More Happy Meetings

Saturday 23rd June, 2012.
A bright morning. We were both tired after yesterday's late night but a gentle walk around Newbury to admire its many splendid old buildings did us the world of good. There is a wonderful traditional butcher (Griffins) adjoining the old town bridge and we bought a pound of local sausages and a home made steak and kidney pie there.

We had a number of happy meetings today. On the way back to the boat, we stopped to talk to John, the owner of nb "Beverley." It had that name when he bought it and, as he used to work on Beverleys, he decided to keep the name but dedicate it to the aircraft! Apparently, it was such a big, heavy aircraft that it could have carried four narrowboats the size of Many Meetings, stacked two on two!

We set off late morning with two objectives; we needed to find water and to go back to Thatcham, where we will pick up Elle, Matt and Eva tomorrow. We found water at the Newbury Marina where R moored up last weekend (and we found the name of the fourth Kingsground boat in the Marina -  nb "Rachel Linden"). On the way to Thatcham, we passed nb "At Last!" going the other way and commented on the name - the owners said that they had waited 20 years to get her! And very happy they looked too!
At one lock, we met a family of four on a boat which we subsequently nicknamed nb "No Clue" because that is what they had (or didn't have). The parents seemed to have no idea what they were doing and the two teenage children appeared to be totally disinterested. At least Dad seemed to be enjoying himself!
At the same lock, a shy lad approached Marion asking if we had some tape as he had broken his fishing rod, which had snapped in two. Captain Robin (Mr. Fixit) to the rescue! Parcel tape and a splint can work wonders.

Back at Monkey Marsh Lock, we had a most interesting and hilarious encounter with nb "Bewick Swan" manned by eleven (yes eleven) large, loud, inebriated young men obviously out on a jolly. It was clear that they not only had no idea at all of what they were doing but also that they didn't give a hoot! They were having an absolute ball. Two fell into the river trying to jump back on board as we watched, to the vast amusement of the other nine. They were heading for Newbury for a boys' night out. The mind boggles...

Finally back at Thatcham, we were fortunate enough to take the last remaining mooring space by the railway station. The owners of nb "Jenny" were kind enough to move up to make room for us. To our surprise, already moored up there was nb "Dragonfly" (another Kingsground boat), last seen at Henley three weeks ago.
We walked up to Waitrose to do our shopping, had the (almost obligatory) coffee in Costa and then walked back in time for supper. The steak and kidney pie was truly excellent!
Today: 4 miles,5 locks and 3.6 hours (plus two swing bridges).
Trip:  115 miles, 64 locks and 71.0 hours (215.6 total).