cutty wren

Please adjust your bookmarks

Chris — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 21:27:47 +0000

Please visit our new blog nbwrensnest.wordpress.com

… but meanwhile here are some photos of the trip.

A New Name

Chris — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 20:58:39 +0000

It’s always a privilege to see an artist’s work develop, and Mike Doig, our signwriter is no exception, after a brief discussion about wrens, nests and the font style for our boat’s name and us being somewhat vague about it “Something like the previous style with curly bits on the first letters of each word” within a few minutes Mike had sketched out a layout in white pencil which looked OK so we said “would you like us to bu**er off for a bit?” He said “Yes please” and by the time we got back, this is what we saw …. Fantastic!!!

The next day Mike was back to add the Wrens and after one last night in the paint dock whilst the paint dried we are back out on ‘The Cut’ and showing off our new name to anyone who will look. In honour of the new name and our new start we now have a new blog address nbwrensnest.wordpress.com so we look forward to seeing you there in the future.

In Dock

Chris — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 21:36:07 +0000

Well folks, sorry for the break in transmission over the last few days but our boat has been ‘indoors’ making internet access ‘interesting’. The reason is that we are having our name panels repainted which on Bank Holiday Monday involved a trip to Midland Chandlers at Braunston to buy a can of ivory paint, as Ian, the painter declared that the cream paint we had ordered didn’t match.

After a round trip to Braunston we returned with said paint plus two anchors and two TV aerials for my erstwhile boss, David, who hearing we were going there offered the loan of his van if we could just pick up a couple of things!

We then turned around and set off for Crick Boat Show where we had intended to go first thing in the morning. We bought a few bits and pieces but our star buy was a tiller pin with a wren on it

Arriving back at the wharf in the evening there was a note from Ian saying “Sorry, its not Ivory either” so on Tuesday we made a decision NOT to try and match the colour but use a can of dark red/maroon which had been used on the rear doors, I’m happy to report that results are quite pleasing and today our signwriter Mike came to paint on her new name, but more of that in the next exciting episode.

Penelope’s Pitstop

Chris — Mon, 31 May 2010 06:40:59 +0000

We completed the last leg of your journey today, the day started with an inspection of the boat by Bones who joined us for breakfast.

We set off into what soon became familiar territory, greeting friends and colleagues on the way, we had planned to stop for lunch at The Rock of Gibraltar but on approaching there this strange smell started, I sent Joy to make sure that she hadn’t left anything on the cooker, but that was OK so we decided that it must be something in the nearby industrial estate. We couldn’t moor up at The Rock but the smell was still with us, a glance at the temperature gauge revealed that NONE of the gauges were working!

So stopping at the earliest opportunity I lifted the deck board to find a VERY HOT smelling starter motor, of course stopping the engine was, on reflection, a mistake because it wouldn’t start again! Never fear, I had reconditioned a starter at work and we were only a few miles away, so a quick phone call to my friend Sam had the starter with us before I could down a pint at the pub, Mrs Stamatis provided us with Sunday lunch and by that time the engine had cooled down and I was able to fit the reconditioned starter and be on our way within half an hour.

We arrived back at Heyford Wharf about 6 o’clock, after a brief stop to show off our new acquisition to Barry & Sue on Esther, and spent a remarkably peaceful night moored opposite the station as there were few trains it being a Bank Holiday weekend.

… at Thrupp, on a borrowed mooring!

Chris — Sat, 29 May 2010 22:47:03 +0000

This morning didn’t look promising, nor was the forecast and they were right, the rain which we had woken up to persisted throughout the day, but at eleven we could put it off no longer and set off through Abingdon lock and headed for Sandford which we hoped would have opened on schedule. This stretch of the Thames is still beautiful but a bit ‘samey’ without the regular punctuation of so many posh waterside properties. We were soon assured that Sandford lock was open by the number of craft coming downstream and when we reached the lock we shared it with a French boat and one of Salter’s ‘Steamers’.

On we went through Iffley lock and were we were surprised if not a little disconcerted by being told that there was a regatta in progress, in fact it was almost finished and the crews much more disciplined than others we had encountered, at least with ‘eights’ they have a cox to tell them what they are heading towards!

