Sunday 17th July to Saturday 23rd
July 2016
Well the moorings here are
free for the first 24 hours and thereafter it is £5 per day – we had been here
for two days, no-one had appeared to collect the money, so we thought we should
make a quick slow run for it.
We didn’t make it very far,
just 1 lock and 1 mile before we decided that the moorings at Chertsey Meads
looked pretty good – so we stopped – barely an hour’s running time on the
engine (half of which was just battery charging).
Diane had work inside the
boat to do – she had started ripping off the wallpaper and the the underlying
insulated wallpaper in favour of painting it all.
The bedroom has been done
and now her attentions turned to the rest of walls.
Whilst all of this mess and
mayhem was happening, I decided that I would be best served outside the boat
and so the mushrooms were targeted – bare in mind we have had the boat for 6
years and not once touched them – they would now be polished – or at least
remove the lacquer layer and the tarnishing.
It was a satifysing 3 hours
work for both of us and the effects were noticeable.
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| Here are two panels that were done earlier, the light blue walls are cleaner now and a bit brighter too.. |
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| ...and match the rest of the decor |
Monday being a popular one
with Diane and with a Slug and Lettice just up the river at Staines
we were heading there – just 5 miles and 2 locks – but we came foul of it all!
Apparently at certain
selected locations (Staines included) they were not having the 50% off food
special – Diane found out after ordering and paying – we still stayed and
enjoyed the food a lot (well 50% less)
We managed to catch up with the annual Swan Upping, which is conducted along the Thames between Sunbury Lock and Abingdon Bridge.
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| Not the main Swan Marker, but notice the feather sticking out of his cap |
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| Still not the main man... |
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| ...here he is, the Swan Marker, David Berber |
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| The stop for lunch - there seemed to be about a dozen boats in the extended flotilla for all of this - most seemed satisfied with the journey for the free lunch |
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| Cooling off in the river - now to get out of there... |
The mooring place in Staines was new and a bit higher out of the water than
normal.
Only after getting in and
cooling off, enjoying the water, did the thought then turn to getting out – a
suggested use of a mooring rope with a loop in it did not work as expected;
trying to simply lift did not work either; but we had spyed an old shopping
trolley (already in the water) at the end of the moorings and with the help of
a couple of young girls we managed to get Diane out – still she was a lot cooler
than before she went into the water.
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| ...shopping trolley to the rescue - gotta be thankful for the yobs who put it there |
Again the sun was out in it’s
glory and we headed off into town for a few things and came back to the boat to
cool off – just get out of the sun.
Later on we did hang our
legs over the side and splashed around in the water with our feet.
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| Sunsets always seem a bit nicer along the river |
We had no definite plans
about exactly where we wanted to be or go at any stage – just to further
explore the Thames and moor in places where we had not moored previously; so on
Wednesday we made it to Windsor and caught up with Dave and Sue (Cockney Sparra
II) as well as Tony and Julie (nb Damper Van).
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| We caught Sue and Julie at the pub, but we didn't tell Dave and Tony about it |
We eventually moored on the
island and had a very peaceful day and night there.
Diane received a text from
her cousin asking if we were around anywhere local to them (Watford area) and
would we be able to look after their house whilst they were away – things need
attending to on a regular basis; as they had very kindly looked after our boat
whilst we were away (in Mojacar) for a month, it is only fair to return the
favour – “when are you going?” – answer “in 10 days time”.
No problem – so it was quick
turnaround time and head back the way from whence we had come – on Thursday we
made it to Weybridge to moor up as we had before – a return journey of one day
to replace the four leisurely days to get to Windsor.
We contacted Brentford and
Teddington Locks regarding passage times and booking the boat in – all sorted
for Friday.
Friday was a long day but a
bit of a break in between.
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| Approaching Kingston bridge |
We made it to Teddington in
short time, but with a 5pm locking-out, we had a bit of a wait, which was not
bad at all – a leisurely lunch was involved and I got some work done as well.
Come the time and engines
were started all around – 5 boats in the lock and drop down the 30cm or so and
we were out – just a few minutes to get through.
None of us had done the
journey this way – closest were ourselves who at least had gone into Brentford
lock – so we knew where we had to go.
It seemed that the tide was on the very high side - we saw many places along the way where the river had flowed over to some of the normal pedestrian areas and in one place it was around parked cars.
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| the river was up a bit - here at Richmond... |
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| ...and here as well - fortunately by this stage it was on the way down |
It was a fine and very
uneventful trip; sunny skies with intermittent cloud; we got to see a few
things that we had missed out on the trip up to Teddington last year.
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| Approaching towards Richmond with these lovely buildings looking down upon us |
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| And Richmond itself |
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| Not sure of this building but liked the look of it |
But then came the time to do
the turn across the outgoing tide, then back into the flow of water, followed
by the final part making it into the channel.
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| At last the entrance, as highlighted by the "silver" sculpture - take the channel on the extreme left |
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| And we made it safely |
On this scale we had not
experienced anything like this – in the end the “fears” of any danger were
dispelled – sure the tide did take us along a bit, but we simply upped the revs
on the engine and made it across, around and into the channel safely and with
no problems at all.
Even the increased revs (up
to 1700) were low compared with the maximum of 2300 rpm that we have done on
the Ribble Link during that crossing.
(I now feel ready to tackle
Teddington to Limehouse, which we would like to do sometime this year – it time
permits!).
Brentford were ready for us
and we locked through in a single minute (levels were about the same) – the
lockie only needed to record our numbers and we were done.
We teamed up with nb
Mill-Girl (Eric and Charlotte) for the Gauging Lock.
They are both from Manchester
They accepted our suggestion
and so we moored as planned – headed for the pub – they were planning to eat
but we simply had a drink in mind, so when their meals arrived and our drinks
were gone we let them get on with their meals and we explored a bit more of the
area – not having had the chance on other visits.
We were planning to head to
Yiewsley and Eric and Charlotte were going into London – so naturally, in the
morning, we hit the locks “running” and had cleared all 8 locks in just over
the hour – we bid them farewell at Bulls Bridge where a Tesco shop was their
concern and ours was simply to get a few more miles under the stern.
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| A farewell to nb Mill-Girl and also to Eric and Charlotte - thanks for the journey |
We made it to our planned
stop and moored up, safe in the knowledge that our goal for later in the week
would easily be met.
It would be nice if the
excess in the daily heat could be toned down a bit and get back to something
like a normal English summer – I miss a bit of rain and cold – but I know that
millions of Brits rely on this current spell for their yearly dose of Vitamin
D, sunburn and BBQ’s.
51 Miles, 27 Locks
YTD: 471
Miles (758 km) , 300 Locks, 4 Tunnels, 14 Lift
Bridges , 3 Swing Bridges
Total: 4256 Miles (6865 km), 2999 Locks, 116 Tunnels, 59 Lift Bridges ,
170 Swing Bridges
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