The day dawned bright and sunny, but cold. After breakfast we readied the boat - anchor out and the warp attached and neatly stowed in a bucket with the chain for rapid deployment, the VHF aerial set up, and ourselves kitted up with multiple layers of clothing etc. It can be cold out there! At 8:30 we dropped down the Gauging Lock and found Thames Lock waiting with both top and bottom gates open, so we were straight through and onto the river. We were leaving an hour before high water, but there was little evidence of the tide flow and soon we were on 6.4 mph which remained fairly constant until much lower down the river where we hit 7 mph briefly. Having failed at Brentford and at intervals below to raise London VTS, we finally did at Battersea. A call to Limehouse at Tower Bridge confirmed that the lock was ready and we joined Ro-An, our friend from yesterday, in the Lock.
At 7pm we had a briefing from Andrew Phasey of St Pancras Cruising Club on the plan for the morning. Excellent laminated documentation! A return visit to "The Grapes" followed.
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