We had quite a pause after Part 1 of our journey today, as we weren’t booked to go out onto the Thames until around 4.30. The timings are all governed by the tides. We moved down to the water point to top up the tank, before going on to the Gauging Locks.
Below this lock there’s a twisty bit of the River Brent that’s got lots of permanent moorings on it. As the same volunteer lock keeper who was operating the Gauging Locks was also doing Thames Lock, we all had to wait for him to arrive on his bike, so we ended up third boat out from the bank.
There were six narrowboats going out, so two went in the first lock, two went in the other one, and then we were in the final locking out along with a hire boat from Gayton with a Swiss couple on board. A man in a rib managed to fit in behind us too.
There’s not much fall to the lock, and then we were out, with a short section to do before turning right onto the Thames. In truth, there’s not much turning to do — the incoming tide takes you round without much steering. We’d been told to do a broad sweep and not cut off the corner, so that’s what we did, with the hire boat following behind.
Although bright, sunny, and warm, it was also pretty windy along here. In what seemed like almost no time we were at Richmond Lock and half tide barrier, and with the barrier up we could go through.
Next comes Twickenham Bridge with a railway bridge beyond.
Richmond waterside is always busy, and on a sunny Saturday afternoon it was packed.
Beyond Richmond Bridge there was a lot of traffic, everything from paddle boarders and rowing boats to big trip boats. We saw one rowing boat that was being pulled (possibly rescued) by an inflatable — surely the rowing boat had never been this fast before!
A couple of big trip boats came the other way, and we were overtaken by one going our way.
Teddington Lock always comes as a bit of a surprise as it’s round a bit of a bend. A couple of the narrowboats seemed to have slightly missed it and gone past and were having to reverse up a bit. A couple of the others were on the lock landing so we aimed to go alongside them — but then the light changed to green and we ended up being the first boat into the lock. The keeper managed to get all six narrowboats and the trip boat in, with a cruiser at the rear.
The moorings above the lock were pretty full, but Dale on Dona Ferens (who’d come up from Limehouse) suggested we moor alongside, which we did. There’s a nice view of the weir from the side hatch.
I walked back to get a licence — they used to do a cheap transit licence to the Wey, but they don’t anymore so we had to buy a one day. We’d arranged with Dale and Dawn to go out for dinner as we’d all had a long day, and had booked a table at The Anglers on the other side of the river. We had a nice booth in the garden and Macc came too. It was heaving, but the food was pretty good. On the way back we came across the bridge and there was a lovely sunset over the river.
So it’s been quite a long day, and we always find things like the tide way quite exhausting. Macc is already fast asleep and we’ll soon be following him.
6 miles, 3 locks. (25 miles, 13 locks)