TRIP REPORTS

MAIN SUMMER CRUISE 2006

Part 1 - Limehouse to Sonning

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What we saw as our main summer cruise started from Limehouse Basin and planned to cover the whole of the Thames and the Kennet & Avon system

Before we started, Wendy cleared the prop of a selection of weed and plastic - not just blanket weed but something with tough flexible stems. There are rubbish disposal and recycling bins beside the lock here. Eric Garland arrived to crew with us, as arranged at 09:30. We locked out in company with Sally & Eric Naylor onChérie and another boat at 10:25 . As we joined the tideway with me at the tiller, we met a couple of big, fast craft which meant a lot of wash and choppiness, with some waves coming over the bows to wash Eric & Wendy's feet and prove the value of a high threshold to the front doors and big drainage holes. Wendy put the front rope on the well-deck floor since in its usual place it was at risk of being swept overboard. Eric came back to join me while Wendy mad another hot drink. It was breezy & grey with a threat of rain later, but the water was calm apart from the wash of other vessels. The cats were unhappy with the unfamiliar type of movement, so Wendy stayed inside with them. I find that steering on the tideway takes a lot of concentration, so I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked.

Just after Brentford Creek, Chérie turned back to join the Grand Junction. By Richmond we had caught up with the group of boats from the previous locking at Limehouse. At Teddington we joined the non-tidal section of the river and went on to reach Hampton Court visitor moorings at 15:13. We got the last available space on the visitor moorings and had something to eat before Eric went home. Later the cats were feeling sufficiently recovered to go hunting, successfully.

I went off in the morning for a day at the Museum, followed by an evening walk from Islington to Mile End. Wendy tried the shopping in East Molesey which she found good for basic food, very expensive posh food, newspapers, expensive clothes & furniture and craft materials. Fortunately she only wanted a few of these things.

I came back from the flat once the rush-hour was safely over, and had a longer-then-expected wait for a train at Waterloo. Meanwhile Wendy caught a bus (10 minutes) into Kingston for some shopping at Sainsbury's and Waitrose. We started cruising at 14:11. It was a very hot day. Above Molesey lock we stopped to take on water and dispose of rubbish. We met the IWA boatJubilee travelling down-river on her way to the Medway. At the east end of Desborough Channel we joined the old course of th river in order to tie up at the public mooring there at 16:53. Once again the designated moorings were full, but other boaters and locals said nobody would mind if we moored on the "no mooring" section, which we did and were later joined by other boats. One of the local chaps said he was reading Tom Rolt's Landscape Trilogy at the moment. Dogs delayed the cats' going out hunting until quite late.

We decided to stay here for another day as it's fairly close to Shepperton Station for me to go to London, which I did very early on Friday morning, and arrived back about 16:00. By then there was a large cruiser moored outboard of us. That, together with the uncertainty of finding a decent mooring elsewhere at this time made us decide to stay here for a third night and have a barbecue. The boat outboard of us kindly gave us a bottle of wine. There were quite a few boats on the mooring, for a River Thames Society gathering the next day.

I cleaned out and stowed the barbecue, the outboard boat shuffled across the river temporarily and we were off at 8:51. We stopped for lunch at The Swan at Staines, on the pub mooring - a nice new jetty has replaced the former rather rickety one, and is a very comfortable height for us. Wendy went to Sainsbury's (just the other side of the bridge), and bought more than she had originally expected. Then we had lunch at the pub.

After lunch we went on, to to moor just by Windsor railway viaduct at 17:15. We found a suitable gap in some moorings with a nice low bank on the non-town side, where we were charged £4 fee for a 24-hour mooring. The moorings belong to Eton College and are managed on their behalf by a commercial concern. We were told that the Town Council moorings across the river charge the same. The short EA moorings by the racecourse are free, but would almost certainly have been full by this time. The weather was very hot until late, and after a large pub lunch we decided we didn't need to eat anything more than a punnet of strawberries.

Before starting we needed to start the washing machine to flush the cats out of hiding so that we were sure they were on board. We actually got going at 10:39 . It was another very hot day. Below Bray lock Wendy saw some beautifully vivid chicory. Above Cookham lock we stopped to take on water, then went on to tie up below Marlow lock at 16:08. On arrival, there wasn't a gap in the moorings long enough for us, but a cruiser happily moved into a gap where they would fit but we wouldn't, freeing the end mooring for us. We barbecued again.

Another very hot day saw us start cruising at 09:00. There were a lot of very smart boats around, carrying what looked like rally numbers. There had obviously been an event on over the weekend - probably the Thames Traditional Boat Rally at Henley. Several of them were flying the Dunkirk Small Ships burgee. At Shiplake sanitary station we got rid of rubbish en passant, thanks to a helpful boater who was occupying the service point to have a pump-out. We tied up at 14:38 on the long stretch of moorings on the off side below Sonning Bridge, taking the last available space. There were notices there giving a 'phone number to ring for mooring. When one does so, one is told to put £5 and the boat's name in a red letter-box on the wall. I set off for London in the late afternoon to give a talk to Charlton Horticultural Society. My journey was badly delayed when the minicab firm contacted by the local pub took an hour to get a car there. During the evening about six brightly-coloured hot-air balloons came over, and one landed in the field next to the boat.