Monday 1 May
Tuesday 2 May
Wednesday 3 May
Thursday 4 May
Friday 5 May
Saturday 6 May
Sunday 7 May
Abingdon
Abingdon to Goring-on-Thames
Goring-on-Thames to Cookham
Cookham to Laleham
Laleham to Hampton Court
Hampton Court to Limehouse Basin
Limehouse Basin London to Chatham Maritime Marina
returns to top of this page
After a final shop at Tesco's for perishable food to see us through the next few days we are ready to go. The afternoon was spent unloading yet another car load of "stuff" (the third!) and stashing it in the various lockers. It's amazing how much can be accommodated. Don't worry, visitors! There is space for your "stuff" too.
The last job was to turn Starry Night round from bow in, to stern in, so that the life raft could be stowed in its cradle on the stern without dropping it in!
We are spending the night here at Abingdon Marina where we keep Starry Night, and will set out about nine o'clock tomorrow.
This will be our second trip down to the London area in the last month. We had Starry Night lifted out at Shepperton Marina at the beginning of April for some attention to the hull paintwork as well as anti-fouling (after a good bottom scrubbing), fitting new depth sounder and speed log transducers, and a replacement rope cutter blade. We have already clocked up over thirty engine hours this year which is quite unusual so early in the season.
Starry Night being lifted back in at Shepperton just prior to this trip.
At the public mooring in Wallingford we cowered from the icy wind and noshed on bacon sarnies. This left us with a short hop to Goring, taking us under one of the IKB's beautiful brick railway arches. I am afraid the picture was taken last year as nothing (worthwhile) presented itself for the camera today. Experts in UK railway rolling stock of the 21st century will instantly recognise the train as the product of a once proud West Midlands factory, alas no more.
At all the locks they are advertising for summer assistant lock keepers (phone 01189 535669 quoting job ref TR WW 000/54). Here at Cleeve lock we saw a heron on its nest high up in a tree (sitting or standing? Try to envisage a heron sitting and where it would put its legs! How would it ever stand up again?). The nest was a very untidy pile of sticks and looked as if an egg would fall right through the gaps. No photo is available due to operator error!
We are now stopped for the day at Goring. This is a favorite spot and handy for some good village shops - a chance to top up on the various things that we have already realised we have left behind.
We have moored at this spot many times before. But yesterday we heard about an incident which occurred here just over a week ago. There were five boats moored up. At 2:00 am a bunch of yobs climbed on board the boats and rocked them violently from side to side. Difficult to think how you would react woken up like that in the wee small hours. The police were called and interviewed people the following morning, commenting that "this never happens in Goring". Well it is hard to imagine.
Nevertheless, I will have my 500,000 candlepower search light and fog horn at the ready!
A hotel boat emerging from Benson Lock
Brunel's brick arched Moulsford Bridge
Anyone want a summer job as an assistant lock keeper?
Mapledurham lock provided some unexpected entertainment as they were dredging the channel at the lock tail. This meant we had to make a hard turn to port on leaving the lock and head right into the weir stream – it was not as exciting as it would have been this time last month when the river was in flood. The dredging crew had thoughtfully placed a number of yellow marker buoys around the scene of action, in case you didn’t notice the large yellow excavator on a king sized floating barge!
Here the lock keeper told us about the water conservation measures that came into force on 2nd May. Apparently we will now have to wait up to 15 minutes in a lock for other boats to arrive, or until the lock is full of boats, before we will be locked through. This is fine when the river is busy, but is pointless when there are so few boats on the river as was the case today. In any case this is voluntary at the moment – whatever that means. It seems that we are being softened up for serious implementation of water saving measures later this summer.
In odd moments we have been attending to small chores in readiness for the crossing. Last night we got the courtesy flags ready, and mugged up on the proper flag etiquette. Yes, there is a section on this subject in Reed’s Almanac. According to Reed’s we should fly the appropriate courtesy ensign when in the waters of another country - we knew this already.
