PENTON HOOK

Penton Hook claims to be the largest inland marina in Britain. It is enormous. A great sea of plastic. Friendly staff.

This is as far as I go. Not the plan but the upstream locks will be unmanned. Having to work the locks on my own it would become tedious.




Anyway, I'm keen to get on with Tread Lightly. The fire is warming. It would be far easier to get back to the lovely Granary Marina where my new friends are all around and all you want is readily to hand.

I had to cycle in to Chertsey yesterday, some three miles, to get my shopping.





Bye for now.

UP THE THAMES - A sentimental journey.

Today to Teddington on the rising tide. The weather was very windy but bright. The water very choppy with wind over tide combined with commuter and pleasure traffic. The river is tremendously busy. Having to concentrate I had little chance to take pics but here are those I got on the way.

Liveaboards by the fuel berth outside St Katherine's Dock.

You know what!

This one too!

HMS Belfast. Not a good shot but the ride was very bumpy and the traffic non-stop.

The wooden model of Medieval London that will be ceremonially burned to commemorate the 350th anniversary of The Great Fire of London.

And so by winding river ways including the Boat Race course (which I rowed in reverse in the Schools Head of the River Race) to Teddington (Tide End Town) and the peace of non-tidal waters.

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I decided to stay overnight after all that excitement and popped over the famous old suspension bridge to look around.

 

And there was this towering former church - a dramatic piece of architecture - now used as a Lanmark Arts Centre. Note the huge spider crawling up the wall.

 Inside was a lady on stage bashing out a tricky Chopin piece on a rackety old piano to an audience of mothers and babies! Starting them young these days it appears.

 

This is the wide weir at Teddington Lock viewed from the suspension bridge.

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And so on a sentimental journey up river to Weybridge.

Passing Hampton Court ...

... to think that monarchs were rowed here all the way from London.

Passing Hampton School's budding oarsmen with their bright yellow blades. That really took me back. I loved my school rowing.

 
There were lots of young rowers out, surely before term time. Something was afoot. A sampler day for those rising to the third year and so being able to join the Boat Club I guess.
 
We used to share with Molesey Boat Club. Now the School has its own wonderful boathouse. I couldn't get a pic as there were so many oarsmen out. Must try to get one on the return trip.

Classic Sunbury-on-Thames riverside properties.










In Sunbury Lock where I used to 'help' when a boy.

The upstream weir down to the side stream where my brother Nick and I played as boys.

Weybridge. Moored within 50 yards of my first home, a houseboat in Dunton's Boatyard.

I told you it was a sentimental journey.

SOUTH DOCK MARINA - ROTHERHITHE

And so to South Dock Marina by mid-morning on the top of the tide. The entrance is easily identified by Greenland Pier.




I called the Lockeeper on Channel 37 and she opened the gates straight away enabling me to glide straight in to the comforting quiet of the lock and then the marina.










A comfortable berth for a day or two after an arduous journey.

The marina has a busy boatyard. You can just see the lift out crane in this pic.








They lifted out a badly damaged rib for repair in the yard.

There are quite a few exciting rib ride businesses which were flourishing over the bank holiday weekend. Looks a bit dangerously dodgy to me. Must be getting old!

One branch of the family came up to see me. Lovely. We had a little birthday party on board and wandered around the marina complex. All kinds of boats from the fabulously glamourous 'Blue Trout' to the usual madhouses. Many birds nests - mallard, coot, moorhen, pochard and grebe. They seem very content in this arificial human world.



  Another branch of the family came the following day. Couldn't come Sunday as Allie was working. (You can see the marina is bang opposite the docklands development Canada Wharf.)

We wandered around and had a birthday lunch in The Mayflower, a riverside pub overlooking the Prospect of Whitby on the opposite bank. The Mayflower had provisioned and sailed from the very hard where this pub was sited.










The industrial archeology of Rotherhithe is fascinating so I decided to stay an extra day and have a look around. I followed the Thames Pathway which follows the riverside like a towpath.

The dock trade was mainly in timber from both East and West, predominantly from Canada and Greenland by the time this map was drawn.












There's a lot of old history left to see. There were more than one of these. What is it?

