Skippers Ahoy!!!

15/10/12

Today we finally could complete our Inland Waterway Certificate.

Well, talk about four seasons in one day! We woke up by frost in Wargrave. Martin gave us a short theoretical briefing on board of his training boat while we shivered under 4 layers of clothes + beanie + gloves. Then off we went down the Thames, which was a lot calmer than the previous week.

For a short time the sun came out while we practised rope throwing, only to bucket down with rain ½ hour later as we practised turns and berthing. Luckily we had a break of 35 minutes to have our sandwiches in the car at lunchtime.

The area is truly beautiful, even more so seen from the water. Magnificent old-English country houses line the Thames here. The waterway is full of small ducks, large Norwegian ducks and swans. The big ducks have no problems flying above the water, but the swans hit the surface with a “bup-bup-bup” of their tail feathers, and then elegantly go into floating mode once tiring.

After lunch the wind had picked up again which made our next task to steer into a lock and make fast even more difficult. But what can I say- we are just “naturals” and mastered also this feat to perfection (Martin, I hope you don’t read this!). Anyway, we both got our certificate.

Before being able to celebrate we had to drive to our next stay in Portsmouth.

© Austin Robinson 2019