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The 1993 Cruises

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The Bow Locks to Brentford Thames Tideway Trip.

 

Tuesday 15th June – The Tuesday Night Club pub crew moved Beatty from Harefield Marina to The General Elliot pub moorings, in Uxbridge from 20.00 to 21.15. We had already positioned John Fleming’s car their for transport back. TNC meeting then followed in The General Drinkalot!

Friday 18th June – Eventually the crew – Neil, Julian E and Ian Scott managed to leave a car at Harefield Marina and at the General Elliot, then repaired to the pub as it was opening time. Lovely sunny morning, so we sat outside for a quickie! Eventually we pulled ourselves away from the pub and cast off at 11.05. Bulls Bridge (pass) 12.30, turn left onto Paddington arm of Grand Union. Black Horse, Greenford (pass) 13.55, North Circular Aqueduct, 15.00 and stop at Little Venice16.15. We had a quick drink in the Paddington Stop pub and cast off again at 19.00. We carried on quite late – 21.00 and got to the reasonably safe moorings just above City Road Lock. That night we stayed on board to eat one of Julian E’s, now legendary meals!

Saturday 19th June – Started off at 6.30 as we were booked out of Bow Locks at around 10.30, which was as soon as the flood tide allowed. We immediately turned left below City Road Lock, to go the Hertford Union Canal way onto the River Lee. We passed the junction onto the River Lee at 7.30. There was a longish stop for diesel at the inconspicuous fuel depot marine diesel pump above Three Mills (we don’t know if his still is available). We were eventually in position, just above Bow Locks, at 9.30. We had to have some leeway as Sally and Jim Malloy were meeting us there, just for the Tideway trip. With a few mobile calls they homed in on us and we sidled down to the lock. The lock keeper was soon about and told us to enter the open lock and he would pen us out as soon as there was enough water over the sill. We eventually got out at 10.45, to punch the incoming tide to the mouth of Bow Creek. We got here at 11.25, just as the wind had really got up and was starting to rain. The Thames was in severe flood by this time and being a fair Springs, we shot along up the Thames. In retrospect, this is the roughest tidal passage we have ever made. We kept the cratch down to start with as there was a lot of spray. As we passed Limehouse Lock, a load of St Pancras Boat Club narrowboats were being locked out and we all had a race up the Thames! Vauxhall Bridge was passed at 13.05 and we throttled back a lot, as we were in danger of overtaking the tide! We arrived in Brentford Gut at 14.50. The main part of the journey on the Thames (20.25 miles) was covered in 3hours 15 minutes, which comes out at about 6.25 mph. At 15.30 we had been worked through the Thames and Gauging Lock and stopped for the night in Brentford Basin. Jim and Sally left and we went out later to a few pubs and then went back to the boat with fish and chips.

Sunday 20th June – We left Brentford Basin at 8.00 and got out of Norwood Top Lock at 10.20. It was then a straight through run back to base at Harefield, where we got at 15.00.

 


Beatty ready for the off.

The crew minus Jim! - Ian Scott, Neil, Colin, Julian E and Sally.

The crew minus Neil! - Ian Scott, Colin, Julian E, Jim and Sally.

Bow Locks.

Bow Locks.

Bow Locks.

Bow Locks.

Bow Locks.

Three Mills.

Bow Creek.

Bow Creek.

Bow Creek.

The HP.

Remains of Battersea Power Station.

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