Sulley
Well-Known Member
So we planned a trip down to London, we have had the boat since May but this is our first down river trip. I have experience as a kid and teenager on my parents boats doing down river and coastal trips but for the other half it was the first time doing anything other than the non tidal Thames. If you have someone who has never done this before it helps to NOT do a few things otherwise it will come back to bite you! I’ll explain later…
We set off from Windsor and spent our first night in Hampton Court in preparation for the next day. Just gone through Molsey lock the view is back up river, beautiful evening:
We left Hampton Court and made our way to Teddington to leave as high tide was approaching, here’s Akvavit ready for her first trip to tidal waters:
Through Teddington and past my old school:
White Cross Richmond, yes the tide is coming in and a few people are going to get wet feet. One of my old drinking haunts!
High tide is here and we are ready to go, life jackets on and we are off:
Hammersmith Bridge happily going with the tide, revs are 1600 and we are doing 8 knots.
Red London bus from our boat cool!
Akvavit moored up at Imperial Wharf, where we celebrated with a glass or two of bubbly. Colin the Harbour Master could not be more helpful if he tried. Also got a very good large laminated copy two sided copy of the Tidal Thames Recreational Users Guide www.pla.co.uk/display_fixedpage.cfm/id/867/site/recreation from him which helped my rubbish print out! It’s a very useful guide the PLA will also post you one but you need to ask at least 10 days before you go. We couldn’t be bothered to go far so we ate in one of the restaurants in the wharf www.melovesushi.com which was pretty good and not expensive.
We had great weather for our trip and sat in the cockpit having a drink late into the evening, this was our rather fabulous view.
So we set off the next day and I decided to go against the tide out to the Thames Barrier and take the tide back up into St Katherine’s.
Going past Houses of Parliament.
After this things started to get a bit choppy. Clippers are moving and quite a few commercial craft making a lot of wash, I’m quite happy other half starting to look a bit concerned.
First view of Tower Bridge:
Tower of London:
Canary Wharf:
O2:
By the time we had got here the other half was not happy at all and I must admit I had got a face full of water quite a few times. I was still quite happy but now I was on the naughty list! So we didn’t get to the Thames Barrier but turned around after the O2. I did manage to get the boat up to 26 knots but the other half was not happy with it.
Outside St Kats waiting for an hour to go in which was quite rocky it was very busy to get in and they had some issues with the doors. Don’t try to go to the toilet waiting outside unless you like bouncing off your head walls! Very entertaining. Anyone who thought I was a guy this pic proves I’m not
Safely inside St Kats on our mooring for the night and after a couple of drinks and dinner I had a happier crew. We ate at www.bodeansbbq.com if you like meat, especially southern BBQ type food you will love this place.
Another pleasant warm evening and lunch the next day at [/url]www.pingpongdimsum.com[/url] which is a modern take on dim sum very tasty and not expensive. So with a slightly nervous other half after the day before we prepared to set off. We took the first lock out of St Kats so we could run with the tide back up to Teddington. The lock was busy and the other half was a bit concerned being put between two large and expensive looking boats at the front of the lock. All went well and we were first out of the lock and started our journey back up river.
Other half is an IBMer so apparently this is exciting:
Battersea:
Buddha:
At this point the other half said actually I’m starting to enjoy this I just wasn’t used to the boat moving around so much yesterday. She also said she would do the trip again and next time we will get to the barrier, hurrah!
continued below....
We set off from Windsor and spent our first night in Hampton Court in preparation for the next day. Just gone through Molsey lock the view is back up river, beautiful evening:
We left Hampton Court and made our way to Teddington to leave as high tide was approaching, here’s Akvavit ready for her first trip to tidal waters:
Through Teddington and past my old school:
White Cross Richmond, yes the tide is coming in and a few people are going to get wet feet. One of my old drinking haunts!
High tide is here and we are ready to go, life jackets on and we are off:
Hammersmith Bridge happily going with the tide, revs are 1600 and we are doing 8 knots.
Red London bus from our boat cool!
Akvavit moored up at Imperial Wharf, where we celebrated with a glass or two of bubbly. Colin the Harbour Master could not be more helpful if he tried. Also got a very good large laminated copy two sided copy of the Tidal Thames Recreational Users Guide www.pla.co.uk/display_fixedpage.cfm/id/867/site/recreation from him which helped my rubbish print out! It’s a very useful guide the PLA will also post you one but you need to ask at least 10 days before you go. We couldn’t be bothered to go far so we ate in one of the restaurants in the wharf www.melovesushi.com which was pretty good and not expensive.
We had great weather for our trip and sat in the cockpit having a drink late into the evening, this was our rather fabulous view.
So we set off the next day and I decided to go against the tide out to the Thames Barrier and take the tide back up into St Katherine’s.
Going past Houses of Parliament.
After this things started to get a bit choppy. Clippers are moving and quite a few commercial craft making a lot of wash, I’m quite happy other half starting to look a bit concerned.
First view of Tower Bridge:
Tower of London:
Canary Wharf:
O2:
By the time we had got here the other half was not happy at all and I must admit I had got a face full of water quite a few times. I was still quite happy but now I was on the naughty list! So we didn’t get to the Thames Barrier but turned around after the O2. I did manage to get the boat up to 26 knots but the other half was not happy with it.
Outside St Kats waiting for an hour to go in which was quite rocky it was very busy to get in and they had some issues with the doors. Don’t try to go to the toilet waiting outside unless you like bouncing off your head walls! Very entertaining. Anyone who thought I was a guy this pic proves I’m not
Safely inside St Kats on our mooring for the night and after a couple of drinks and dinner I had a happier crew. We ate at www.bodeansbbq.com if you like meat, especially southern BBQ type food you will love this place.
Another pleasant warm evening and lunch the next day at [/url]www.pingpongdimsum.com[/url] which is a modern take on dim sum very tasty and not expensive. So with a slightly nervous other half after the day before we prepared to set off. We took the first lock out of St Kats so we could run with the tide back up to Teddington. The lock was busy and the other half was a bit concerned being put between two large and expensive looking boats at the front of the lock. All went well and we were first out of the lock and started our journey back up river.
Other half is an IBMer so apparently this is exciting:
Battersea:
Buddha:
At this point the other half said actually I’m starting to enjoy this I just wasn’t used to the boat moving around so much yesterday. She also said she would do the trip again and next time we will get to the barrier, hurrah!
continued below....
Last edited:
well outside...
