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2004 Cruise to the East Coast and the Norfolk Broads			24 July to 26 July
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Shepperton to Harleyford Marina, Marlow via Bray, Cliveden
Saturday 24 July Sunday 25 July Monday 26 July	Shepperton to Bray   Bray to Cliveden Reach   Cliveden Reach to Harleyford Marina, Marlow   returns to top of this page
Saturday 24 July - Shepperton to Bray
Another lovely day – the Sunbury lock keepers were right. We set off at 09:30 and continued on round Desborough Island to rejoin the main channel at Shepperton Lock. It was already quite busy there, with a strange assortment of craft leaving the lock. It was immediately apparent that almost everyone with a boat was taking advantage of the good weather – the best weekend forecast since heaven knows when (last year?). Every lock had a queue of boats. There were plenty of trip boats out, all being well patronised. But amazingly in the whole day we saw just four hire boats (the first four since Teddington). What a contrast with the Broads. Lunch was a brief stop at Wraysbury – the spot we had intended to stay at on the way down seven weeks ago. We bagged the last place. Then we headed on up stream through Windsor (chaos as usual). We found our favoured deep mooring at Bray and are moored up near to another boat just like ours of a similar vintage. This spot is a favourite for people like us with relatively deep draught boats (for the Thames). The only snag is that the trip boats from Windsor pass here and they create a large wash and a lot of suction on the bend. The soil in the bank is not very compact and so there is a risk of pulling out the mooring stakes. Not only that but here are a lot of stinging nettles on the bank to add to the fun of mooring here. Especially if you are wearing shorts! Otherwise it’s nice and quiet! There are also a few huge and ripe blackberries that are tantalising us but are out of reach. We haven’t yet figured out how to get at them.			Idyllic scene on Desborough Island All sorts on the Thames today Traffic jam at Windsor
Sunday 25 July - Bray to Cliveden Reach
Another nice start to the day with blue sky beckoning us to get up. However during the night thousands of small black flies had decided to die all over Starry Night - any horizontal surface and some vertical surfaces were plastered with them. We had to sweep them up with a dustpan and brush. Quite what nature intended by this is not clear! Any way we tipped them into the river and put them back into the food chain! We could hear the chap in the next boat (the other side of the blackberry bush) sweeping the flies off his boat. Once we were all cleaned up we had breakfast and set off for Cliveden. The expected traffic jam at Bray Lock did not materialise. A couple of years ago we queued for over 90 minutes to get through this lock - there had been 24 boats in front of us and the lock itself is quite small compared to the others upstream and downstream of it. It is notorious as a bottleneck. The next lock was Boulter's which is always a favourite with the gongoozlers. They line the lock side and stand on the bridge and watch the hapless crews trying to lasso the mooring bollards.  Boulter’s is a big lock and packs the boats in. The lock keeper is one of the best on the system - very attentive, helpful and cheery, as well as very efficient. We found a perfect spot on Cliveden Reach on the National Trust’s bank, with a picture postcard view of Cliveden House. Cliveden House was owned by the Astors and made infamous by the Profumo affair, Christine Keeler and all that. It is now a Hotel! After lunch we walked up to the house, wandered around the gardens and returned to the boat, hopefully having raised our metabolic rate sufficiently to counter the bacon, egg and fried bread consumed earlier. We spent the rest of the day relaxing or doing odd jobs. The NT mooring warden has not yet been round to collect the £6 mooring fee (including members!) – perhaps he won’t bother? The boat traffic has now stopped for the evening, the anglers on the other bank have gone home, and even the Canada Geese have shut up!			Mayhem at Boulter's Lock, Maidenhead Gongoozlers lining the lock at Boulter's Cliveden House from Starry Night Starry Night from Cliveden House
Monday 26 July - Cliveden Reach to Harleyford Marina, Marlow
It was back to the normal weather routine - grey skies, scattered showers etc etc.  We made a quick start and were the first boat through Cookham Lock. Our arrival interrupted the lock keeper watering his flower baskets, so we had to wait awhile for this important duty to be completed. At Bourne End Marina we stopped for a pump out and fill up with diesel - just short of 150 litres. The price was 40p a litre (compared to 34p on the Broads). Then we were on our way again to Marlow Lock, Temple Lock and finally on into Harleyford Marina. Amazingly no-one was stashed in our marina berth, and we were able to moor up without delay. Then we had to unload all the stuff from seven weeks of cruising, and clean the boat from stem to stern (good boating term!), inside and out. Special effort was made at getting rid of the remaining salt deposits from the external nooks and crannies, and the whole thing was hosed down with fresh water. And that drew to a conclusion our fantastic 2004 East Coast cruise. Despite the weather it's been great. We are ready and raring to go again and are already planning next year's trip to Holland. Some cruise statistics: Nautical miles - 681 (Inland - 266; Coastal - 415) Fuel consumed (by the boat) - 551 litres of diesel Engine Running Hours - 136 Lockings - 43 Fuel consumed (by the crew) - 612 tea bags (made into tea!) This is the last entry for this cruise diary. Thank you for following our exploits.			Early morning reflections at Cliveden Ensconced in Starry Night's normal berth at Harleyford Marina
Updated 15 March 2009 Copyright © 2004-2009 Mike Hawkridge