2015 Totally Thames Source to Sea River Relay

On Tuesday we trundled up to Sandford-on-Thames ready for our part in the Totally Thames Source to Sea River Relay the following day. The stretch between Abingdon and Sandford was peaceful. Lolly clearly enjoyed the boat ride and was pleased to be on another adventure.

And where do you think you're taking me?

I think we should go back that way.

Sandford was pretty busy. We were hoping to moor below the lock but our favourite spot was taken, so through the lock we went with Rob expertly maneuvering past a couple in a tiny canoe who went in before us (that would be my fault with the 'No, after you...' to their looks of horror).

This is actually Abingdon Lock but I'm going to pass it off as Sandford whilst no one is looking.

We saw Pat as we emerged from the lock. He waved at us from the beer garden of the King's Arms. I waved enthusiastically in response and hollered a greeting, and we continued on our way. I discovered later that he was trying to wave us down because he'd saved us a mooring. Oops! We did managed to snag the last available meadow-side space (opposite some very lovely houses) so all was not lost.

Our mere presence clearly adding value to the property opposite. 

Once here we settled in for the night under a very lovely, if stormy, looking sunset. It held promise of the weather to come.

Do you think it's going to rain?

Nah, we'll be all right.

As the evening wore on Lolly and I played a little game called Spot the Cat in the Dark.

Aha, I have a torch!

The following morning dawned bright and sunny and full of hope for a day of good weather. I decked the boat out in a mixture of bought and homemade bunting.

Remember my lovely new paintwork? The bunting has marked it. :(

Pffft, the bunting you made is rubbish! I'm a cat, I know these things.

And we waited for our turn in the relay. Just after lunch this came and the bottle of Thames water arrived on Admiral VII and we had a little hand over.

There were drinks aboard too. Beautiful boat, and lovely crew. :)

And then a second, more official, handover at Sandford Lock.

After saying our farewells it was back to our boat to get started on our journey to Abingdon.

Not before another photograph was taken. That's my dad in the background.

We were accompanied downstream by Mark who had taken part in the relay the day before us in his beautiful boat.

Steering by foot and making it look easy. I'd fall overboard. *jealous* :)

And whilst we were busy crewing Lolly looked after our precious cargo of Thames source water.

Can I eat it? Are you sure? You're no fun...

It was about this time that the rain started. And it rained, and rained, and rained. Some of us may have retreated inside (there's a downside to being at the tiller) and by the time we reached Abingdon Rob was completely soaked.
At Abingdon Lock we were met by other Morris men from Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers and they put on a good show for passing boats despite the weather. There was even an Abingdon flag bearer.

That's my mum, that is.

After all the dancing the bottle of source water was officially handed over to ex-Morris dancer Frank who was manning Abingdon Lock. The next part of its journey will be in the hands of a different river user.

This marked the end of our leg of the relay and so we made our way back home to Abingdon Marina. We were soggy, we were tired, but we were happy after such a fun day.

Abingdon looking pretty even in the rain.

Still pretty.

Yep, still pretty.

Preparations

We have been readying ourselves and the boat of late to once again partake in the Totally Thames Source to Sea Relay. Time has crept quickly upon us and there is less than a week to go before we journey up to Oxford for our leg of the event. We will be collecting the bottle of Thames source water at Sandford and bringing it down to Abingdon on Wednesday, before leaving it in the care of the lock keeper for the night. The bottle will carry on its journey downstream without us, but not before getting a Morris send off from Rob and the guys he dances with.

The boat is nearly ready to play her part in the relay. I have washed the windows and the majority of the steel work. House-dwellers do not seem to notice it so much, but on the water spiders are everywhere - and wherever they are, they poo. Spider poo. I was not familiar with spider poo until I lived on a boat. Now we even sing a little ditty about it (to the theme of the original Spider-Man cartoon):

Spider poo, spider poo,

It's the thing that the spiders do...

Okay, so it needs a little work (we even have little ditties about lighting the fire, but I suspect this just confirms that we are a little weird, especially as we have not tired of it in over ten years). But, spider poo is gross. This is an exterior bulkead:

It is supposed to be uniformly blue. All that discolouration is spider poo (Spider poo, spider poo...). I removed a pint of spiders (that is a legitimate measure for spiders) from the front of the boat yesterday and washed the steel down as best as I could. I also renewed the gaffer tape that stops the windows from leaking. It is not very elegant but until we have the time and means to refit the windows it will have to do - just do not look too closely at our relay photos.

Rob has also been busy making a top-box for the roof. The lid of which will be constructed using a couple of our solar panels. We have more solar panels than planned top-boxes, so he will make a rack for the other panels and have them up and running (famous last words) in time for our trip. They are not really necessary as the engine will generate enough power for our needs, but it is nice to have them all the same.

I also set myself a challenge. I was given a sewing machine as a graduation present and as I am new to the world of sewing I thought my very first project on this machine could be bunting for the relay.

I had grand plans of bedecking the entire boat with the stuff, but to be fair, after hours of sticking myself with pins (blood sacrifice, I presume) I am happy to announce that I have made enough to go around the stern rail. That is not very much at all, but I am proud of my little achievement. I will post photos of it from the relay. I never knew sewing needed so much concentration. It made my brain, and my machine, go fuzzy.

And whilst we were busying ourselves Lolly kept up her job of Chief Lookout, and she did it admirably.

Nothing is coming. I think we are safe.

It has been lovely, after all the work we have been doing on the boat, to sit on the roof in the evenings and watch the sun set. We have had some pretty displays of late:

An Unexpected Guest

Our dinner was disturbed last night by a clatter from the back deck. Lolly was the first to investigate the source of the commotion.

This juvenile cormorant seems not to to have acquired a shyness for humans (or cats) yet. He sat, quite peacefully, on the solar panel rack that I left balancing precariously across the back deck when we painted the roof. Lolly wasn't quite so sure of our visitor. After poking her head out of the door she decided her best course of action was to sneak away and abandon ship.

The cormorant watched her slink by before closing his eyes for a quick snooze. He eventually moved away after dark to sit on the tiller of our neighbour's boat, and Lolly finally felt it safe to return.

Source to sea relay. The Morris leg.

This year we took part in the Totally Thames Source to Sea Relay. I bedecked our boat in bunting (not nearly enough as we needed as I'm numerically dyslexic and didn't order a sufficient amount) and we took the cat on an adventure to Oxford.

We moored below Sandford Lock overnight and waited for our turn in the event the following day, day 5 of the relay. Our mission was to safely carry the water, bottled at the source of the Thames in Gloucester, from Sandford Lock to Abingdon Lock as it journeyed down the course of the Thames. Rob, and friend Mark, were set to do this in their capacity as morris men. Rob in the colours of Mr Hemming's morris dancers and Mark in the colours of Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers, thus representing both of Abingdon's morris sides.

Relay handover to Rob.

The bottle of Thames water in the care of mini Rob knitted by Heather.

Before our journey downstream commenced, Rob and Mark put on a little morris performance on the boat roof in honour of the tiny bottle of water.

 I found Lolly hiding under the bed. I assume she thought the boat was under attack by swift-footed hanky wavers. Dancing done, we set off for Abingdon Lock

Where the assistant lock keepers reminisced about their days in the local morris sides, and we handed our precious cargo (the water, not Lolly) over into the safe keeping of the lock keeper for it to continue its journey downstream the following day.

We were all given a rosette to commemorate our part in the relay. Even Lolly has one.