A clutch ? of Tin Slugs called in today..

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oldgit

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...at RCC for refreshments on their way back to the canals via The Thames.
Moored to the rear of Rochester Pier after a trip right the way up the Medway to Tonbridge town centre and then by dinghy as far a Lucifer Bridge which is about as far as you can get on the river before only need a set wellingtons to continue.
The most adventurous bunch of folks you could ever wish to meet and prepared to push the normal bounderies of their choosen type of boating.
Puts some of us to shame really.
 
byron said:
Unless my eyes deceive me they are in the main channel instead of on the outside thus creating a hazard and obstruction for large commercial movements.
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Never had a problem in 25 years with a tin slug. However, yachties and motor cruisers did cause me some anxious moments.
 
Your eyes deceive you. Also if you give it a moment's thought you realise that they can't be creating an obstruction and other hysteria. *sigh*
 
byron said:
Unless my eyes deceive me they are in the main channel instead of on the outside thus creating a hazard and obstruction for large commercial movements.
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Looks as though they are inbound in Sea Reach.They are in the small craft channel on the south shore.
The bouy to starboard astern is the North Cardinal Mid Blyth ? indicating they are well out of the main channel.Possibly the Tanker to extreme left of picture.
My guess is they are somewhere around Cliffe Fleet
 
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OK I have to admit here, I am impressed, how on earth could you work that out from a horrible phone photo? My AIS track shows us between Cliffe Fleet and Tanker and as you say way south of the main channel.
 
I wonder how many of the 'real boats' based on The Thames have AIS for their annual pilgrimage down river?
AIS harrumph.....dust off the pathfinder Doris:)
 
RichardN said:
OK I have to admit here, I am impressed, how on earth could you work that out from a horrible phone photo? My AIS track shows us between Cliffe Fleet and Tanker and as you say way south of the main channel.
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Having been up and done there once or twice for both work and pleasure you do get feel for the area.Have been known to nod off a bit in that stretch, a handy tip is when the revs start to drop off and engines struggle a bit you probably need to alter course a tad , a trail of stirred up mud usually confirms you have wandered too far inshore.
 
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oldgit said:
Having been up and done there once or twice for both work and pleasure you do get feel for the area.Have been known to nod off a bit in that stretch, a handy tip is when the revs start to drop off and engines struggle a bit you probably need to alter course a tad , a trail of stirred up mud usually confirms you have wandered too far inshore.
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Thank you for restoring some balance to these threads, I had decided not to stop at RCC when I read some of the earlier comments but I see that was the wrong decision.

No danger of us nodding off, apart from changing helm roughly every half hour (standard thing we do on tidal waters) this was our first trip downstream of Gravesend so it was far too interesting a trip for us! Absolutely fantastic in fact, well worth all the preparation. Our summer cruise this year, weekend at a time, is from Derby to Middlewich via the railway bridge above Tonbridge and via Lechlade so we get to see some fantastic waterways but the trip down to the Medway and back has to be the highlight, nothing is going to beat that. Next year we will probably venture onto the Mersey again (but with a wonderful Pilot) and also venture up to York. Big, big journeys for us but I am not sure if they will compare to the wonder of this trip.

I know who will benefit from your hint about being too far inshore! Mind you it did seem strange at times to be in the northern half of the river and yet the charts shows 2 or 3m. . . . We are used to deep water [1] being in the middle of our ditches not somewhere on one side!

[1] Deep being anything more then about 3' and headroom being fantastic if over 1.9m.
 
Have just seen your passage plan. Impressive! Far more thought and planning put in to it than many of the ones I used to see from so called professional navigators.
 
RichardN said:
Thank you for restoring some balance to these threads, I had decided not to stop at RCC when I read some of the earlier comments but I see that was the wrong decision.
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There is certain amount of antipathy around simply due to the increasing number of narrow boats coming on to the Thames probably due to increasing congestion on the canals themselves.
As more experienced boaters on the Thames will tell you the nature of the river traffic has changed over the years.Thames boaters who once,had the river to themselves and a well resourced infrastructure beyond the dreams of most,apart from the odd oik from the Medway,are now experiencing not only problems finding a mooring during busy periods but subject to severe budget cuts to the EA funding from DEFRA affecting both services and staff.
Have got a bit miffed on occasion to arrive at my proposed evening stop to only to find narrow boats occupying considerable lengths of towpath.
There are of course some examples of NBs aware of the problem and going to some effort to raft up or only moor to extreme ends of landing stages and put a rope ashore on the river bank.

