Rochester Sweeps 2024

Rochester Sweeps 2024

​The main event programmed for early May was the club cruise to Chatham Maritime Marina for the Rochester Sweeps Festival over the May Bank Holiday weekend, 3rd to 6th May.
Three boats were originally booked into Chatham for the event, namely Ginista, Laird Tommy and Enterprise. The river conditions in the week leading up to event were hovering around red boards, with some stretches going briefly yellow, but returning to red as more rain fell in the upper Thames catchment area, leading to a “do we, or don’t we go” discussion among the crews.
In the event, Laird Tommy could not take part, anyway, as a pair of coots had made their nest on one of her trim tabs! John even received an email from the marina office reminding him of the regulations preventing disturbance of the nest until the chicks had fledged. Three boats now down to two!. John and Geraldine agreed to crew on Ginista, and all eyes were on the river conditions. Chris and Lin, aboard Enterprise, decided to make an early start and set off on the Monday, in a brief window of reduced river flow. Unfortunately, their journey was interrupted by mechanical issues when one engine overheated at Shepperton. They pulled into Shepperton Marina and contacted Mike Hone to sort them out with a new impeller and water pump, resuming their trip the next day. By midweek, the river was once again all red boarded, and with even more rain forecast for the weekend, Tony and John reluctantly decided not to set out. Tony was particularly sorry not to go, as this was to be his last cruise aboard Ginista, which is now up for sale at TBS , to make way for his “new” boat, “Scotch Mist”.
I will leave Chris and Lin to report on their cruise, and how the Sweeps festival faired.
Suffice it to say that the weather, once again, got the upper hand in this year’s dismal start to the season.

​

Report from Lin and Chris

​Following Tony’s report we left Teddington at 6 am on Wednesday 1st May in misty and gloomy conditions but had an excellent calm journey all the way to Chatham to be greeted 6 and a half hours later with Sunshine and a warm MDL welcome, including a berth at the furthest from the entrance and facilities ! 

​The sweeps festival was its usual wonderful mix of music, beer and colour. Friday, Saturday and Sunday the sun shone and we had fun.
Bank holiday Monday it rained all day so we hunkered down aboard enterprise and read the papers and our books.

​Tuesday dawned fair we left at 6am and were rewarded with a great trip back and London sparkling in the sunshine and yippee due to spring tides the Richmond barrier was open early and we returned to Teddington.