27th May-1st June

Only hours after boasting on the blog of the ease with which we could turn the boat on the Thames, our words came back to bite us, as we came a bit of a cropper in Wallingford on Bank Holiday Monday.

Wallingford Bridge - we got a closer look
than intended

 We were trying to moor in pouring rain just beyond the beautiful old bridge but were caught by the current and pinned broadside across three arches, unable to move forward or back. Fortunately for us two gallant gentlemen spotted our predicament, and managed to catch our front rope in an umbrella handle (for once we were glad of the rain) and with their help from above, Jean pushing with the pole and Roger gunning the engine at the rear, we succeeded in gaining the safety of the bank.  It would have made a wonderful YouTube clip….

Clambering aboard

The following day brought its own excitement as the ‘moorings’ at Clifton Hampden marked in our canal guide turned out to consist of a high grassy bank on to which we had to scramble on hands and knees (and yes, it was still raining) across a foot’s gap as the water was too shallow to get closer.  We definitely felt out of our comfort zone.

Rescue operation

On Wednesday, yet another adventure!  We were just coming into Abingdon when we ran immovably aground on a sandbank.  Grateful thanks to the cruiser Celestine 11 who lent a helping hand to tow us off.

It was a huge relief to find lots of excellent mooring in Abingdon, and a pleasure to wander round the town admiring its ancient buildings.

Abingdon Civic Hall

We were joined on Thursday by Pernilla, a former work colleague of Roger’s, with her sons Hans and Nisse, mum Birgitta and stepdad Hans-Eric – and the rain actually stopped for a day, hooray..

Some of the Swedish contingent

From Abingdon onwards the river was very high, inevitable after such a rainy week, so we made slow progress battling upstream against the strong current.  There were yellow “Stream Increasing” boards displayed at all the locks, which made us slightly nervous, although the lock-keepers were happy for us to continue.

All the Thames lock-keepers have been
great - and some of them have been female!

 We stopped with huge relief on Friday at East Street moorings, above Osney Lock in Oxford, having negotiated the perils of another rowing regatta, and nearly come to grief on a blind bend past Folly Bridge.

Saturday was our final day on the Thames. The river is narrow under Osney Bridge,

Approaching Osney Bridge - not
much headroom

channelling the water into a powerful flow – we watched ducks zooming downstream past the boat like feathery guided missiles, and a couple of kayakers (out against advice) struggling to make headway against the current.  Our boat struggled too, creeping along at less than 2mph, until the river widened out at Port Meadow.

Port Meadow, Oxford

 Above Kings Lock we turned right into Duke’s Cut, and soon reached the peace and tranquillity of the canal. You could almost hear Vincent Joseph heave a big sigh of relief – or was that us?

Doing the Thames has felt like quite an adventure for us, and we feel a real sense of achievement, but it hasn’t been relaxing!

Thames Conservancy plaque on lock cottage

We definitely feel more at home on the canals – which is what narrowboats were designed for, after all. Mooring has sometimes been difficult (and expensive) and boatyards marked in our guide as offering diesel,water etc have not necessarily been accessible for a boat like ours.

Moor up for diesel - how??

The river has often been teeming with other, much smaller craft, which is nerve-racking for the steerer who has to try and avoid them.

First cruisers, then yachts, rowing boats,
canoes, kayaks - but punts came as a surprise

 Our pleasure in the whole experience was somewhat marred by both feeling quite ill at times (Jean succumbed  eventually to Roger’s flu)  and the weather didn’t help, with relentless rain for several days.

A lot of water passes down the Thames

 However, we shall doubtless look back fondly on it all as one of the more exciting episodes of our boating odyssey.

19th -26th May

Can’t believe it’s already a week since our last blog entry!  We’re now following the Thames for approximately 100 miles towards Oxford, where we will rejoin the canal system. After our epic adventure on the Tideway we spent the Saturday night at Teddington, 

Hampton Court

then moved up to moor beside the royal palace of Hampton Court, where we retrieved Benny from the nearby “Cats’ Palace” cattery in East Molesey. This short trip involved braving scores of canoes, kayaks and sailing boats all enjoying the glorious weekend sunshine as they played chicken by dashing across our bows.  Slightly nerve-racking!

