Caversham

Canal Today : River Thames

We are now back on the boat after a long and tedious day. There was a number of things that needed to be done before we could set off so we set the alarm early. We felt quite pleased that we managed all the items on our list and still set off at 10 o'clock.

However, a combination of rain and spray, with the Devon County Show and a lot of holiday traffic meant that it was about an hour longer than expected before we reached Better Boating at Caversham.

They had brought the boat to the nearside - we understand that it had stayed most of the time on the little island - but on the outer side of a wide beam under renovation. It was rather difficult to clamber across to Take Five so we made a quick decision to take the boat across to the other side and moor beside Tesco, where we have moored a number of times in the past. Christine took the car around and Mike steered the boat. By the time he had tied up, Christine arrived with the car and we could begin unloading.

It was at this point that Mike's pride in completing so many tasks before setting off this morning was seriously dented - he had forgotten to pack the laptop. This fulfils a number of functions on the boat, not least running CanalMap which we use to plan and predict our journey each day as well as keep a log. It would also be difficult to do the blog on a tablet but at least we could read our emails and respond briefly to them.

After a quick cup of tea Mike set off again with the car to leave it at Bedwyn and come back by train. This trip went well and he was back at Reading station before 18:30 with a 20 minute walk back to the boat. where he found that Christine was still shopping in Tesco.

It was clearly now too late to move so we accepted that we will spend the night on this mooring, setting off properly tomorrow morning.

Whilst looking around Christine had seen a low price laptop and persuaded/tempted Mike to agree to buying what was the only one in stock, but at least we can now do some of the usual things on the boat, although CanalMap will have to wait. It may, however, mean that we do not have to move the laptop to and fro each time we leave the boat but it will mean working out a new update process. (If only we had the time!)

Christine had already put jacket potatoes in the oven and we had a welcome meal with some prawns from Tesco and using up other odds and ends!

Afterwards, Christine pleaded with Mike to go and find something tempting for a dessert! He retured with a Tiramisu!

At the moment it is not clear that we will be able to add photos to the blog during the trip but, if possible, we will try!