A left over crane.

This is the entrance to the city farm.

The footpath was plagued with joggers!

Where I had a cup of tea.

Further round I could see across the river to St Paul's Shadwell Church where Allie is Curate.












And then back to Lady Cate through lovely park and woodland created from the filled in Russia Dock, lying down the centre of the peninsula.

ONWARDS TO LONDON

The best of company down Middle Deep.











Two beautiful full size Thames barges under full sail.

My plan was to anchor in Stangate Creek, off the Medway, overnight and catch the tide up to South Dock Marina. However, with Lady Cate being slower than I thought and needing to punch the tide for part of the journey I realised we could not make the lock gates in time, so I decided to keep going up river. This would mean cruising up in the dark for some of the time. More trepidation!

Given the busy traffic which was driving me South I decided to enter the estuary by the small boats southern route and cross over to the North side further upstream.






So I passed by the sunken ammunition ship SS Richard Montgomery.












Just think of all that unexploded ammo under there!

 We headed up river into the sunset, which I forgot to photo, buoy hopping up to Gravesend in the dark, where we moored up for a few hours kip.










Off again at 0500 riding the tide up the town.

An infinity of docks from river mouth to town centre. Rather dreary, like the trains entering cities through bleak industrial landscapes.

The Thames Barrier, with its green guiding lights.

The Docklands development skyline, now well matured and dramatic, with one of the Emirates cable car pillars, twisted white, in the foreground.

I travelled in the cable cars just a month before, already thinking then how it would be when we cruised up river.

Gently sculptural pillar showing up the crude block form of the cheaper constructions.

Well I had to take my own pic of it.

Further upstream, opposite Greenwich, some early morning company. Brave folk in very small boats in a busy waterway. But this morning, Saturday, was nice and quiet.








More soon!

OFF WE GO TO LONDON

Weather on Friday 26th turned out perfect so, with some trepidation I must confess, off down the Deben at 0600. Anchored at The Rocks for breakfast and to get the best tide timing, for which I needed to wait some three hours. Then I would go out of the river mouth about an hour before low tide and in to slack water. Later the tide would turn and help me on my journey to the Thames.

Susie and Mick rang at about 0800 to wish me well. What a lovely and very welcome surprise.

The trepidation was getting to me and I didn't wait three hours, for which I paid an, albeit little, price later. The sea is completely unforgiving. It was my first time out on a serious trip with Lady Cate. I was on my own. It has been a long time since I was last at sea proper. Oceans are empty; the Thames Estuary is very very busy and its waters are notorious for its ever moving shallows. Here's hoping the charts are still good and the GPS is sound. However the weather is fine and set fair. Deep breath!

Down the beautiful Deben to Felixstowe Ferry. A wide open place where huge East Anglian skies meet the vastness of the open sea.

 
Being earlier the tide was higher which made it easier to thread the narrow channel close to the retaining blocks that restrain erosion. The Deben mouth must be treated with the greatest respect. The bar is half a mile further out from here. Following the buoys closely is vital. Thank goodness the river mouth is surveyed every year and the buoys shifted accordingly. The annual chart is on the web.

http://www.debenestuarypilot.co.uk/




Arriving at the Woodbridge Haven buoy I set course along the coast. Nothing remarkable for a couple of hours except that I was only making speed over ground of about 6 knots as the tide was still against me. Dear old Lady Cate is a displacement vessel designed for comfort rather than speed, which is what I wanted. However I was a little disappointed that this was all she would do. I'll have a closer look at the Morse control system. I suspect it's something simple like that. But it's not important.

The weather was kind and it was not long when the Gunfleet Sands Wind Farm hove in to view. It is an impressive sight. I don't find these generators offensive to the view though some do. As a green nut I am very supportive of them.








I got as close as I could to get a photo but nearly ran out of  water as I was still earlier than planned albeit now on the rising tide. Thank goodness for the depth alarm! Ooops! Too early.











So I quickly retreated down past Wallet 6 buoy to the Wallet Spitway, crossing across the Swin in to Middle Deep.
                                                                                       

The tale of adventure continues tomorrow!