Dinghies playing 'chicken'

The Thames locks are huge in comparison to canal locks, but passage through is luxuriously easy, as they are all manned (or womanned in a few cases) during working hours. 

Molesey Lock

We have become comfortably accustomed to mooring up briefly below the lock before being waved in by a friendly lock-keeper, all of whom have been charming, and a great source of knowledge and information. The locks are all electrically operated, and can be used 24 hours a day, but before 9am and after 5pm they are ‘self-service’.

Do-it-Yourself

By Tuesday afternoon we had reached Windsor, mooring half-way between the Castle and Eton College – very illustrious neighbours. 

Patiently waiting for HRH

No comment needed ...

  However, even Her Maj has to suffer the constant noise from incoming planes heading for Heathrow, as the castle is directly under the flight-path.

On Wednesday we moored at Cookham, home village of the artist Sir Stanley Spencer, where the gallery dedicated to him was showing a very interesting exhibition ( www.stanleyspencer.org.uk/ )

Stanley Spencer gallery, Cookham

Thursday saw us just below Henley where we moored in a hail storm just below the race course on Henley Reach.  Despite the inclement weather, there were plenty of rowers powering past all afternoon and evening, presumably practising hard for the forthcoming regatta.

Rowers at Henley

The boat has made steady progress against the current, averaging about 3mph (as on the canal).  The river is so vast compared to the narrow confines of the ‘Cut’, and if we overshoot a possible mooring spot we can simply swing the boat around in a huge circle and come by again – quite unlike the canal system where it’s only possible to turn at designated ‘winding holes’.

Below Cliveden

Boating on the Thames is certainly not cheap!  We’ve just paid a second whack of £69.50 for a further week’s river licence, and have been charged (up to £10) at several overnight moorings. 

Near Medmenham

But it is very beautiful, and we have passed through some stunning scenery and enjoyed a variety of wildlife.

Sunset at Cookham

15th-18th May : Thames Tideway

Woo-hoo!!!  We made it, and it was fantastic.

On Thursday morning we set off early from Paddington Basin,and after a hard day covering miles and 12 locks we reached our destination of Limehouse Basin mid-afternoon,

Limehouse Basin

and were able to secure a mooring next to the wall (later boats had to double/triple/quadruple moor beside each other, making accessing one's boat very much harder) Altogether there were 19 narrowboats gathered together in the convoy, which was most efficiently organised by Andrew Phasey of the St Pancras Cruising Club - to whom many thanks.

On Friday afternoon Robert arrived from Leeds to stay on the boat;  Sue and Dave had rented a nearby apartment, where we happily took up their offer of a shower. That evening we finally met our final crew member Simon Judge, whom we had corresponded with through Canalworld Forum, and who had volunteered not only to accompany us but to bring his VHF radio and several life-jackets.  We were so grateful to have his calm presence on board - he has done the Thames tideway many times and brought vast experience to calm our nerves.

On Saturday morning we were in the 5th (of 6) lock's worth of boats,

Emerging from Limehouse,
Canary Wharf in the background

emerging with some trepidation and a long blast of the horn into the ebbing tide at about 8.20 am, then travelling downriver for an hour and a half,

Greenwich

past Greenwich, the O2 Arena,

O2 Arena (and Robert)

the Woolwich Ferry, and the Thames Barrier

Passing the Thames Barrier

before lurking for a while at low tide at Margaretness.

