End of Cruise - Crick Marina

We arrived back at Crick yesterday having left the Marina at 5:00am on 1st June. Ignoring the odd bits of back tracking between Molesey and Kingston, a trip to Richmond half tide barrier and a couple of days out with friends and relatives; here are the statistics. We covered 664 miles, went through 462 locks, the engine hours were 345 and we spent £160 on diesel. A quick calculation shows that our speed was approx. 3.5 lock-miles per hour. Overall this was a good way to spend the summer! Well that's it for our cruising year. Early next year the crew of Pluto may take to the high seas in the, "Black Prince". If we can get tickets at the right price, we may venture on a five week voyage from Southampton, up the Orinoco, and return to Southampton. Terry & June --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.772 / Virus Database: 519 - Release Date: 01/10/04

Banbury - Welton

After a visit to Morrisons' to stock up on the food front we left Banbury for Cropedy. We bought some wonderful fish from Morrisons'; mussels, smoked haddock for breakfast and fresh tuna for dinner. About half an hour before our arrival in Cropedy, the heavens opened and it just poured. Steve Thomas and Nimrod were very welcoming, hot rum, hot coffee and fruit cake. We left Steve to carry on with his work while we enjoyed our mussels and a bottle of Muscadet. We entertained Steve to dinner that evening and enjoyed his bottle of red wine with the steaks. Thursday morning was very wet so we waited for the promised clearance and set off in a light drizzle for the Oxford summit. We had a splendid ride up the locks, the sun came out and we decided to press on to the bottom of the Napton flight. A clever bit of strategy, we had a group of folk singers behind us in two large hire boats. They soon realised that if two of them helped us down the locks we would all get there quicker, it was great. Today, Friday is our 38th wedding anniversary, we arranged to meet a few members of the Crick Round Table Café in the Admiral Nelson at Braunston for a pub lunch. The beer was excellent, the food fantastic and a great time was had by all. There was, Dave & Sue, Dave & Jenny, Dave & Selina and Gordon & Elaine. If you don't know a fellow's name, call him Dave; in Crick you have a good chance of being right! Tomorrow we plan to arrive back in Crick, having left there on 1st June. --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.772 / Virus Database: 519 - Release Date: 01/10/04

Eynsham - Banbury

One should never publish plans, just after we arrived at Eynsham on Sunday afternoon, dinner Monday night at Thrupp was cancelled, blame the NHS! We immediately revised the plan and set off down river to moor just above King's Lock on a favourite rural mooring on the offside. Monday was a super day so we carried on cruising longer than usual and moored just above Sommerton Deep Lock, a long day but very pleasurable. We passed through Dukes Cut at about 9:30am, stopped briefly in Kidlington for a newspaper and just carried on and on and on! Tuesday lunchtime found us moored in Banbury, where we arrived before the forecast rain and repaired to Wetherspoons for a sirloin steak lunch. - Just practising for the Red Lion in Crick! As to be expected June explored the shops and even Terry bought a new pair of boat shoes. Tomorrow we plan to meet up with Steve Thomas and Nimrod in Cropedy, another visit to a pub we hope! --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.772 / Virus Database: 519 - Release Date: 01/10/04

Abingdon - Eynsham

Surprise, surprise! Boots came up with our pictures early in the morning, they phoned to say they were ready while I was drying up after breakfast. We collected them, did a bit of shopping and left town for Oxford. We locked through at Iffley just before the 1:00pm closure, which meant that we would get to Osney lock before the reopening time of 2:00pm. Simple solution, we stopped at the, "Isis", for a pint or two of Greene King IPA in front of a log fire. Suitably refreshed we carried on to the 24-hour mooring at West Street, Osney. A very good place to visit Oxford City Centre from. Sunday morning sees us planning a short visit to Sainsbury's for some food and a short voyage to Eynsham. Monday we have a dinner date in the, "Boat Inn" at Thrupp. We are looking forward to our first narrow locks since the first week of June. It seems a lifetime away. --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.772 / Virus Database: 519 - Release Date: 01/10/04

Sonning - Abingdon

Friday sees us moored above Abingdon Bridge in time for a pub lunch in town. On Wednesday we locked through Sonning just after 9:00am en route to Reading Tesco's for a large shop. It turned out to be a fish day, cur price Dover Soles, mussels and un-dyed kippers. We moored just before the lunch time rain at Caversham, and sat down to moules a la mariniere with a bottle muscadet. In the afternoon sunshine we continued to Pangbourne to moor on the meadow. We fiddled in Pangbourne for a while on Thursday morning, June wrote and sent her surface mail Christmas cards halfway around the world. Terry was internet banking in the local library. After lunch we had a wander around Wallingford before setting off for Day's lock and a mooring just above it. This morning was an uneventful cruise to Abingdon, only notable for the lack of other boats and the speed we were locked through at. There is something to be said for this late in the year cruising. We spent the afternoon reviewing 512 digital photos from Nik's wedding and taking 60, on a camera memory card, into the local Boots for printing, 6 x 4 at 10p each! We pick them up tomorrow. Another lunch in town tomorrow? We may get to Oxford on Saturday, or may be not. --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.772 / Virus Database: 519 - Release Date: 01/10/04

Molesey - Sonning

We are moored for the night on a rural towpath mooring, about half a mile below Sonning Bridge and the bar is now open. We left Molesey Sunday lunch time, just as the drizzle started, stopped at Laleham for a top up of diesel and spent the night above Penton Hook Lock. What is it about other narrow boats that moor just ahead of us and run their engines at 10:00pm? N/B Shoestring if you run into her! Monday dawned with pouring rain, but the forecast suggested that it would stop soon, so we waited and it was worth it. We had to work Romney Lock ourselves, this time of the year the lockies have lunch from 1:00 till 2:00 so it is do it yourself. Monday night was spent at Cookham, the only boat on the mooring! No one collected the fee either. Tuesday morning saw the temperature at 4 deg C, brass-monkey weather! Again we waited, for it to warm up, before setting off. This is a great time of the year to be on the Thames, hardly any boats, locks to ourselves and plenty of moorings. --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.772 / Virus Database: 519 - Release Date: 01/10/04

Restarting our Cruise

We arrived at Molesey about three weeks ago having returned from Bristol and visited Godalming on the River Wey. Most importantly we have been to Cornwall for our daughter Nik's wedding. She and Colin were married on Friday 24th September in Truro, followed by an evening reception near Redruth. On the Saturday afternoon we had a boat trip from Falmouth to the Helford and back, followed by a party in a beach bar. What an exhausting weekend! We have a cd-rom with 512 wedding pictures on it, prepare to be bored!! Tomorrow we move back aboard Pluto to go up the Thames on our way back to Crick. We think we will set off on Monday morning, not too early, or too fast We will be trying blogging on this section of our summer cruise. I hope to update our blog site:- http://plutofromcrick.blogspot.com/ every couple of days, so that those of you with web access will be able to see our progress, if you want to! We are looking forward to getting back to the, "Round Table Café", or "The Alcoholics' Corner", as some people call it. Maybe even a meal in the Red Lion. Terry & June Message from: - Terry Carter 07885 399 324 --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.772 / Virus Database: 519 - Release Date: 01/10/04