG ADVENTURE.