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The Easter weekend of the 29th-31st March 2002 was a long holiday weekend in the UK. The Friday and Monday being official "Bank Holidays" giving most people a four-day break. Although early this year the Easter weekend usually coincides with the start of the better weather and is the first real opportunity for any serious boating activity to take place on the River Thames, flow rates and levels are returning to normal after the winter flooding and boatyards are moving vessels from the hard standing back to their summer moorings.
It was important then, that if we wanted to sell Kahawi this year, we needed her ready and available, as early as possible at the brokerage, for any prospective purchasers to be able to view her.
I had left it a little late, but still managed, in under a week, to obtain a "Section-9" permit from the Environment Agency, the Governing body for navigation on the River Thames, which would allow us to move the boat on the river for one day only. This represented a saving of more than £250 over the purchase of an annual license, but did mean we were restricted to pre-paying on a daily basis, not knowing on the fast-flowing Thames, if the authorities would actually allow us to travel on the specified day(s). As we had eight manned locks to ascend on our journey from Bray to Wargrave, it was most unlikely we would escape having to show a valid license at some point on the trip and at £13 per day it was hardly worth trying to avoid payment.
Our Cruiser Club had also booked this weekend for it's annual "Fitting-out" cruise to be going from Bray to Sonning, and we had hoped to all meet up at Henley on the Friday Evening, for us as our last night on the river, in our own boat.
In the event, the lock keepers (who also attend to the river levels by very strict control of the weirs adjacent to each lock) had managed to lower both the level and the flow rate to near normal for this important starting date of the Thames boating season. We left Bray Marina for the last time at 11:00 on Friday 29th March 2002, having spent as much time as possible cleaning, polishing and generally making Kahawi look as good as new after her long winter rest. This took rather longer than I had expected, leaving us both quite physically tired, with me in particular not being used to such hard work, however the end result was stunning, she really did clean up well.
As we turned left out of the marina entrance into the main river it quickly became clear that although the levels were low, the flow rate in this section at least, was faster than we are used to. This is not a problem for Kahawi, or us with a total of 216HP available, but would mean our progress would be slower than normal. There are very strictly enforced speed limits on the river and they are there to reduce wash and consequent damage to the river banks or moored craft. This meant that although we could crank up the speed a little to compensate, in a couple of places we were fighting, what was effectively a 3-4 knot tide against us.
It seemed to us that the lock keepers were on a
work-to-rule as well, every boat was carefully checked and
ticked off, necessitating several visits to the lock office,
whilst the paddle-gear or sluices were raised in a slower and
much more careful manner than we recalled from the end of
last season?
We managed to get caught up in a small fleet of other boats,
all coming together at Boulters lock. Two of these boats not
having any license at all and one who had battery or engine
problems, meant he insisted on keeping his engine running.
This does not go down well with lock keepers and by Cookham
not only was the keeper at lunch when we arrived, but this
particular boat was ordered back out of the lock, if he
insisted the engine had to be kept running, then the
lockkeeper would make him wait until he had an empty lock to
allow him through, as a safety precaution to all the other
boats. I was actually quite pleased about this as the owner
also had a noisy Hi-Fi playing, something else that is very
frowned upon.
In view of this unusual attention to the rules we were very relieved that I'd purchased a "section 9" for Kahawi beforehand. But by 16:00 we had only just made it through Marlow, with four or five more locks to go, the timing of this trip was not looking good, especially as the keeper at Marlow very seriously informed Urszula that, at this time of year the locks would be closing at 16:30!
Of course this was not so, our informative friend at Marlow was simply "pulling our leg". We made it to the lock below the Henley reach before 17:30 (when they actually closed) and we locked through OK. We ran the length of the famous regatta course after passing Temple Island and spotted the rest of our Cruising club boats. We stopped over, alongside Peter Hasler's boat "Dandy Regent".
After a good evening spent aboard Peter's boat, we left early on Saturday morning, worked ourselves through Wargrave lock (before the keeper came on duty to discover we only had a one-day license) and moored up closer to Wargrave. Ula cooked a huge breakfast, whilst I did some final cleaning and tidying up.
Kahawi was thus deposited at Val Wyatt's yard at Wargrave to be sold. Is this the end, or beginning of a new era? Who knows? It is certainly very unsettling, read on;
Whilst Deb's is packing, I am sitting on the sofa in our beautiful sun lounge and pondering what on earth it is that we are all up to?
Michael has taken up residency in New Zealand with his lovely new Wife Sara; Deborah is soon to be off round the world, for at least another three years, with the sole intention of ending up in the Antipodes. Urszula and I; having this very weekend taken our boat (my pride & joy) to market, had previously, and will continue to, spend these weeks clearing the house of all the "junk" (well that is what it seems to be now) that we have acquired over 22 years of being together (and some, over time in our "previous" lives).
Just imagine that you are going to move house; how difficult will it be for you to empty your "kitchen cupboards", "sewing room", "hang-gliding gear", "bondage closet", "garage" "workshop/shed" of all the paraphernalia you have "taken on" over all the years of your life? Now this is a problem if you simply move house, but now let us further suppose you are swapping this house for only 30 long x10 foot beam of boat, with no other place to store anything. It is going to be your only permanent home for the foreseeable future? Add the dressing-table drawers, wardrobe contents, (his-and-hers) then those "must keep" items:- Old school photo's (yours and/or the children's) your War Medals/Degrees/First-aid Diploma/GCSE/Stamp &/or Beer-Mat Collection, whatever is "important" to your life and you begin to get an inkling of the quandary we are going through right now.
There simply isn't the space to lay it all out and check it!!! Let alone work out where the hell we are going to store it all? In the very best "Fagin" tradition (Lionel Bart's version):-
"I am reviewing the situation" - and - "I think I'd better think it out again"
Ruthless is not the word; everything you always thought, that would "one day come in handy" is being thrown OUT. Nuts, bolts and screws (all are being checked with a magnet - if they stick to it, OUT they go) if it sticks to a magnet, it'll rust onboard - We have made numerous trips to the local rubbish tip already.
Urszula and Deb's are off to Windsor in the morning. To a shop called "Switch-Gear". There, you can leave your bestest outfits, they will sell 'em off for you and you get approx ½ what they sell 'em for. Now, if the alternative is to simply give everything away, this is not such a bad deal is it? The rest of our toys/clothes/household goods will probably go the local Oxfam, British Heart Foundation or other "thrift" shops. We cannot be "bothered to go through" all the hassle of trying to sell off 30 years of our lives to a bunch of hagglers at a car-boot, or Garage sale, it is hard enough clearing our rooms without being "hassled for a deal" on your best prized possessions.
I am re-reading Bill & Laurel Coopers "Sell up & Sail". Be not afraid, but this IS very serious stuff to have to deal with.
You may have gathered that I have dropped into "Ships Log" mode over the last few pages. And this is how we will continue, as it is most likely to be the way that the Web-Site is going to be updated from now on.