Boat Trip - Day 1: Parasshole

We start with a trip to Waitrose to stock up on things. No sandwiches available, which means lunch will have to wait for McM's. 

We get to Le Boat, Benson.  Check in is at 3pm, which involves signing the necessary forms, pay the necessary damage deposit and necessary fuel charges, then load the boat. The temperature is SCORCHIO 🥵. Le Boatman Harvey gives us the low down on things. Then we have a little go out on the water, which involves turning the boat around. I go first and manage ok. Rob M goes next and also manages well - he reverses the boat into a space - skillz. We are not expected to do that at any point, thankfully.  Harvey goes off to find us a parasol and base for it. After some time we have said parasol and we set off - GULP.

Within 5 minutes, the parasol has lifted off with the wind and lands in the river behind the boat. I look back and see the pole sticking out like Excalibur and gradually sinking into the Thames. The crew are urging me too go back but I'm approaching a lock and am struggling to control the boat...

Parasol has completely sunk pretty soon after anyway. I power towards lock but another boat is coming through and now I'm right in the way. Boats are already parked on right with no room for us to temporarily moor up. Little ferry boat approaches from behind. I struggle to control our boat, not sure where to park the thing and trying not to hit parked boats. It's ugly. I manage to reverse out of way, and let boat coming from the lock pass. Danger averted, the people from the parked boat help us with the lock controls - Rob M has hopped off to push the buttons and the girls rope us in place to stop us floating all over the place. The lock doors open and we chug on. That was not our finest hour. The couple tell us the next lock is much further on so we can relax. 

We sail on for over an hour, through Wallingford (no place to moor/stop). Swimmers, paddle boarders, kids and kayakers all need avoiding. Kids are the worst, I have to test the horn out on some to get them out of the way. A kid jumps off a bridge, bloody hell. Rob M takes control of the boat for the last part of today's journey.

We need to moor up, but are having trouble finding a spot. All we see are "private mooring" or "no mooring" signs. Our chosen destination is a pub called the Beetle and Wedge, and we're hoping that there will be ample mooring spaces. There is one space outside the pub, but it doesn't look big and we don't want an audience tbh. A little way down is a nook between some bushes so I grab the pegs and jump off the bow to tie up. One peg/rope secured, Rob M manoeuvres the boat perfectly and other peg bashed in and roped up. We lock up and head to pub down the towpath. 

The pub is lovely, however, they say they can't feed us because they are fully booked, but we can stay for drinks. Can't even offer us take-out. Seems odd, the place is half empty. We talk them into giving us 2 portions of chips and they admit that their supplies are low, this must be the real reason. The place is busier now but not at 100% capacity. Girls have cocktails and boys have pints. 3 rounds later we go back to boat and have bacon sandwiches. And more drinks. And play gin rummy. Then empty the bilge (to stop it going off in middle of night, but it does anyway), turn off the gas, and head to bed.