A taste of the tidal thames

With new and established members of the club this is always a favourite trip. A short excursion down to Teddington, where we assemble before embarking on a short trip down to Hammersmith bridge and back.

Luckily for us Teddington lock had just returned to normal service on the 1st of July, so our planned trip on the 13-14th was able to go ahead.

Some of our members hadn’t previously ventured onto the tidal Thames, or were relatively new to boating, and we were all feeling “boating deprived” after the Covid-19 lock-down. So following relaxation of some of the restrictions, a group of us took our boats down to Teddington on the Monday afternoon and moored up ready for an early start the next day. Club boats Beatrice Rose, Breakers II, Enterprise, Purple Orchid, Sea Quest and Venture were joined by guests on Life of Sundays. Evening refreshments were enjoyed on the river bank in a socially distanced fashion, and then some of the party enjoyed a socially distanced dinner in the garden of the nearby Anglers pub, while others ate on board.

Unfortunately the vice commodore had to work that day, but was able to join us later and act as experienced crew for Sea Quest; similarly Martin from Breakers II had to stay behind while Emilia acted as crew on Purple Orchid.

We locked out at 7:30 on the Tuesday morning by prearrangement with the helpful lock keeper at Teddington. As there were so many of us we split into two groups with Enterprise taking the lead and Venture bringing up the rear. Our schedule was planned to take advantage of free-flow through the Richmond lock and weir.

Checking the headway gauge at Chiswick Eyot for Hammersmith Bridge showed headway of 4.8 metres, so as planned we all had plenty of space. After passing through Hammersmith Bridge we proceed down to Harrod’s repository, then retraced our route back to Teddington, apart from Beatrice Rose who carried on to Chatham. Once back at Teddington we moored up again and enjoyed mid-morning refreshments before returning to our home berths.

Maurice.