Boats Everywhere

We decided that last night's mooring was the best yet. It was quiet, the view was beautiful and we had a great place to walk the dogs. We had a lazy start to the day, finally climbing out of bed at about 9:30. Once up though, we went on a long walk with the dogs, across the water meadows, initially in the company of a family with 2 greyhounds and a lurcher - dogs just like ours!


View back to Banjo across the water meadow



The dogs loved the long grass

We returned to the boat and set about doing the washing. Before we walked the dogs we turned on the central heating boiler to heat up the water, and it was piping hot as we filled up our little twin-tub. We hung the washing to dry under the cover on the front deck, and after breakfast, we cast off and headed into the middle of Guildford once more.

Preparations were underway for the water festival which takes place this weekend, and bunting and gazeebos were in evidence, as were increasing numbers of visiting boats. We stopped off again at Dapdune Wharf to lose the rubbish and refill the water tank. This was made a bit tricky since the wharf was full and a dredger was at work in the river, right in front of the wharf. We managed to turn around, just missing the dredger and then moored alongside a widebeam boat. Once the tank was full, we turnned around again, very narrowly missing the rudder of a historic barge and the dredger again.

Now that's a weed!!

As we cruised north, we passed increasing numbers of boats heading south to the festival. The good thing about this is that virtually all of the locks were set in our favour, meaning that we could go straight in without stopping to open gates.


Cute calves learning how water works

We decided to stop in Send, near where we moored for the night a few days ago, to let the dogs have a walk. The river here is very shallow, and as we neared the bank we ran aground. Getting 15 tons of boat off the bottom can be difficult and it took a while and the use of our long pole to drag ourselves free. We abandoned the walk - sorry dogs - deciding to stop instead at the next lock. As we set off again, we met another boat head-on as we approached a narrow bridge. We reversed back and almost became stuck on the bottom again, this time on the opposite bank. Off we went again, to the next lock where we met a guy on a bicycle who was holding a windlass. The lock was set against us this time, and he told us that two boats were approaching and could we wait for them. He was going ahead of the boats he was travelling with, to set the locks for them - Angela commented to him that she had never seen boats with outriders before! Angela and the dogs jumped ship at this point, setting off on foot for the next lock, with me trailing them from the river.

Angela, dogs and another water meadow

We stopped soon after this and tied up for the night beneath a large tree on the edge of the above meadow. We don't have a picture of the mooring tonight, but we do have this.....

Tonight's mooring from the inside!

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The End of the Wey

We slept soundly in spite of being right in the middle of Guildford. It had rained overnight but the rain was long gone when we surfaced. We planned to meet up with Sam and my sister Sue at 12:30 on the river near Sam's office, which was only a short distance down the river. So, we set off for Guildford high street for breakfast and a bit of shopping. We enjoyed a coffee and danish in a cafe in Tunsgate and then headed for Sainsburys. Before we got there, Angela spotted a Joules store (a favourite brand), with a sale on, and so I followed her inside. We emerged a bit later, Angela with 1 item and me with 3 - ooops!

After gathering provisions in Sainsburys we returned to the boat and made ready to leave. The river upstream from Guildford skirts large water meadows and passes yet more beautiful houses. We arrived at St Catherine's lock near Sam's office and decided to go through the lock to moor the other side, because two cruisers were waiting to descend the lock. As we entered, the crew of the first cruiser came over to help. Whilst I climbed onto the front of Banjo to get the rope to secure us before the sluices were opened, the sluices were opened! The cruiser crew had not asked if we were ready and just went ahead, leaving us swinging about banging the far wall before I could get the rope across to Angela on the bank. Too many hands .....

We passed this cute brown calf near Shalford

Sam and Sue with Sam's friend Alison made it over to meet us, but the walk had taken longer than planned and Sam and Alison could only stop briefly before returning to work. It was good to see them and we enjoyed their sandwiches after they left!! Sue stayed with us as we set off upstream again for Godalming.


A horse drawn trip boat

As we approached a low bridge in Shalford, we suddenly realised that we were not going to get under it! We eased up to it and sure enough, the aerial mast at the front of the boat and the tubs of flowers would be casualties if we continued. So, we backed up and Angela held the boat in to the bank while I dismantled the mast and retrieved the flowers.

Not much room to spare under this bridge

Once clear we set off again and after another mile we reached the last lock on the river Wey, at Cattershall. Immediately after this lock we stopped and visited a friend of Sue's on his boat Baggins. A lovely boat and a Ray was a delightful man. We then travelled the remaining half mile to the end of the navigable river at Godalming Wharf. Here we were joined by Sue's son Joe and his daughter Juno.

Joe, Juno and Sue

Joe then took Sue back to collect her car from outside Sam's office, we we turned and headed back towards Guildford. Descending the locks is far less demanding than ascending, with no turbulent water to contend with. Also, we were moving faster, having the fast running river's current pushing us along rather than slowing us down.

Angela jumped ship at one lock, taking Anushka and Lola on a route march to the next lock whilst I chugged lazily along beside her. At the next lock we were re-united and covered the remaining short distance to the water meadows on the edge of Guildford where we are moored for the night.

Tonight's mooring

View from Banjo across meadows

Tomorrow we start the journey back up the Wey towards the Thames again.

Guildford, Guildford, Guildford

After a quiet night and walking the dogs up and down the towpath, we left Send and headed towards Guildford. We passed through some beautiful countryside with fields of poppies and water meadows, along with some desirable residences!

Cows enjoying their morning constitutional

The dogs seem to be getting more used to the boat now and spend most of their time snoozing on the back deck. However, today Lola started taking an interest in where we were going and stood staring out at the passing scenery

Can I steer now?

