Send to Godalming

Sat 20^th April Easter Saturday

Today was a beautiful day. We ended up taking lots of pictures.  We left Send, going past the National Trust workshops by Worsfold Gates, and then used Triggs Lock on our own.

Worsfold Gates

Triggs Lock

The waterway passes through lovely water meadows, and they appeared at their best today in the spring sunshine. We passed the grounds of Sutton Place, but the house is not visible from the water.

Water meadows

Rope roller near Sutton Place

Landscape near Sutton Place

We caught up with a small Sea Otter called Jacaranda, and we shared Bowers, Stoke, Millmead and St Catherine’s Locks with them.

Sharing Bowers Lock with Jacaranda

Ancient willows

Stoke Lock

Guildford warehouses

Onslow Bridge Guildford

Electric Theatre

At Millmead Lock, a Sea Otter called Kairos was entering the lock from above. We took a photo as our Canal Ministries friends Chris and Sally have a boat of the same name. Then we realised that it was Graham and Lea Wright on board. They are the first people from BCF that we met in 1996, in Weybridge, and it was through them that we became members. Their boat then was called Puddleglum. It was good to see them again, particularly at a lock when we could talk.

Kairos

Graham Hazel Lee

Millmead Lock

We left the lock, and were approaching the bend before Guildford meadows, when a rowing four came down to the corner on the wrong side and stopped, effectively blocking the river. We had to go into reverse to avoid a collision.  We then had to manoeuvre around them, as did Jacaranda who were behind us.

Rowers in the Wey!

A little further upstream, the Pilgrim’s Way crosses the river on a footbridge where there used to be a ford. There is golden sand here, and the name Guildford is derived from the words Golden Ford.

Pilgrims Way footbridge and Golden Ford

Low Bridge at Shalford

St Catherine’s Lock

Landscape near Farncombe

We had expected to go through Catteshall Lock, but we saw boat club boats moored just before, so we moored nose on to Danum, who had turned to face downstream.

Moored nose on to Danum ll at Farncombe

Later we saw the horse drawn boat go past. Also Ruby Tuesday, who we first came across in Brentford. We spent some of the afternoon making our Easter hats for the meal with Byfleet Boat Club that evening, which was good fun.

Horse drawn boat Iona

Iona

Ruby Tuesday

Easter Hats

Byfleet Boat Club members at Hector’s

6 locks, 9 miles Dep 0845 arr 1355

Sun 21^st April  Easter Sunday

We needed to leave early to get to church this morning. We discovered that Tina and James on Tristan had tied their rope to our mooring pin and had put the rope through the “D”. To retrieve our pin, we therefore had to climb onto their boat to untie the rope, and replace the pin we needed with an old one with no “D”. They weren’t up and about, so we had to leave them without saying anything.  As we left Catteshall Lock we said farewell to Mick and Rodney who were chatting by HazellNut.

Tristan

Mick and Rodney

We went to the end of the navigation, passing the most southerly point of the connected waterway system at Godalming Wharf.

Godalming Wharf

We were fortunate to find an empty mooring at the end of the private moorings. Another boater said that the berth was vacant, and it would be OK.

Moored at the end of the navigation

We went to find Godalming Baptist Church for their 1115 service. There was coffee being served between the two morning services, so we chatted to some people there before we went in for the more contemporary service.

The worship was led by a very talented pianist, with a keyboard and guitar playing as well. The lady minister was also singing. The songs were up to date, and the service was informal.

Godalming Baptist Church

Vicki and Ernon had invited us to a late lunch, joined by Sue. Ernon came to collect us from the boat and we had a tasty lasagne at their house. Sue had to depart early to go to Twickenham to help set up the room in the Cabbage Patch pub for the folk club that evening. We went along with Vicki and Ernon later, and we sang five songs, two of which were with Sue, unrehearsed, but remembered from our days together in our folk group Amberwood.

Vicki and Ernon

Sue at Twickfolk (video to come)

1 lock, 1 mile. Dep 0905 arr 0940

Next: Heading back down the Wey Navigation, seeing people as we go.

