A relatively easy, and uneventful, cruise to Pangbourne today. We travelled in the company of another SO, namely Brian and Jackie in the 56’ Whisper. Pangbourne is full now, but they found a site, and we’re moored up to Iris. I think the mini SO Rally is aboard Whisper tonight !

Our first lock of the day saw the lockie just putting his lawn mower away, so we availed ourselves of him and the lock services. There are numerous grand properties along this stretch of river along with some splendid gardens and boats moored at the end of the front lawn.

We then arrived at Marlow Lock where chaos reigned, too many boats for the layby, mainly due to a long wide beam pointing the wrong way. We soon learned that it had got hung up whilst descending, tipped sideways and flooded the engine bay ! The owner looked suitably shocked, a timely reminder to not take locks lightly. The off duty lockie came back on duty to get some order, and pack the locks more efficiently. Indeed most of the locks have been self service

We pushed on to Henley, but it’s Regatta W/E, so there wasn’t one mooring place available. Ferry’s and boats everywhere, along with a hot sun and long day……we had to go thru one more lock till we found a spot at Shiplake, it’s far from ideal being in the sun and noisy with kids, but at least we can relax and put our feet up. We hope to catch up with Penny and Iris at Pangbourne tomorrow.

After a cool, but noisy night (due to a close road and flight path) we were ready to push off. Its another sunny day….

Approaching Windsor there are a lot of No Mooring signs, His Majesty wants no riff raff, and the size of River Traffic is large as well.

Finally Windsor castle came into sight, along with numerous planes on final approach into Heathrow. Indeed the sky is full of contrails and the constant whine of jet engines spooling up and down.

Our first lock was manned, but from then on they have been self service, and a bit of a bun fight as we all squeeze in. I’ve never seen the river so busy, and it’s not even the weekend yet ….We always wear our life jackets, this 14 foot deep lock empties and fills in a couple of minutes, that’s a huge amount of water moving around.

As we had a good convoy going we stayed on till thru Boulters Lock, then pulled over on the inside passage of Sloe Grove Island. This is a lovely part of the river, below Cliveden House. At the moment we are by ourselves, apart from a duck family. Lovely 😀 Tomorrow we will use the services at Cookham, shop in Marlow and hope to moor at Henley

We set off early this morning, on what promised to be another hot day…

The trees provided some shade, and for once the locks were set in our favour. However they tend to be hard work this end of the river…

We stopped prior to New Haw lock to get some shopping, and then went thru the hardest lock on the river, New Haw, according to Hazel.

Then the only manned lock on the Wey, Thames Lock and onto the river itself. It didn’t take long to get a 2 week license, and join a convey of freshly released hire “Le Boats”. This was good as the next 3 locks were un manned, and as we were in the middle of the convey let them do all the button pushing. By now it was getting very warm, so we selected a leafy tree to moor under by the Magna Carta memorial. The water was too inviting….I’ve finally had a swim in the Thames…..! We are now watching numerous trip boats ply up and down the river, along with paddle boarders, cruisers and narrowboats. If this is a week day it must be bedlam at the weekend.

After a very pleasant afternoon / evening in the shade of Guildford Meadows it’s time to head for the Thames, so downstream now….

Sadly the old Debenhams building is still vacant, it used to have a lovely café overlooking the river. Then onto our usual mooring spot before the bridge, just a short walk to the high street. You wouldn’t know your in a city centre, I resisted the siren call of watch and camera shops….

There used to be a lot of business traffic on the water, all gone now, only the converted warehouses show what used to be, and a statue to the old waterman on the town wharf.

It’s doesn’t take long before your back in the countryside, with stands of white cow parsley along the banks and baby ducklings everywhere.

The marsh marigolds are in flower as well, round globes of bright yellow, competing with stands of yellow Iris, often floating in giant rafts ready to foul your prop if you try to go thru them !

After 4 hours of cruising it was time for lunch, a cool drink in front of the New Inn at Send with some of our cheese and bickies….perfect.

We pushed onto “our” mooring at Walsham Gates for the obligatory ice cream…..I’m too lazy to go on ! Time to blog, the Thames can wait till tomorrow…..at least the breeze is keeping us cooler today.