.More fierce locks, weirs all over the place and many sharp bends make this an interesting river to explore

Exiting a lock past yet another fabulous house

For a while a heron kept a short distance ahead of us, repeatedly taking off and then landing another 50 yards up the river. Eventually he soared away and disapeared over the A3

The cute heron expertly captured by Angela

We arranged to meet Sam, Jamie and Josh on the river outside B&Q in Guildford. We made it there a little before the appointed time, and so I went into the store in search of a new propane tank, but again, no joy. I returned to the boat to find SJ&J had arrived.

Sam, Jamie and Josh on Banjo

After showing them their cabin, going through the abandon ship routine and introducing them to the purser, we were ready to set off. (I may have exagerated this a bit). The river banks for some distance are scattered with lots of wooden sculptures, some weird, some beautiful and some very cleverly carved from complete trees

Amazing hand sculptures

We went through the centre of Guildford to Millmead lock where Sam dug out the bag of bread she had brought with her, and gleefully threw a handful onto the bank by the lock, recreating a scene from Hitchcock's The Birds

Birds appearing from all directions

We turned shortly after the lock and headed back in the direction of B&Q where S&J's car was. The trip back was very much like the earlier one, but backwards!

Josh finally flaked out

We said goodbye to SJ&J after a lovely afternoon, and headed back into Guildford again

A shag surveying the scene from high up on the top of a pylon

We went back through Millmead lock for the third time and moored almost immediately in a tree lined stretch of river, opposite a boat yard (who incidentally also do not have any propane gas!)

Tonight's mooring in Guildford



On the Wey to Guildford

After a quiet night in New Haw (albeit with the background sound of the M25 which was about half a mile away), we set off upstream, towards Guildford. The locks on the Wey have their sluice gates within the lock gates themselves, rather than the more usual arrangement where the sluices are built into the sides of the locks. When filling an empty lock, the result is that the water gushes into the lock well above water level, creating masses of turbulence, and leaving you with the task of trying to stop your boat drifting into the torrent of water! All of this means that you have to secure your boat with ropes at both ends and then hang on tightly!

A pretty stretch of river

We stopped at Pyrford marina to get a new propane tank and refuel. We had to wait a while because everyone was at lunch, and then descovered that they didn't have the appropriate sized gas canister. They did however have fuel, and we filled the tank to the brim again. This boat is surprisingly economical, and we have spent approximately £8 per day for 6 or 7 hours cruising and all the power and hot water we need for the day.

A family of cute ducks

There are a couple of flood locks on the Wey - normally left open at both ends and closed when the river goes into flood to help control water levels.

Leaving Walsham flood lock



The river opens out after a while into wide water meadows stretching into the distance. On a couple of occasions, we came to a fork in the river with no clue about which fork to take. We were right 50% of the time! After taking the wrong turn, we had to reverse back onto the river before taking the right fork - a sign would be really useful! We passed some beautiful houses with fabulous gardens stretching down to the river.

Nice river frontage

Cute horses with cuter foals

We moored up fairly early this afternoon, deciding to take advantage of a lovely stretch of grassy bank and some sunshine.

Dogs waiting to explore grassy bank

 We sat on the bank and enjoyed watching a large hairly black dog leaping into the river, finding big sticks and then swimming back across the river. He kept this up for a quite a while bringing back several log size sticks!

Log gathering!

Shangri-La

As we left the Tideway yesterday, the lock keeper at Teddington said that after the excitement and challenges of  navigating the Thames through London, what followed upstream was like entering Shrangri-La! He was right, and today's cruise was wonderfully relaxing in the sunshine.


Passing strange houseboats in Kingston upon Thames

We passed through Kingston upon Thames without incident - the banks were busy with shoppers and pub goers but the river was pretty quiet. Then we turned the corner and were greeted by the sight of loads of small sailing boats in a race, zig zagging across the river as they tacked upstream.

And thay have right of way!

We weaved our way through the good natured sailors without sinking anyone, but we got very close to one or two!

We strayed onto the Mississippi briefly

It was really hot this afternoon, and we ushered the dogs below, out of the sun. We stayed on deck and have the scorched skin to prove it. We passed Hamton Court Palace before reaching our first 'normal' Thames lock.

Hampton Court Palace

Ah, Thames locks are lovely - automatic and with helpful lock keepers

Compared with the heavy locks of the river Lee, the Thames locks and their keepers make for a far more relaxing experience. You just have to glide in, place your ropes around the bollards and wait for the water to rise or fall before setting off again.

Typical stretch of river

The river remained quiet all afternoon, apart from another sailing race to make our way through and loads of canoists and small motor boats. The last Thames lock we encountered took a little longer that the others. As we waited for the boats coming downstream to leave the lock, we could see one was broadside across the lock. He had an engine failure and after unsuccessful efforts to re-start it, he was dragged out of the lock and we then entered. You find yourself in these large locks with a wide variety of different boats which on this occasion included a large trip boat full of German tourists.



Crowded Sunbury lock

After another few miles, we reached the junction with the river Wey, and everything changed. Suddenly we were back on a narrow river and immediately were into a stop lock used to adjust the levels between the Thames and the first lock on the Wey.

Waiting for a boat to leave before we enter the first river Wey lock

While we waited for the water levels to equalise, Angela emptied the dogs who had been extremely patient all afternoon. Once in the lock and after it filled, we sorted out the paperwork with the lock keeper and paid for our licence - £75 for the week. Gulp! It had better be good down here!

Tonight's mooring in New Haw

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