Dread lock holiday

We were a motley crew for our first Thames voyage - me, my wife in a wheelchair with a broken leg, her parents in their late 80s with walking sticks, and eight-year-old twin girls intent on falling in.

- 

Oh, and cousin Bill, a veteran of chugging around the Norfolk Broads who we dragged along as skipper. Then he told us he was terrified of locks, of which there are none on the Broads and many on the Thames. Ah!

The first challenge was getting aboard our 42ft Classique Star vessel from Le Boat, moored at Benson in Oxfordshire. No problem carrying the wheelchair user while the unable seamen hopped and limped down the gunwales. But ship’s dog Nellie, a Doberman-French shepherd, didn't like the four-inch gap from dock to boat and had to be dragged on in a seated position along the fibreglass. Talk about squeaky bum time...

Our new home for the next few days had double beds with en suites for the skipper and the senior service, a double bed for mum and dad and bunks for the kids, with a shared bathroom.

Everything shipshape. And through big picture windows, the Thames lapping against our cabin walls.

It’s daunting taking out a sizable craft like this for the first time. And exciting. A spot of good weather helps and we were blessed with a still, calm morning. Setting off is easy. Cast off the ropes, press the lever forward for a few revs and off you go. From Benson, you can go north towards Oxford or south for the Chilterns and Reading.

We went downstream and straight into the first of the dreaded locks. The theory is simple, going towards the sea you occasionally have to drop down several feet. So you open one set of lock doors, making sure the other lock doors are closed. Then you're trapped in the lock. The downstream lock doors are then opened and the boat descends. Once the levels are equalised, the second lock doors are opened and off you pop.