What a difference 24 hours makes, no wind and a bright sunny day this morning, a perfect start for our final cruise of the season.

So downstream on the Wey, heading for the Thames. First up Woodham Junction, where the Wey and Basingstoke Canal meet. There’s a lot of floating weed about, perfect for snagging the rudder ! So you go into neutral then reverse to fling it off.

Then New Haw lock, one of the trickiest…..tiny lock arms at 45 degrees, which you have to clamber over to cross on the narrow bridge. There was also an errant swan, which had to be wrangled out of the lock before closing the gates.

Then onto Coxes Lock, one of the prettiest, with a mill converted into flats, and the mill pond is a haven for wildfowl.

After dropping off an engine manual in T42’s cratch it was a short run to Town lock. This is situated at the “bottom” end of Weybridge. We’ve made a note where to moor tomorrow, and will have a quick walk into town to see how it’s changed since I used to live there many years ago.

Then it was a short run to Thames Lock. The only manned lock on the Wey, we were the first boat thru at Midday! The season is definitely coming to an end now.

Down Desborough Cut and onto Walton Marina. It looked a bit crowded and windy to moor there, so we opted to try the towpath. After a few tense moments and a lot of rope / motor coordination we made it. Time to say hello to Sue, who befriended us 7 years ago when we first got T42 at Pyrford. It was so nice to catch up, and have lunch at the excellent little riverside Cafe located there.

All too soon it was time to retrace our steps and head back upstream to Desborough Island, and the excellent moorings there. One year we will be brave and get onto the tidal Thames to Brentford, and Grand Union Canal Junction, but I’ll need to do it in company with some other SO’s.

So our last ‘wild’ moorings this year. A quick polish to one side of the boat, I’ll do the other side in the Marina. A celebratory G and T tonight I think, on going thru Coxes Lock we had spied the daily Qantas Dreamliner heading for Perth, just a couple of days till we are on it !