It has been wet, wet, wet here at Goring but we've managed to get out for a walk each day and there are plenty of pedestrians on the pathway.
During Saturday night George was woken at 2am and 4am to the sound of voices and people passing the boat and we saw quite a few on Sunday and saw that on each 'number plate' was Centurion, and we thought that it would probably be 100k walk/run. On our way back from our walk I asked a young lady competitor how far was the run ... 100 miles she told me! The Centurion 100 2019 was based on a cross-like course consisting of four spurs centred at Goring ... "The difficulty of this race should not be underestimated. During a dry spell the route is flat, fast and picturesque presenting ideal conditions for a trail 100. However, runners will also be faced with up to 13 hours of darkness and the possibility of extremely low temperatures, rain and very wet and windy conditions. Conditions underfoot can vary dramatically." ...
Well ... they certainly had the wind and the wet although I don't think the temperatures would have been a problem as the night temperatures have been nearly the same as daytime. I think this would have been one of last group coming through to the finish just after midday on Sunday.
The stream (flow) on the Thames has been getting fresher each day for a few weeks now and late on Sunday morning when I checked the Thames Conditions website and the top of the Thames from St Johns Lock to Clifton Lock are all yellow boards ... Stream Increasing (navigation is possible with care). Godstow to Osney is on red (boaters advised not to navigate as the strong flow is difficult and dangerous. Clifton Lock is five locks upstream from where we are moored at Goring.
This was a hire boat trying to leave the mooring this morning (there are no stream warnings on this reach) ...
The hirer's perseverance paid off and off he shot downstream.
We waited until the River Condition's website had been updated today (Monday 14th) before deciding what to do and at 10:50 after the update it was still the same as yesterday ...
We had to time the letting go of the rope, especially the bow rope, perfectly because as soon as I did the bow would fly out into the stream ... which it did! This is the real meaning of 'winding', using the wind and flow of water to turn the boat. In the picture above the flow has caught the bow and George is in forward drive with the bow thruster on to help with the turn ... and we're still going backwards! More thrust and we were round and away in no time at all. Phew!
I have likened the flow as 'on a rolling boil' in the cooking sense!
It was a good job we wanted to go downstream!
We would usually be travelling at 1600 revs and were doing 1100 this morning ... but going at least as fast as usual.
You'll need to look carefully to see this WWII pillbox on a little island as we pass by
Gatehampton Railway Bridge round the next bend
Fake and real herons ... one with a passenger!
Through the bridge and the Thames appears to be fairly benign now but that may be because the river is so wide here ...
at our mooring on Beale Park meadow
After ensuring our mooring stakes are in deep and the ropes are not too tight to allow for rise and fall of the water levels I checked the website again ... just 15 minutes after leaving Goring ...
to find that this reach (between Cleve and Goring) are now also on yellow boards.
Our intention is to stay here for a couple of days ...
unless, of course ...
this reach changes to red ... and then we'll hop quickly back up to Goring to wait for things to settle down.
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