Maybe other Thames users will comment further..... ?
 
oldgit said:
Have got a bit miffed on occasion to arrive at my proposed evening stop to only to find narrow boats occupying considerable lengths of towpath.
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Don't worry I get also miffed. Try London nowadays, *sigh*

I must admit we will always try to get a bankside mooring as we normally have a small herd of greyhounds on board and they are a bit ungainly, when we moored at Limehouse we were fortunately on the doggie pontoon not the one with cats. We are currently down to one greyhound who has hit the fantastic age of 13 but now needs to be carried up off the boat as the boat stairs are too hard on his back so bankside is almost essential. Cats remain a problem as we often have guest greyhounds, not unusual in remote moorings for us to knock on everybody's doors and check if they have cats so we don't get caught unawares.

We have no objection to others coming alongside and encourage people to cross our back deck (yes I know) as that is a very easy, flat route across our boat and lets face it we are not going to get damaged by your hulls.
 
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If you get any more aggro from Thames posters threaten them with this picture.]
lockhandle.jpg

It gets them very confused and flustered and is guaranteed to keep them awake at night.
CART.....Its the future. :):):)
 
Thames user commenting further:

As we are all aware, a typical NB takes up 60' (Some a bit less, some a bit more) whereas a typical Thames cruiser is 30' (From 20-40 mainly, but I would suggest this as a fair figure)

It's easy to see where the imbalance lies, especially as the Thames Cruiser owners are forking out £4k for mooring, while NB's are just poaching on the good times, and it's getting close to ruining many weekends just watching the moorings getting chomped up by visitors who contribute virtually nothing to the infrastructure or businesses alongside the river (Marina's, Chandleries etc)

Of course, many NB's live on the Thames and are all recognisable with a cheery wave, and that said the visitors are usually very nice people indeed.

It's just the lack of common sense when it comes to mooring, given the facts above.

So, Narrow Boaters, will you consider a few facts:

1/ You take up a lot more bankside space, will you try to raft wherever possible (As a Club, I can assure you we do almost every weekend!)

2/ Consider closing up the gap between you and the boat in front/behind, as that extra 6' might make another mooring when the other fellow departs! (Not all Cruisers do this!!)

3/ Most Cruiser owners hold you all in high regard as people, despite everything. :encouragement:
 
No Regrets said:
Thames user commenting further:

It's easy to see where the imbalance lies, especially as the Thames Cruiser owners are forking out £4k for mooring, while NB's are just poaching on the good times, and it's getting close to ruining many weekends just watching the moorings getting chomped up by visitors who contribute virtually nothing to the infrastructure or businesses alongside the river (Marina's, Chandleries etc)
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*sigh* I can only look at your comments in the light of what we do.

The main contribution to the infrastructure is via the licence. I have a gold licence even though I will only spend a small percentage of my cruising time on the Thames (in mileage terms less than a quarter this year). That addition is £340 so of course I contribute towards the infrastructure and if you pro rata the time I have on the Thames it is a high contribution - talk to a lockie and see what he thinks.

In terms of local businesses we have had work carried out on our boat by three boatyards on the Thames, we regularly use marinas as we cannot continuously cruise, of course we spend money in chandleries and of course we spend money, well a small fortune on refreshments en route. We don't moor in Limehouse any more but my bank account knows all to well how much a mooring along the Thames costs.

We are unlikely to spend more then two nights in any one year on any one Thames visitor mooring.

6' gaps? I wish they were that small and as I think you realise it is not just narrowboats that are at fault. Mind you I was very grateful one year when we had to stop for an emergency vet appointment and two cruisers moved up to make space for us. That stop was a rather large contribution to a local business.
 
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