The convoy leaving Margaretness

 When all the boats were assembled and the tide had turned we started back in single file with the flood tide helping us on our way, at what seemed to us a tremendous pace ( 5mph compared to our usual 2-3mph)  Very soon we had passed the entrance to Limehouse again, and before we knew it the landmarks were rushing towards us : Tower Bridge,the Shard

Tower bridge

London Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Westminster Bridge -too many bridges to keep track of- the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, the London Eye etc, etc

There was an incredible amount of traffic on the river, not surprising for a Saturday morning, and we had fun dodging boats - the Woolwich Ferry, tourist 'clippers', river buses, party boats,a tug towing two enormous barges, the river police and the RLNI (scarily, we heard a Mayday call on the radio from another narrowboat in trouble by Waterloo Bridge, and saw the rescue boats speeding to help)

Palace of Westminster

London Eye

 The wash from all the boats made conditions very choppy, a huge contrast from the mill-pond conditions we had experienced at low tide down at Margaretness, and water splashed up over the bows and the stern. and washed into the front deck well through the drain holes.

Paddle steamer

Rowers at Putney

Dodging boats wasn't always easy

Tug towing barges

Sue and Roger trying to look calm...

.... as the waves get higher

Vincent Joseph chugged on steadily however, and once we were past the Houses of Parliament things began to calm down. After Putney Bridge we had to steer our way through large numbers of rowers skimming along past us, not to mention countless small cruisers

Rob ...

....Simon and Sue

...Jean

...Dave

Everyone took a turn at steering, so that we all had a chance to relax at various times to enjoy the views - and to eat sausage butties for breakfast, soup and rolls for lunch, plus copious amounts of tea, coffee, cake and biscuits!

After several hours we finally reached Teddington,

Teddington

A  bit of a squeeze

where the lock-keeper packed us all into the enormous Barge Lock, enabling the whole convoy to lock up on to the non-tidal Thames together.  We moored thankfully above the lock and opened a bottle of bubbly to celebrate our survival!

Cheers!

The others packed their belongings and left, and we collapsed with exhaustion, especially poor Roger, who with incredible bad timing had developed a wicked cold some days before, and on this long-awaited day was feeling absolutely rotten.  Thank heavens for good friends old and new to share the workload, as well as the pleasure.

3rd May - 14th May

Kim and Jeevan's wedding

Vincent Joseph lingered for a few days in Hemel Hempstead, while we made a trip to Sunderland for the wedding of Jeevan ( Davinder's son) and his bride Kim - a magnificent occasion.

Roger with his namesake boat

 On our return we continued our journey southwards, stopping at Batchworth ( a suburb of Rickmansworth)

Passing under the M25

whose Canal Society owns a restored working boat with a special name...



Then on past Harefield (of heart hospital fame), and then Uxbridge, where we had a bit of a mishap - trying to moor up at a very crowded boatyard we were caught by a gust of wind and collided with the the metal prow rail of a cruiser, breaking one of our windows.  Fortunately for us we met up with Alex, owner of "Escape  the Rat Race"(etrr.co.uk) as he was handing over one of his narrowboats, and 
he immediately phoned a contact to fix the window.  Paul from Marine Windows in Reading came promptly the following day to bash out the dented frame and fit new glass. We were extremely grateful, as we really
didn't fancy venturing on to the Thames with a bit of plastic taped over the hole. 

Finally we turned off the Grand Union on to the Paddington Arm,

It's a long way from Braunston....

..... to Paddington

and have just moored up in Paddington Basin in the very heart of London ( snagging the last mooring space)

Paddington Basin

Tomorrow is the final push to Limehouse Basin, from where on Saturday we shall emerge on to the Thames Tideway as part of a convoy for a trip organised by the St Pancras Cruising Club.  The plan is to set off very early, turn left down-river to sail past the Thames Barrier (yikes!) then "stem the ebb tide" and return on the flood tide all the way past Tower Bridge, the Houses of Parliament, the London Eye etc, etc.  By late afternoon we should pass through Teddington Lock to the (relative) safety of the non-tidal Thames, moor up, and have a very stiff drink!

 Benny has had to go into the hated cat carrier no less than three times in two weeks - to a vet for his annual booster injection, to a cattery near Hemel while we were away for the wedding, and then to a different cattery in East Molesey until next Monday, so that he is not on the boat during the tidal cruise.  We decided that we would have enough to worry about without trying to stop him leaping into the fast-flowing river every time the door opens!

Watch this space for the next exciting episode!