The Tidal Thames - again

(Posted by Cath)

Stonebridge, Limehouse and Tidal Thames to Brentford

The day started overcast, and while there were occasional sunny breaks it remained fairly cloudy.

We knew it shouldn't take too long to get down to Limehouse, but set off with plenty of spare time. I decided that the boat was filthy after our trip up the Lee, and began washing her down, as well as cleaning inside.

Last lock before the Thames at Old Ford - there was consid-erable surface weed on this stretch!





We stopped at Three Mills at Bow, where there is a large Tesco next to the river. I went there while Alan took Charlie for a walk prior to heading onto the Thames.

Alan realised that we had left a "goat chain" (used for mooring against piling) at Stonebridge. Thanks to the magic of the Internet, Alan sent a message to our friends and the chain was recovered - not quite sure how we're going to get it back yet. We ate a light lunch at Bow, then set off again.

At Limehouse we breasted up next to a boat that was going to Teddington, so we knew that he would be leaving half an hour or so before us. There were two boats going to Teddington, but we were - once again - the only boat going to Brentford.

The river boats rather dominate the narrow boats - this one passed us later on. (Chalice waits in the back -ground).



Somehow, it doesn't seem to matter how much preparation we have done, we always end up in a rush - trying to get the anchor chain out of the locker - and the anchor set up on a chain and line at the back of the boat - the bikes inside, and everything stowed safely away.

We waited until 2:15, after the hourly Thames Broadcast from London Vessel Traffic Services, and set off onto the Thames once again. This time it looked even more choppy than last time - it was - very much choppier.

Back on the big river again, soon after leaving Lime- house.







It's hard to show how rough it was, although the number of blurred photos we have is probably the best evidence.



Charlie took one look at it and headed inside to his bed, David and I stood in the front well deck. Within two minutes we had been splashed from head to toe, and my shoes were soaked with the water that was running over the front deck. It was also very windy, and quite cold.

Fortunately it became a bit better once we got past the Tower, such as when passing HMS Belfast.





Alan makes a poor attempt at a "no publicity" plea to the photo- grapher.






We waved at passing trip boats - although the passengers looked at us as though we were some species of lunatics.

Another shameless image of Chalice passing famous London landmarks.






Cranes at Battersea Power station.









Attractive housing further up river.










Shortly after Hammersmith Bridge we saw a bright orange boat coming towards us at a huge speed, which proved to be an RNLI lifeboat. This stretch of the river normally has an 8 mph speed limit, but Google reveals that these craft have a 40 knot (46 miles per hour) capability, and we can well believe it was doing that! It had flashing blue lights and a two tone horn, and shot past us so fast that it barely appears in our son's time lapse video. It is very reassuring that they move quite so fast in an emergency, but we would not like to see anything get in the way of one!

Did we enjoy it? Well, yes, but perhaps not as much as last time. Maybe we should have waited longer before trying it again, although when the opportunity presented it we weren't going to go the other way around.

As we arrived at Thames Lock, Brentford, a tiny boat with an outboard came out of the lock. As it puttered past us in a cloud of blue smoke, David pointed to it's name - Purple Hayes - somehow appropriate.

A Canal World Forum member was waiting by the lock, she had read that we were coming through, and was taking some pictures before heading off to work.

David put extra power batteries into his camera which held up though the whole journey this time. He has produced a new time lapse video (without the break for replacing batteries that he had last time), which shows the whole trip - because of it's size it won't be uploaded onto the Internet until we get home. However, one of the problems with it is that the first section is very jerky, because we were being thrown about so much by the waves.

We got just about the last mooring at Brentford. The man on the next boat was interested in our trip, as he'd been seeing two boats off towards Teddington from Thames Lock and had seen us arriving. He saw Alan straightening out a chain on the towpath. "That's someone who knows about mooring in London," he said. "It's an anchor chain," I replied. "Oh, I thought he was going to moor up with it."

Once again we got to go for a nice walk in the nearby park with Charlie. Before getting a dog we would have slumped about on the boat, now we get out in the fresh air, and get to know more of the areas near to the canal or river.

Stonebridge, Limehouse and Tidal Thames to Brentford
Miles: 24.4, Locks: 6
Total Miles: 139.6, Total Locks: 125