Mostly we easily find good moorings.
On Sunday, we had a great day with friend Dave joining us at Pangbourne, he is always so full of beans and enthusiastic. A joy to have with us. He drove most of the day too, which allowed me to be extra lazy and sit in the bow watching the world go by, bliss. We travelled back upstream and turned at Goring Lock then had a BBQ on the bank near Beale Park at lunchtime in warm sunshine (for a change) and headed on to Reading where Dave's sister came to pick him up. True to form, we had dawdled over lunch and arrived in Reading later then we'd expected to; around 6pm. Despite Reading doing "little to welcome visitors from the river" as our Nicholson map book informs, their moorings fill up and we struggled to find one where we wanted to be. We backtracked behind Fry's Island to the residential area there and moored on a scruffy bit of bank opposite Caversham Boat Services whose business is on the island.
The next morning there was a knock on the door and a young man from Caversham Boats was asking us to move off by 9.30 as they run their motorboat hire from where we were moored. We were fairly irritated by this as it would appear that this stretch is all public moorings, there is nothing to say otherwise and we said as much to this man and his boss. It became a little heated as we made the point that there should be a sign here and the response was that that was up to the council to do as they had paid them to be allowed to build the bank for their pontoon and the business. This suggested that they had permission to use the public bank, but we were suspicious. So incensed, I rang Reading council who told me they don't own that bank and therefore would not be taking money for development nor letting it to Caversham Boats. I could go further and find out through Land Registry who does own the land and to see if what we were told by Caversham Boats was correct.
This all seems a little over the top now that we are a few days on and have calmed down, but we still feel strongly that there should be a No Mooring sign put there by Caversham Boats if they want to stop people taking up 'their?' bank. Needless to say, we don't think we will be stopping to fuel with them anymore and we don't think we'd be welcome anyway!
The boys at the helm!
Reading Festival fallout - abandoned, shovelled-up tents - what a waste.
On Sunday, we had a great day with friend Dave joining us at Pangbourne, he is always so full of beans and enthusiastic. A joy to have with us. He drove most of the day too, which allowed me to be extra lazy and sit in the bow watching the world go by, bliss. We travelled back upstream and turned at Goring Lock then had a BBQ on the bank near Beale Park at lunchtime in warm sunshine (for a change) and headed on to Reading where Dave's sister came to pick him up. True to form, we had dawdled over lunch and arrived in Reading later then we'd expected to; around 6pm. Despite Reading doing "little to welcome visitors from the river" as our Nicholson map book informs, their moorings fill up and we struggled to find one where we wanted to be. We backtracked behind Fry's Island to the residential area there and moored on a scruffy bit of bank opposite Caversham Boat Services whose business is on the island.
The next morning there was a knock on the door and a young man from Caversham Boats was asking us to move off by 9.30 as they run their motorboat hire from where we were moored. We were fairly irritated by this as it would appear that this stretch is all public moorings, there is nothing to say otherwise and we said as much to this man and his boss. It became a little heated as we made the point that there should be a sign here and the response was that that was up to the council to do as they had paid them to be allowed to build the bank for their pontoon and the business. This suggested that they had permission to use the public bank, but we were suspicious. So incensed, I rang Reading council who told me they don't own that bank and therefore would not be taking money for development nor letting it to Caversham Boats. I could go further and find out through Land Registry who does own the land and to see if what we were told by Caversham Boats was correct.
This all seems a little over the top now that we are a few days on and have calmed down, but we still feel strongly that there should be a No Mooring sign put there by Caversham Boats if they want to stop people taking up 'their?' bank. Needless to say, we don't think we will be stopping to fuel with them anymore and we don't think we'd be welcome anyway!
The boys at the helm!
Reading Festival fallout - abandoned, shovelled-up tents - what a waste.
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