Cruising at last!

Cruising at last: AMYC says goodbye to lockdown blues (hopefully!).Eight-day upriver cruise 29 May to 5 June:
For the first cruise of the year, the Club went upriver. Some of us met on Friday evening and enjoyed a meal at PHYC. Six boats, Lockdown Dream, Purple Orchid, Bagpuss and Co, Beatrice Rose, Enterprise, Breakers 2 and Sea Quest started out from Penton Hook on this very enjoyable cruise for our first stop at Bray Marina.: To add to the excitement on the way upriver, one of our boats lost one of their engines then had an altercation with Windsor bridge!! That afternoon we had a pontoon party and a few drinks to name the Commodore’s new boat then we all went to dinner at the Mediterraneum restaurant. It was a lovely evening to all be together but sadly the food was disappointing, and the service was poor so we won’t be in a hurry to visit there again!
 On the Sunday morning four boats left for Cookham, arriving there later in the day. We spent two days there although only one was originally planned. This was mainly due to hold ups on the river caused by a body being found in the lock cut at Boulters Lock. On the first evening we found a fantastic Thai restaurant with great food and service and the following day we had a Club BBQ on the sunny riverbank. 
Four made it to Henley, then Beatrice Rose stopped at Thames & Kennet marina while the remaining three pressed on to Pangbourne where they stayed the night. In Pangbourne they found a fantastic pub/hotel called The George and had a surprisingly wonderful meal in beautiful surroundings. For the return journey the four boats regrouped at Henley for the night, fought their way through persistent rain to Windsor marina and, having largely dried out, got back to Penton Hook the next day. All the club members had a fabulous time. We were spoilt with glorious weather although there was one day of rain. 
Below are a few photos to give a flavour.

Windsor cruise 12th and 13th June:
The following weekend we ventured out again to Windsor; this replaced the planned Cookham cruise, partly because passage through Windsor was likely to be slow due to security precautions for President Biden’s visit to the Queen at Windsor Castle. Four boats intended to set out: Lockdown Dream, Enterprise, Bagpuss & Co, and Purple Orchid. Sadly the Commodore didn’t make it out of the marina on Lockdown Dream as he managed to get a rope around his propeller. A painful lesson on tidy ropes was learnt by all. The three other boats moored on the island and the Commodore and his partner joined them later by car. They all enjoyed another wonderful club BBQ.