Pyrford to Byfleet to Send

Thu 18^th April

We set off downstream for a change. We were heading back to Byfleet Boat Club so that we could go to the folk club that meets every Thursday in the Blue Anchor. We had no locks to negotiate, so it was an easy journey. We went past the boat club to the junction with the Basingstoke Canal where we could turn the boat, and we headed back up to the boat club.

Passing the boat club

Turning by the Basingstoke Canal

We tried to moor on the wooden posts behind Ruby Tuesday, but it was too shallow, so we moved forward and tied onto the railings instead.

Moored at Byfleet Boat Club

Mike Chamberlain was there, preparing Paper Moon for painting. We went to visit Stuart and Julia at TLC next door, as they had some post for us. Then we practised a few songs for the folk club that evening.

Mark arrived on Journeyman and moored behind us. We saw Mick and Suzanne on Cranley as they paused at the club before moving on to Send.

We stowed some equipment in our shopping trolley as it was quite far to carry it, and we walked to the folk club at the Blue Anchor, which took 30 minutes. The place was almost full, but thankfully Vicki and Ernon were there already, and they had saved seats for us. We saw Mike Peach, the host, and he said we could start off the second half. There were so many singers that everyone had just two songs.

We spotted a few people that we knew. Sue Knowlson, from our days in Pioneer, also Hedley Kay was there with his wife Margaret. He used to perform at the Preston Cross Hotel, and they were friends with Anne and Peter Marshall from our church.

We sang Fremantle Bay and Long Way Down. We were well received. Vicki and Ernon kindly drove us back to the boat. We will see them again on Sunday in Godalming.

0 locks, 3 miles  Dep 0830 arr 0930

Fri 19^th April

We saw Trev arrive to look after the hiring of the rowing boats. He was probably very busy later as this was Good Friday, and the weather was excellent. Jeanette also joined husband Mike on Paper Moon.

Jeanette, Mike, Trev

As we set off from the club, another boat was approaching from behind. We let them pass and established that they were going through the locks, so we agreed to share. This was Mel and Pete on Danum No 2, also boat club members, although we didn’t really know them.

It was a glorious day as we cruised up to Pyrford, passing West Hall, once the home of Frederick Stoop, a philanthropist who provided Byfleet with a boat club. The house is now an upmarket retirement home.

West Hall retirement home

Dodds Bridge built in 1761

We spotted a heron in a very unusual position, apparently drying its wings, as cormorants do. We have never seen a heron doing this before.

Heron posing

When we arrived at Pyrford Lock, we discovered that Stuart and Julia were giving instruction to the people who had hired their day boats. It took a long time, so James had time to empty two cassettes in the nearby elsan facility.

Two day boats under instruction

Sharing Pyrford Lock with Danum ll

Soon after this we passed a long line of moored boats and met a Dunkirk Little Ship named Jockette ll   Clicking on the name will give you some history.  Some more history was evident when we passed the house once inhabited by the poet John Donne.

 

Dunkirk Little Ship Jockette ll

John Donne’s house

Passing through Walsham Flood Gates, we were now on a river section, where we could open the throttle a bit more as far as Newark Lock. Here we could see Newark Priory in the sunshine. The lock is followed a low road bridge.

Walsham Flood Gates

River section

Newark Priory

Sunny cruising

Low bridge at Newark

The next lock was Papercourt, and this was the last one of the day for us. We passed the new Cartbridge Basin Marina that was under construction when we were here three years ago. It now had plenty of boats. We stopped at Cartbridge Wharf to fill the water tank, before going under the bridge at Send, and mooring by the New Inn.

New Marina

The water tap at Cartbridge Wharf

Moored by the New Inn at Send

Oliver came to see us later and we went for a meal in the pub. We saw a few more people we knew: John and Sue Webster, Tina and James Osborne and some others. The food was good, but the place was a bit noisy.

3 locks, 5 miles. Dep 1000 arr 1335