A lovely sunny day has dawned. We had a lie in. Then some difficult decisions to make as we should have left this afternoon and without a definitive plan we have to stay near shore power. However, good news from RCR. An engineer will be with us tomorrow at 10.00 am, so given this assurance we have decided to leave anyway, and with the help of the marina staff and another burst of energy from the mains power, we should have enough battery power to run the lights and VHF for the duration of the trip, then the engineer can come to Teddington instead of Limehouse and we should be back on track. So the morning was spent readying the boat, moving the anchor, fixing the radio and lots of other little tiddly bits.
At 3:45 we started up and slowly moved over to join nb Daedalus, our companion for the trip. We exchanged telephone numbers in case of problems and then had to wait until 4:30 as a boat was expected off the river. We eventually left out into a rather wild scene of a mass of fast ribs, Thames Clippers, and slow trip boats with humongous wash, all creating a terribly confused water. Nuggler rides all this very well with very little roll, but of course pitching with water & spray coming over the bows. Fortunately, our cratch board and covers deflect almost all of it. Our fellow traveller didn't fare so well, being a tug style with open front deck took quite a lot of water into the cabin under the front doors. We were told later that one particularly bad roll saw water up to the port holes. The Pool of London was even more frantic. The Brazilian warship was preparing to sail, and Tower bridge had just opened to pass a mock Mississippi paddle steamer (without the paddles). Once past Westminster Bridge all this suddenly dies down and we just carry on in peace, averaging about 7.2 mph in the tide. Probably passed less than 10 boats from there to Teddington. Of course, all the light was going, and by Richmond we were in the dark. I am fairly familiar with the River, but for the last half hour having to feel my way, probing with the headlight to sniff out blind corners. We arrived safely and quickly settled down for a snack and tired, to bed.
Comments