weekend in Windsor

 The plan was to have a rest day and carry on but after initially thinking we couldnt find a suitble mooring we found a space right on the end of the island which was ideal.    So good in fact that we decided to stay for the whole of the holiday weekend.   On the basis that it would be busy everywhere we would settle for out nice comfy spot!

Normally this area on Baths Island is a very popular picnic spot so we anticipated this would be heaving over the weekend.   However it seems picnickers are definitely fair weather people and since the weather, whilst not raining at least, was cloudy most of the time, we were left in relative peace.

Thursday we had visitors Mike and aso an old friend from RAF days whom we last saw about 40 years ago!!!   The sun was kind so we were able to eat outside but the clouds chased us back inside for our coffee.

Sunday Giles came to visit and provided lunch for us.....on the boat this time as too cold to sit out.  Hard to believe its still August.   He also took me shopping so we have a full fridge again.

Monday Emma and Kensa came out on the train and once again too cold to sit out.

Plenty of life on the river to keep us amused.

Every morning almost 100 swans would come upstream
 for their morning constitional

kk

First time we had seen this way of paddle boarding...they are peddling 

In addition there were plentiful little hire boats plying up and down including the bright yellow duck amphibians full of tourists.

Windsor town was relatively busy but nowhere near as busy as previous years and we noticed that the coach park was very empty.

Tuesday was definitely time to move on so we had a very early start so we could water before the next lock and we also needed fuel.   What a frustrating start to the day!  The water supply proved as bad as the last place due to these new taps.  After 1 and 3/4 of an hour we gave up before the tank was full.

Next stop was Windsor Marine for fuel.   Took Geoff a while to find someone who said he would be with us in 15 minutes.......after 40 minutes we left after I had spoken to Bray marine who confirmed there was someone there to serve us.  And this was after we had turned the boat so that we could reach the fuel tank!  

So much for the early start.  All the world was up now!

Lots of little day boats about now

So our projected day of 3 to 3 1/2 hours turned out to be 7 hours.

As expected Cookham was very full, but we just managed to squeeze into the last space as a friendly boat behind moved back slightly so we could fit in.

Lovely surprise later as Boe arrived about 4.30.   She had been warned that we planned to have an early start on Wednesday to get to Henley.  She planned for this and departed at 7.30 to find a cafe for breakfast before visiting a friend and using her house to teach her first online lesson at 9am!   What would we do without the internet?

Off at 7.30 and this time not such a frustrating day, in fact very pleasant.   We had company in the first two locks at Marlow and Temple which makes life a little easier as we were prior to the lock keepers duty time.

Cliveden up on the hill

...and so to Henley

Tehy are still packing away after the regatta but the crowds are all gone.   Moorings quite busy but we found a congenial spot just past Giles boat, White Velvet

White Velvet is the blue and white boat 

Another few days of R&R before we move on to Sonning on Saturday