Weybridge

Here I am Rune

Distance 10.8 miles

Total 1983 Locks  90 Tunnels

Running total mileage 2808.6miles

A cruise along the Thames is always quite a pleasant experience, which is probably why people will pay for boat trips to the likes of Hampton Court. Today was our free boat trip on the Thames. Slightly miffed to find out that had we cruised on for another 20 minutes last night the mooring would have been free (as opposed to the £8.90 that we paid) but we had a decent meal out last night so I suppose that is some compensation.

The trip took us through Kingston upon Thames and on to Thames lock where the River Wey leaves the main river. We got the weekend shopping as we passed though Kingston although the Waitrose there is a bit confusing, the entrance is marked ‘John Lewis/Waitrose’ but once inside it was difficult to find where the Waitrose supermarket actually was. Turns out it was in the basement although not all of the lifts went down that far.

Upon arriving at Thames Lock is seems that there has been a gate failure in that some of the rotting wood at the bottom of the gate has broken away and rather rapidly drained the lock. This was about 10 minutes before we arrived but ultimately it works to our advantage. The system here is that you can buy a 1 day pass to get from the Thames to the Basingstoke Canal but if we’d bought it today it would expire tomorrow whereas we don’t want to be on the Basingstoke until Sunday. Now we can buy a transit licence tomorrow when the canal is re-opened and the transit licence will last us until Sunday when we can buy the Basingstoke Canal licence.

Hampton Court Palace as we passed it.

Teddington Lock

Here I am Rune

Distance 21.2 miles

Total 1981 Locks  90 Tunnels

Running total mileage 2797.8miles

Today was probably the longest distance that one is likely to get in a narrow boat (assuming that one only travels a normal day, not travelling round the clock). From Limehouse Basin to Teddington Lock, according my calculation, is about 21.2 miles which at the normal travelling pace of 3mph would take over 7 hours to do, when going down the Thames however the speed is doubled (sometimes more than doubled) so it only took about 3 ½ hours. It was in fact a very pleasant trip with no real dramas. There were a lot of trip boats around Tower Pier and Westminster Pier but with a lot of advance planning, we dealt with them with no real problem. The only boat that created a bit of confusion was a trip boat that set itself diagonally across the river just off Tower Pier. As I approached I hoped that he was going to move one way or the other but he just remained where he was, obviously giving some commentary to his passengers. Rather than pass in front of him, where if he set off towards the pier we’d have been sandwiched, I went around his stern, but this put me in the centre of the river in the path of oncoming boats. There was little that I could do since stopping wasn’t an option, out engine isn’t powerful enough to stop our boat against the tide, the best that could be achieved would be to slow it down but then in reverse into the incoming tide it could steer literally anywhere. Once around this trip boat the only other boating obstruction was a tug pulling a very large barge full of waste. Fortunately the skipper of that boat was a bit more competent and clearly wasn’t giving a commentary to any passengers so was concentrating on what he was doing. It was quite impressive just how powerful these tugs are since it began to tow a fully laden waste barge against the incoming tide then turned it around across the river and came past us as we approached Battersea bridge,  it seemed a healthy move to slow down and let him past! 

Once the tug and barge had gone past the river became fairly clear other than a number of rowers from Putney onwards, but you can learn to live with them. I would certainly have little fear in doing the same trip again.

Tomorrow we need to press on to Thames Lock to get us onto the Wey and Basingstoke since the transit pass that we bought today only last until 5pm tomorrow night. 

Approaching Tower Bridge and The Shard

Passing the London Eye (last time I came this way this was lying horizontal prior to erection)

....and passing the Houses of Parliament.

Limehouse Basin

Here I am Rune

Distance 8.1 miles

Total 1979 Locks  90 Tunnels

Running total mileage 2776.6miles

We have made it to Limehouse basin but today was one of those days when things determinately decided not to go to plan.  I’ve hardly had to go down the weed hatch at all in recent weeks and yet today I’ve been down there three times clearing plastic bags, fishing line (fortunately no hooks!) and loads of weed from the prop. We also struck a couple of fairly substantial items with the prop during the day, one sounded bad but was just a bottle but another was a solid log of wood that has left a slight gouge on the prop, I hope that it doesn’t cause any vibration. Add to the above that it was pretty windy today and on Johnsons Lock we had the devil’s own job trying to get alongside so that the crew could go and set the lock. The problem is a tall block of flats alongside the lock which, in windy conditions, the wind bounces off and pushes the boat back out into the centre of the canal when trying to moor up. It must have taken nearly 15 minutes to get alongside there because whatever you tried to do, you were defeated by the wind.

I’ve booked a passage through Limehouse lock tomorrow at midday but if it is as windy as it has been today, I may defer that until Friday.

Tottenham Marshes

Here I am Rune

Distance 5 miles

Total 1970 Locks  90 Tunnels

Running total mileage 2768.5miles

Today’s short day cruise was as a result of a poor piece of weather forecasting by the Met Office. It was supposed to be a 20% chance of light rain when what we got was a prolonged heavy downpour, after about an hour of which I decided that I was becoming bored with getting soaked so moored up for the day. The location wouldn’t necessarily have been my first choice but at the moment it doesn’t look too bad as there are a lot of other boats moored here in Tottenham Marshes. Will press on tomorrow, possibly into Limehouse Basin with a view to going down the Thames on Thursday.

Enfield Lock

Here I am

Distance 3.1 miles

Total 1967 Locks  90 Tunnels

Running total mileage 2763.5miles

Once again, a fairly ‘soft’ day’s cruising bringing us down as far as Enfield Lock. It’s funny because I remember this place as a destination from childhood that I never actually went to. Living in New Barnet the 107 bus destination was always ‘Enfield Lock’ on the back of the bus, I never realised then that there was so little here!

I took the opportunity whilst here of biking down to Ponders End to a car accessory place, Allparts, to replace the drive belt that I fitted yesterday having seen splits stating to develop in the old one. Decided that replacing it now, rather than halfway through London on the Thames would be a better option.

At the moment I’m not certain of when we will be going out onto the Thames to get down to the Wey and Basingstoke canal, but I think Thursday is probably the likely option, although that will be the day of the Spring Tide so we should get pushed through London quite quickly.