- I've decided to do today as a photo essay as quite a dramatic day. We left Chiswick Pier to go down river with the current at 8am, and moored up at Chelsea Harbour at about 10am. We had breakfast full boater's and then departed for St Katherine's at about 12.30. This would be a hard slog against the current for about three hours at about 2mph.
After about and hour and a half and 2.8 miles travelled, the engine started to get hot, although we had filled up with fresh drinking water the evening before it turned a murky brown, probably due to lots of showers, with the overheating and the fear of running out of water, we had no choice but to decide to stop. We feared we would not be able to moor anywhere, so Glyn prepared to drop the anchor, however we slowly reached a fence in Chelsea.
We decided with the lack of clean water for the engine and the need to wait quite a while for it to cool down, that it may not be possible to reach St Katherine's before it closed, so contacted the coastguard. They said as we were not in danger that they could send out a boat to take us to the nearest pier, but we would have been stuck there, so they put us in touch with a tugboat owner. He then came and gave us a quick and wet tug to St Katherine's. An amazing journey, like a wet ride at Alton Towers.
We arrived safely and moored up. Sarah and her friend Lisa were there to greet us, as also were our friends Charlotte and Pat and their children. We all sat and have a drink and relaxed. Charlotte and family went home a little later, and the rest of us had a splendid dinner at Brown's Restaurant in Butler's Wharf .
The pictures tell the story best.
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| Rower's on boat race course |
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| Albert bridge of the Pogues fame |
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| Harrod's depository, landmark in the boat race |
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| Fulham Football Club |
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| New Apartments |
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| Chelsea Harbour Pier |
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| Chelsea Harbour |
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| Moored up in Chelsea |
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| Our Tow Boat |
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| Coming alongside |
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| The Wheel |
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| Houses of Parliament and Big Ben |
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| The Tate Modern |
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| St Katherine's Dock |
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| St Katherine's Lifting Bridge |
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| HMS Belfast and Tower Bridge |
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| Tower Bridge and Boats |
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| Us and the Waverley in Background |
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| Arriving at St Katherine's |
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| Entering Dock |
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| Entering Dock |
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| Moored Up |
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| Lock Filling |
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| Mooring up at Pontoon |
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| The Dickens Inn - St Katherine's Dock |
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| St Katherine's at dusk |
I expected to see Sir Francis Drake and found Captain Pugwash!
ReplyDeleteenjoyed sharing your journey - looks like you are having quite a boys adventure break from the girls
what ever next?
love Joy x
I must admit the weather generally looks pretty good and that does make me a little homesick, but not nearly as much as your smiling face - come on guys lets have some more photos with you in instead of Tesco on canal.
ReplyDeleteAussie Nick