Day 3 - One of Those Days.......

Today started out promising. We got to the base early and they were already cleaning our boat. Barbara was waiting for us when we got there.

We immediately stowed our luggage and went to the supermarket to buy provisions.

Supermarket cake celebrating the Queen's 90th birthday

Then David went to Oxford to return the car and I had breakfast. David got back minutes after they finished preparing our boat and we put our stuff on, got the “lesson” on how everything worked, and took off.

Here are some pictures of our boat:

Upstairs seating area

Back cabin

Part of front cabin

Another front cabin

Barbara in the galley

We headed toward Goring, which was our stop for the night. We decided to continue on a few miles to Basildon Park where there is a Georgian mansion that we could tour. When we found the right area, we tied up our boat to stakes we hammered in the ground, and using a map borrowed from a guy in another boat, we headed in what we thought was the right direction. It was pretty confusing, so we turned on the GPS on my phone and followed its directions. They took us up a hill and then straight through private property. We had to jump their fence. 

This is the house whose property we trespassed on.

So, we kept going till we got to the beautiful mansion. There was an open door to the exit and the sign said “Entrance upstairs”. David decided to go in through the exit, Barbara and I were going to go upstairs and pay to get in. Unfortunately, the ladies at the entrance told us the ticket booth was a half mile away, they were closing soon, and, “Would we like to look around outside at the gardens?” So we wandered around outside, and then went back through the private property to the boat (during which time I stepped in cow manure).

Basildon Park Mansion (above and next three pictures)

We got back to the boat and headed back to Goring. Half a mile outside of Goring the boat suddenly stopped - the engine just died. Minutes later, smoke is pouring out of the engine compartment, to the extent that Barbara and I put on life jackets in case we had to jump overboard. We were drifting across the river, but fortunately, grabbed onto tree branches and were able to tie up to the branches. In the meantime, I had called the base where we rented the boat and also 999 (which is the 911 equivalent in England). After a while, the fire department showed up and moved us to a safer spot just a bit past where we were. While we waited for the LeBoat mechanic to show up, we realized that we hadn't eaten since breakfast, so we snacked on bread and butter and Cheerios.

These were the sweet and friendly firemen who showed up to "save" us.  One of them was a mechanic and he looked at our engine.  They pulled us close to shore and tied us up.  They also gave us a recommendation for a good pub to go for dinner!  Shortly, Slawek, the mechanic from LeBoat showed up and took a look at the engine.  After discussing several alternatives, it was decided that he'd drive us to a local hotel and put us on another boat tomorrow morning.  However, there were no boats in Benson, the base we'd left, so we'll be going to Chertsey, and traveling in the reverse direction, toward Benson.  He told us to keep our receipts and we'd be reimbursed for our expenses.  As we  were packing up to leave for the hotel, the owner of the property where our boat was came along to complain that the firemen had cut open two padlocks on his fences.  He was only giving us 5 minutes to pack up and get out before he was locking us in.  Unfortunately, I didn't hear this conversation, as I was in quite a mood by then, and he would have enjoyed the brunt of it.  And, locking us in didn't scare me as we're already proven and experienced fence jumping trespassers!!  And, in keeping with the spirit of today, I again stepped in cow manure!

Luckily, a lovely hotel in Goring, the Miller of Mansfield, had two rooms available.  The rooms were quite charming and the receptionist/waitresses heard our story and were so kind and sympathetic.  We had an excellent dinner and are looking forward to an excellent breakfast!  And, it turned out to be the very place the firemen had recommended!

The Miller of Mansfield Restaurant and Inn

Just a part of our suite

The bathroom in our suite

After a two and a half year wait between vacations, and having planned this one since September, I'm so terribly disappointed at this turn of events.  Hopefully, this will be the last problem we encounter on this trip, and most importantly, no one was hurt.