We have been debating weather or not to fly a French courtesy ensign for the few hours we will be in French waters before we arrive off the Belgian coast. There are as yet no volunteers to go down to the forward cabin roof to attach the courtesy ensign to the cross-tree of the mast, mid-channel! We may skip this and only hoist a Belgian ensign when in calmer water. I am sure that any nosy French fishermen with full effluent retention tanks will fully understand our plight! (See this link)
We are moored up at Cookham for tonight. In the morning we will make a foray into the village to the local store which sadly is in fact, a petrol garage. Such are the times we live in. But it’s a lovely spot
Adding water to combat the drought?
2006 Netherlands Cruise - Abingdon to Chatham
It's a (lock keeper's) dog's life
Marlow lock moggy!
A glorious morning – a glorious day – but oh what a wind! Still, it was probably good practice for conditions we may find in the Netherlands. We have read that it can be very windy and particularly unkind to lightweight glass-fibre boats with lots of air draught. Luckily we don’t fall into that category.
Progress was quite slow to start with, as we waited at a number of locks for more arrivals that never materialised, in theory to boost the numbers being looked through at one sitting. However, some lock-keepers seemed to be ignoring this aspect entirely.
A heron was spotted carrying nest building material in the form of a large stick. We were very impressed with the payload capability being demonstrated. But I suppose that it probably was not much different from a large wet fish or a plump frog.
In idle conversation at one lock we learned that the Beale Park narrow boat festival this year in August is likely to attract some 800 narrow boats. Apparently there were 600 last year. I wonder if they will all be made to wait 15 minutes at each lock? So this is one to avoid like the plague for us cruiser folk. I think we will build our new deck in August rather than try any boating on the upper Thames!
We stopped for lunch at Wraysbury, just along from the Skiff and Punt club of the same name. The afternoon was a short run down to Laleham, where we are moored now, just down from the boat yard of Michael Dennett's Boatyard who specialise in traditional wooden craft (see picture). Maureen did further resarch for a future painting of this lovely boatyard (click here to see final result and here for more of Maureen's work).
There is cloud on the horizon and we are wondering what will be in store weatherwise for to-morrow. Perhaps a good thunderstorm tonight?
Brunel's masterpiece - Maidenhead railway bridge
.....even thought there is still plenty of water flowing over the weirs?
Traditional skills are at home here at Laleham boatyard
There was less of a hurry this morning, as we didn’t have that far to go. Maureen went off to take some more pictures of the boat yard full of wooden boats, for future art inspiration, leaving Mike to finish off his breakfast cuppa.
First stop was Shepperton Marina to fill up with diesel. We took on 123 litres which was slightly less than expected and gave us a full tank for the trip down to Limehouse and the first sea leg round to Chatham. Some new bow mooring lines slightly longer than the existing ones were also procured. We now have more rope on board than the average chandlery carries as stock! The required one yard sewn red ensign was the only size out of stock so we will have to look elsewhere for that. Bit of a shame as we can now see how nice a new one would look.
After Shepperton we pootled on down river at a leisurely pace, and arrived at Hampton Court before lunch time. There was just one other boat moored there, though now there is hardly any room. Since we visited Hampton Court on our last Cruise (6 June 2004) improvements to the mooring facilities have been made by the provision of mooring rings (two of which are already missing). These replace ad hoc arrangements which involved a fence and various large rusty steel bars.
The afternoon was spent painting – Maureen of the artistic variety, Mike of the marine corrosion prevention variety! This evening we had the first barby of the year. Hopefully the first of many!
David Gilmore's recording studio
Our neighbours tonight - posh gates eh?
The day started off quite bright and hopes were high for a dry trip down to Limehouse. Everything was got ready and all loose items including pictures were stowed. It can get very choppy in the centre of London because the trip boats cut up the water. So we take no chances. We left our mooring at Hampton Court at 08:30 as planned.
By 09:30 we were leaving Teddington lock behind us. It became apparent very quickly that Saturday morning was a time to be avoided as it seemed that almost every rowing boat on the Thames was out! Eights, fours, pairs, skulls - numerous safety boats scuttling around their charges, and all have to be passed quite slowly of course. It turned out that there was a regatta further down the river. Progress was slowed considerably.
