jecuk
Well-Known Member
We had a very nice day today bringing the boat up the Thames. Left about 9 from Laleham and was greeting by Doolittle and his camera. Nice to put a face to the handle.
Made out way up to Bray for fuel and lunch at the excellent restaurant there. Met Mike Gates which was also good after our talks last week.
Only lock we found hard was Bray with some really odd eddies just at the lay-by below the lock. No harm done but two big commercial boats had real problems there just before us. We eventually aborted and the lock was open so went straight in. Everywhere else was fine.
Loaded the kids at Cookham and made our way to the marina.
Not the greatest of welcomes. We made a bit of a hash of getting into the new berth. It is very tight with little turning room and a big boat next door. Anyway two people came and helped with the lines and with a bit of fending off the big boat we got in.
About an hour later a chap came down saying he keeps an eye on the big boat and he had a call from 'friends' in the marina and we apparently collided with it. It was a collision apparently as the big boat moved and they don't move without something happening (like a fend-off with hands). Now there was no collision and hence it isn't an issue but are people that panicky about someone touching their boat? Hopefully an isolated example but it was actually quite upsetting particularly for my wife as we were taking it ultra slowly specifically to avoid any problems like that. Put a bit of a dampener on the day I must say. Certainly plan to get some tuition on close quarters manouvering, but we weren't that bad, took it very slowly and sorted it out in the end.
Made out way up to Bray for fuel and lunch at the excellent restaurant there. Met Mike Gates which was also good after our talks last week.
Only lock we found hard was Bray with some really odd eddies just at the lay-by below the lock. No harm done but two big commercial boats had real problems there just before us. We eventually aborted and the lock was open so went straight in. Everywhere else was fine.
Loaded the kids at Cookham and made our way to the marina.
Not the greatest of welcomes. We made a bit of a hash of getting into the new berth. It is very tight with little turning room and a big boat next door. Anyway two people came and helped with the lines and with a bit of fending off the big boat we got in.
About an hour later a chap came down saying he keeps an eye on the big boat and he had a call from 'friends' in the marina and we apparently collided with it. It was a collision apparently as the big boat moved and they don't move without something happening (like a fend-off with hands). Now there was no collision and hence it isn't an issue but are people that panicky about someone touching their boat? Hopefully an isolated example but it was actually quite upsetting particularly for my wife as we were taking it ultra slowly specifically to avoid any problems like that. Put a bit of a dampener on the day I must say. Certainly plan to get some tuition on close quarters manouvering, but we weren't that bad, took it very slowly and sorted it out in the end.