That excitement over we progressed into Oxford city, through Osney lock and entered the Oxford Canal through Sheepwash Channel which was unsigned and looked so narrow I had to phone my friend Andy for confirmation! On through Isis lock and onto the Oxford proper, we moored up opposite College Cruisers about 3:30 pm for a late lunch. After chatting with our friends Helen & Andy, who work there, we pressed on at about 5pm and made it to Thrupp by 9pm and after a few texts to a friendly native moored up (with her permission) on Bones‘ spot for the night as she was elsewhere. Maffi (moored next door) joined us on his return from the pub to give his seal of approval on our our boat and we fell into bed just before midnight!!!

and so to Abingdon

Chris — Fri, 28 May 2010 22:16:21 +0000

This morning we had a late start, we spent some time looking around Wallingford patronising the launderette and Circle 7, a fantastic hardware shop run by a Sikh gentleman with turban and whiskers befitting an Indian Army officer.

The late start was occasioned by the fact that we heard yesterday that Sandford lock was closed for emergency repairs and not due to open until Saturday, so there was no point in rushing. Signs at the locks had warned us that moorings at Abingdon were getting full but the kind lockie at Days Lock phoned his colleague at Abingdon who assured us that he could find us a berth, the journey up was unremarkable with the usual quota of millionaire’s waterside residences and a very pretty brick bridge at Clifton Hampden apart from running aground on a shoal just before Abingdon Bridge, in the end there were plenty of moorings available so we moored up opposite Abbey Meadows before bidding our farewells to Chrissy over a meal with Toni, her husband at the Broadface

and on to Wallingford

Chris — Thu, 27 May 2010 20:35:35 +0000

This morning’s breakfast was partaken courtesy of Tescos to save the cooking & washing up

Keith joined us again in time for elevenses and we set off on this huge, scary river, the Thames, actually it wasn’t scary just wide. The locks were all electric/hydraulically operated, mostly by cheerful lock-keepers except the one who was on his lunchbreak and we had to disturb because we couldn’t get the gates to open (it was signed self-service, so we were meant to do it!) We had a lovely journey, such a change from our slow meanderings down the K & A, the scenery was stunning not to mention some of the magnificent properties and boathouses.

We heard today that Sandford lock is closed for repairs until Saturday so we may not be back at Heyford on schedule. We moored up at Wallingford this evening where I cooked up a Lamb curry.

Arrived at Reading

Chris — Wed, 26 May 2010 20:33:48 +0000

We made good progress today, arriving at Reading we encountered a group of yoofs at a lock who were most interested in the boat and Jade our cat, they were quite respectful and helped a little, opening the gates. At the lock in the centre of town were a couple of ‘rough sleepers’ who were also quite pleasant, one of whom had been a lockkeeper. It was quite strange travelling through the town centre shopping area, its quite ‘wiggly’ so has one way traffic with traffic lights as well!!

On the way we have passed many WW2 ‘pillboxes’ One of which had this little poem on it.

We continued through our first EA lock, Blakes and are now moored up on the Thames outside Tescos! Just going to have a Tescos curry to celebrate.

Under Instruction

Chris — Tue, 25 May 2010 20:41:38 +0000

Today we had the benefit of my colleague Keith’s expert guidance. David, my boss, scared us (Joy) by saying how difficult Woolhampton lock was, because of the strong current coming in from the River Kennet so we enlisted Keith’s help who met us at Newbury and travelled down with us to Woolhampton, in the event navigating the lock and swing bridge was a bit of an anticlimax due to our skillful pilot, but we celebrated with a pint at the Rowbarge, Keith caught the train back to Newbury and we continued on to Aldermaston, which had the most horrendously heavy gates one of which it took three of us to move. We moored up this evening and enjoyed a lasagne expertly produced by Chris(sy) and a rhubarb crumble by Joy.. I contributed by doing the washing up

Cruisin’ with Penelope

Chris — Tue, 25 May 2010 08:30:32 +0000

I guess today was the first day of our new boating life, our friends Chris & Toni drove us down from Heyford and after lunch at the John O’Gaunt in Hungerford we set off, taking Chris with us, and 7 miles & 7 locks later arrived at West Fields Newbury where we spent a peaceful night. Today our friend Keith is joining us for the day to guide us through the stretches of the River Kennet.