A wet cruise - the first for months

Sunday, 30 October 2011 16:41

It seems like months since we cruised in the rain - we are not fair weather sailors, but the weather has smiled on us when we wanted to cruise this year. 

Cruising near Rose Island on the River Thames, in the rain

We watched the F1 Grand Prix then set off for Oxford ......

Iffley Lock, one of my favourite locks, was soon upon us. We just caught the Lock Keeper before he went off to lunch. 

Iffley Lock ahead

In the lock the rain eased and the wonderful autumn colours showed up well. Like many locks on the upper Thames there was once a mill here. The mill was powered by the water from the weir - before a lock was even thought of. It was not until 1605 that King James I passed Act 21 for the provision of three locks on the Thames, including Iffley.

Iffley colours and a shy Lock Keeper!

With only a small fall (2'9") it did not take long to fill and we were off. 

The River above Iffley

Looking back at the lock

The fisherman in the below photo was not paying attention, John had to sound our horn and then he took his time to reel in his line. The line was under us almost to our stern - he would not have been happy if our prop had claimed it; nor would we have been.

Bridge and boat rollers above Iffley Lock

For me this college barge is an Oxford landmark (or should I say rivermark). It was once Corpus Christi College Barge - you may remember my delight in finding it on the way down stream and the history of these old boats. See here if you missed my blog from then, or want to read it again!

Corpus Christi Barge

Other Oxford River landmarks and activity soon became evident. Passing "The Gut" on the east bank, above Donnington Road Bridge, one of the Long Bridges is beside some boat houses. This is one entrance to the backwater (the other is downstream nearer Rose Island) that once housed Long Bridges Bathing Place. It was an open air public bathing area close to Donnington Bridge and closed at the end of the 1980s. 

Long Bridges Boat Houses

Lo and behold, the sun came out and shone on the Oxford College Boat Houses

There were lots of "eights" out on the river (it is Sunday after all) and others were just getting ready to join the already crowded stretch! As it is still the first term of the academic year many of the rowers are "freshers" so potentially inexperienced. It was a wise move to slow down and make sure they all knew where they were going and were also listening to their coaches on the bank.

More eights ready to depart

Three eights make .......?

This cox took a while to wake up

Having negotiated our way through the rowers we made our intention plain - we turned towards the left bank of the river as we had spotted a mooring space that would do just fine for Epiphany. 

Moorings opposite Christ Church Meadow and our potential spot

The only drawbacks of these moorings are that when the rowers are out it is noisy as the coaches shout from the bank, inexperienced crews in the rowing boats come too near and end up pushing off from our hull (a definite "no, no" is expressed by us!) and there is no satellite line for TV. Otherwise, it is lovely to be opposite Christ Church Meadow and to watch the boats going by.

Tomorrow we have another cruise "booked" and we shall have a passenger from the USA .......

River Thames, Sandford to Christ Church Meadows
0 hours 57 minutes, 2.71 miles, 1 lock