We rounded one bend in a narrow reach alongside an island to find a rowing eight taking a short cut on our side of the river, heading straight for us. We slowed down to a crawl and the eight slowed down and then made no attempt to move to the correct side of the river, but turned very slightly one way then the other confusing us greatly as to their intentions. Their coach made no attempt to tell them what to do. Eventually I had to ask them what their intentions where whereupon they were galvanised into action and shot across to the correct side of the river. The coach then shouted an apology through her loud hailer - a first!
At Isleworth Eyot we got to see more herons' nests. Lots of them. With herons standing on them. In some cases the pair would be standing together and you could see the chicks quite clearly. Maureen got very excited and spent the next minutes glued to the binos.
Finally we entered the realm of the trip boats, and left the rowers behind. The centre of London, as always, was a great pleasure. We noticed with interest that a series of yellow special purpose buoys have been set up alongside the Houses of Parliament to indicate the no-go zone. They seem very close to the north bank compared to what we understood to be the required clearance. Regular readers will remember our police boat incident of 2004!
The customary phone call to Limehouse Marina as we passed under Tower Bridge ensured that the lock was open when we arrived. We dropped the VHF antenna and put the fenders out as we motored past ready to turn back upstream against the ebb tide and make a safely controlled entrance to the lock cut avoiding the walls. Its a tricky entrance when there is a strong tide running across it, ready to bang you hard into the brickwork!
By 12:30 we were safely ensconced in our berth with a well earned cuppa. This afternoon we walked over to Canary Wharf and stocked up. While we were over there it started to rain. It is well and truly pouring now, but the forecast is for it to clear by tomorrow morning. So we have booked a 09:00 locking to take us out for our next leg round to Chatham.
Pair of herons with chick between
No-one taking breakfast on the balcony today!
Entrance to Limehouse Marina
There was plenty of police activity in Limehouse first thing – sirens and so on – not that unusual for London. While Mike was wiping down the condensation off the cabin roof he was asked by two passing policemen if this was Limehouse Marina – bit of a role reversal there! It turned out that there was a body floating in the canal just around the corner from the marina and foul play was suspected. Not a nice beginning to the day.
Apart from that, it was a grey day and quite chilly. Thermal long-johns were applied together with multiple layers that could be shed as the temperature went up during the day – hopefully.
We were locked out at 09:00 and headed out down stream. There were no boats to be seen apart from the one we shared the lock with (Eureka), which was heading upstream. The river was very smooth and glassy – it was like this a lot of the way.
At the Dome, as usual, we called “London VTS” on the VHF to request permission to pass through the barrier, which was granted immediately. Sometimes when it’s busy they ask you to call again when a bit nearer. Yesterday as we monitored the VHF coming down from Teddington we heard some poor yacht skipper being politely rebuked for calling “Woolwich Radio”, which is the old VHF station name for doing business with the barrier. Quote “Woolwich Radio has been off the air for two years, sir!”
The familiar sites drifted by – the Tate and Lyle sugar refinery with its strong sweet aroma, the QE bridge, various creeks and piers, and some less savoury smells too.
After almost exactly three hours we were passing Gravesend town pier where the river starts to widen out considerably. Here was the first way-point on the route the auto-pilot would follow. A large blue hole was opening up in the clouds and pretty soon we were basking in sunshine. The sea was still eerily smooth. Soon we were at Garrison Point heading into the Medway. There were plenty of leisure boats out enjoying the sunshine as well as various commercial vessels.
Upnor Castle appeared in sight and here you call Chatham Marina to ask to be locked in – it’s on the opposite bank. Within five minutes the lock gates were opening and we were invited to enter. Just enough time to deploy the fenders.
We were intending to go on to Ramsgate tomorrow, but the inshore forecast for Monday of force 5/6 winds is rather off-putting. Tuesday promises to be better. So we are delaying the trip round to Ramsgate until the weather improves.
Serene scene in the Thames estuary
Grain Tower - Medway estuary
Foaming up into Chatham Marina
Copyright © 2006-2009 Mike Hawkridge