The weather hasn’t gotten any cooler, over 30 degrees every day so far ! After leaving the Marina we headed down to our first stop at Walsham Gates then onto High Bridge at Send, where there was a shady spot and a local shop with ice-creams and tonic for the gin….

The Rhodendrons are flowering and numerous waterfowl have babies..

Prime Thyme is behaving herself well, so we pushed onto Guildford to do some shopping, after stopping at Dapdune Wharf to pick up my new license, top up the water, empty the elsan and get a few more paperbacks from their excellent waterside shop. We are both still feeling terribly tired, I was left gasping for breath after climbing out of a lock to close a gate Hazel couldn’t budge, so headed for a tree at the Guildford meadows. As usual there were lots of gongoozlers at Milford Lock, all the little kids want to help open the gates, but we got thru safely and have found a nice shady spot with a welcome breeze. Tomorrow we will head back down the Wey, to get on the Thames and join Iris at Pangbourne.

It was 31 degrees flying into Heathrow, just too hot to do anything ! We managed to offload the suitcase, grab a shower and meet up with Margaret and Tony from nB Huffler. Both in their mid 80’s and cruising for 6 months at a time, what a great effort ! Their modernish boat is fitted with a 1930’s engine in its own room, plus dishwasher, tumble drier and washing machine, all mod cons.

When we came back from dinner we both crashed, and managed to get a few hours but aren’t ready to cruise much yet. So we’ve resorted to our standby shady mooring at Walsham Gates, Guildford tomorrow for shopping, then onto the Thames to catch up with nB Iris. Cheers 😀

We are shortly to board our flight to Heathrow from Vancouver. I think we’ve arrived and departed from this city by all options…ship, plane and train ! Seattle was chaotic this morning, a 20 minute flight taking many hours with waiting and delays. We had to pay for a lounge, which frankly wasn’t worth it, the sheer volume of noise set us both on edge. We were both glad to leave the USA and arrived in complete contrast, and total calm, back into Canada. Next stop UK and Prime Thyme. We hope to have dinner this Saturday night with the crew of nB Huffler, a blogger we’ve been following for years, who are staying near the Anchor Pub.

Our last full day of the cruise, and end of the Canadian / Alaskan part of our trip…..and an extra special one at that. We finally caught up with my third cousin Anabelle and her husband William. We last met 40 + years ago in England, we both vividly remember going for a drive in my Citroen 2CV to a pub, and I’ve always felt a bond with my Canadian cousin. It was so great that they flew across Canada to spend one day with us, and what’s more we recognised each other immediately!

The docking procedure seemed to take ages, but eventually the shuttle bus dropped us off at the Empress Hotel where Annabelle and William met us. After a stroll thru the city we picked up a vintage Leica lens and hood in a local camera shop, whilst William found a Pentax lens, being a keen photographer as well. Coffee and cake were followed by a bookshop, then it was Hazels turn in a Yarn shop called the beehive. A few skeins were purchased along with a pattern that both girls admired….so who’s going to finish theirs first ?

After a pit stop in their condo/hotel it was back to the Empress for a celebratory drink, the dinner at the Blue Crab over looking the harbour and watching the seaplanes land. A great ending to a great day, let’s hope we don’t wait as long before our next meeting ❤️❤️

We had a midday arrival today, and the town was overrun with 3 other cruise ships. Luckily our shore excursion was elsewhere….the misty fjords no less.

Our boat took us along conifer clad shores, with bays and islands similarly clad. Despite valiant attempts to find wildlife, nothing….after an hour of this I was beginning to think we’d picked the wrong tour.

New Eddystone Island marked the entrance to a change in scenery, as the shores closed in and mountains loomed ahead.

Then around a corner this majestic granite wall towered over us ! Just spectacular, with conifers clinging on and ribbon waterfalls.

We cruised around for 2 hours, trying to take it all in !

Then it was time to turn around and head back, a different way but just as spectacular. The tour included a local native artist, who gave a rambling, but informative view of his tribe, nation and society. So all in all a worthwhile trip after all. I just wish I’d bought all the camera gear, but the Leica V Lux doesn’t do to bad a job 👍 A day at sea tomorrow.