Newbury trip #1
The reason for taking Iris to Newbury was to get her re-blacked in a dry dock up there at All Aboard Marine Services. They'd quoted a price about £1000 less than the local Thames boatyards, so it seemed worth the effort.

Using the trusty canal planner website, I'd worked out that it was a mere 20 miles away. Sure there were a few locks and things, but really, how hard could it be? My confidence was based on the fact that I'd be standing at the back steering and barking out orders to the 'crew'.

This picture shows us leaving the marina in Reading,



...and another one, showing my brother Nick/Eric (two names, long story) who was over from NZ with his partner Sally,....



This is the entrance to the Kennet and Avon canal at about 0830 on the saturday morning,



and here is the lock that separates this from the mighty Thames...



Our trip continued up through the Oracle shopping center and through the other side of Reading. It was interesting as always to see something familiar (Reading) from an unfamiliar point of view (my boat).

The Kennet and Avon canal sometimes has the river Kennett flowing through it and sometimes not. This can make for variable progress between slow and very slow. Still, plenty of time to admire the scenery, as these pictures show....









There were of course a number of locks to go through, about 20 in fact. My brother, his girlfriend and Mary were all lock-novices at the beginning of the day, but by the end of the day, I only had to shout 'lock!' and they'd all spring into action, windlasses at the ready.

Here is a nice shot showing the water pressure in one of the locks,



here I am working hard at getting though a lock....



and Iris almost at the top....



As well as locks, there were also over 10 swingbridges to contend with, some electrically operated and some manual. Here we see my brother earning his keep with the manual variety.





Not shown is the part where I fell over at the lockside in Aldermaston in the rain and badly bruised my knee. Even now, weeks later. I still can't kneel on it. Hopefully it'll be right for the new year when surely my knighthood will be announced.