Riding the waves of the Thames Tideway

We can heartily recommend a night on Walthamstow Marshes! Our mooring amongst the undergrowth on the edge of the marshes turned out to be one of the best. It was pretty quiet apart from the foxes fighting(mating?) and the residents of the flats opposite shouting at the foxes fighting(mating?). We walked the dogs and made preparations for the forthcoming trip on the Thames. Attached the anchor (all too easy to lob it over the side and watch the chain disappear beneath the waves), topped up water, checked oil, charged and tested VHF radio, read navigation notes and dug out charts.We then set off towards the last lock on the river Lee.

Strange teeth and face - ON THE BUILDING!

Scene of last years excitement

This part of London is covered in loads of graffiti, mostly featuring lots of teeth. We passed the Olympic site which looks sad after all of the excitement of last year - now it is quiet apart from loads of builders.

We shared Old Ford lock with another boat, which had come from Brick lock on the river Stort and who we had chatted to a couple of days earlier. They had set out after us but were spending longer travelling each day since they wanted to get to Oxford and back in a fortnight - good luck with that! (more of this later)

Exhausted dogs!

The first cute heron of the trip!

We had heard from Philip who was due to reach Limehouse before us, and so we pressed on a little harder. As we reached the far end of the Limehouse Link, he appeared beside us on the towpath and was able to help us tie up on reaching Limehouse Basin.

Philip communing with Lola

Once secured, we checked in with the lock keeper who provided a copy of the current 'notice to mariners' which indicated that our trip was to be a little more complex than expected. Arches were closed at Blackfriers Bridge, we had to radio London VTS on reaching Battersea road bridge to receive instructions about which arch to use at the rail bridge, and there was a rowing regatta ending at Eel Pie Island! Additionally, we were asked to provide escort to another narrow boat who wanted to make the transit to Teddington but who did not have a VHF radio. So, we exchanged mobile numbers with the crew of Patience and at 15:00 prepared to enter the lock. The boat I mentioned earlier, heading for Oxford, had planned to stay overnight and catch the morning tide to avoid all of the trip boats on the river. They decided to join us and go this afternoon, but on trying to start their engine, had an electrical failure and we sadly left them waiting for River Canal Rescue (RCR - AA equivalent for boats)

Once in the lock, the gates closed behind us and the lock keepers started to empty the lock to drop us down to river level - very exciting because the water leaves at an alarming rate and the front of the boat drops lower than the back as the water level drops sharply at the river end - great fun!

The gates then opened and we immediately saw a massive trip boat fly past sending up huge waves in our direction! Despite turning our bows to meet the waves head on we still had a very wet front deck by the end of the trip.

Patience following us out onto the Tideway

The river was very bsy with large, fast boats coming at us from all directions, tossing Banjo and us about like corks. The engine note kept changing as the propeller came out of the water and water spray was keeping us cool in the brilliant sunshine.


Dogs unimpressed with their life jackets



Essential equipment - VHF radio and clock from the Pound Shop!



A big bridge and a small boat

We continued past loads of landmarks, keeping track of each bridge we passed to ensure we complied with earlier instructions, whilst all the while weaving around great big craft landing and leaving from the many piers along this part of the river.


Guess which bridge this is?

 

Massive boat approaching the 'bendy' bridge (and us....)

 

Patience passing the Houses of Parliament

As we moved upstream past Chelsea, the volume of traffic dropped off and the water calmed down significantly. This made bridge identification easier but it was still surprisingly easy to lose track, and Philip was tasked with the job of navigating.

Not asleep but pouring over a chart - I think it's Hammersmith Bridge!

When we reached Battersea I called Pilot boat Ravensbourne on channel 14 - they responded to say that they couldn't hear me! After a couple of attempts I decided to speak into the right end of the radio and all was well and we passed through arch 2 of the railway bridge without further incident!

Let's find the least stable way to travel over water......

We ploughed on upstream, reaching Richmond after about 3 hours, passing crowds of happy pub goers covering the banks. The regatta had thankfully finished by the time we reached Eel Pie Island, but we saw a winning team posing for photos and waving bottles of Champagne around.

Finally Teddington lock appeared and after a short wait we passed through and managed to find a mooring spot just large enough for Banjo, but between two fiberglass cruisers - a spell of very careful manouvering followed to avoid the slightest touch of our 15 tons of steel against their delicate hulls. We tied up and bade Philip farewell as he set off to find Teddington station and start his tortuous train journey back to Hampshire.

We walked the dogs in the woods alongside the river and then enjoyed some food in a local pub - too tired to think about cooking anything.

Tonight's mooring in Teddington