Canal Boat Journey (Day 3): Making up lost progress (Hurley to South Stoke)

We lost a few hours yesterday through the combination of a late start, stopping for diesel, topping up our water tank, and the engine trouble. It was looking unlikely that we would even reach Reading, let alone Abingdon. We set off in good time before 8am with the plan of finding a boat yard to try and get a professional to take a look at our engine.

When we reached our first lock of the day, (L14) Hambleden Lock, I was little nervous that the engine would fail to start again. Fortunately we made it through without issue.

Then we passed through Henley, which unsurprsingly had a lot of boat traffic, including many rowers that we had to keep an eye out for. After leaving Henley we went up (L15) Marsh Lock. It was a snug fit, with a long canal boat to our right, and a short one behind. I let them know that there was a chance our engine would not start, but fortunately it did start again.

Due to the ordering, we were the first to exit (L15) Marsh Lock, but were soon overtaken since our boat does not know the meaning of speed.

After the bend near Wargrave, we had to really slow down, since there was some kind of water based sports day taking place for a local school. The was punt racing on our left, and fancy dress racing on our right, with spectators along the banks and in boats. There were officials out in motor boats, and two lines of buoys down the middle of the river demarked the route for non-sports day traffic. We enquired at Bushnell Marine Services, but they were not able to help with our engine trouble, so carried on and up through (L16) Shiplake Lock.

After (L16) Shiplake Lock there was a series of large islands, and many rowers from the local school were racing up and down. I had to keep a keen eye out at all times because they were much faster than us, and at one point had to shout “ahoy” to alert a rower that was on course for thundering right into us.

At (L17) Sonning Lock, again I let the other boaters know we may have trouble starting our engine. It turned out we were not the only ones, as another couple also took a while to get their engine going. Fortunately they started it eventually, and we were on our way. Coming up on this next stretch of river were a lot of marinas and related businesses, so it looked like a good place to find some help. We stopped at Better Boating Co in Reading. Wait a minute… we’ve made it all the way to Reading and it’s only just after midday on day 3?

Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We double-moored next to another boat, since there were no spaces. The owner of the long canal boat we moored against was very friendly, and happy for us to moor there. He was in the queue to get some help with his boat. The Better Boating Co was very busy that day, but they still made sure to fit us into their schedule. When we reached the front of the queue, a man came on board and took a look at our engine. He explained that he didn’t have time today to diagnose the issue properly, or to fix it, but agreed that the isolation switch was most likely at fault, and that these parts do wear out over time.

Since we were aiming to reach Abingdon, and they were very busy, we bought a new isolition switch with the plan to fit it ourselves at a later date, and headed onwards.

Next was (L18) Caversham Lock, then we left Reading, and carried on to (L19) Mapledurham Lock. We went up this lock with two other boats who soon left us in their wake on the next stretch of river. There were several swimmers on this otherwise remote and quiet stretch of river. A while later we reached (L20) Whitchurch Lock, and to our surprise waiting there were the two boats that left us in their wake earlier. It turned out the lock had been closed for a few hours due to an obstruction, and the scuba team had just finished resolving the issue, so we happened to arrive as the lock re-opened!

There were a few interesting sights on the final curve leading to (L21) Goring Lock: a kingfisher and a Darth Vader themed boat.

We ascended up (L21) Goring Lock and (L22) Cleeve Lock, which are the closest two locks on our journey. We had made good progress, but needed to find somewhere to moor for the night. Suddenly the river felt very quiet.

All the good mooring spots appeared to be taken, so we had to keep scouting out spots. After passing The Beetle and Wedge, we turned back to claim a spot we had passed five minutes earlier. It was by a tree next to a field in seemingly the middle of nowhere. According to the map, the nearest village was South Stoke, which we could see across the field.

The mooring spot was a cosy fit, but the water was deep enough and we could securely tie up to the trees.