Not yet been out on the tidal Thames? Do it in the right circumstances and there is no need to be scared witless.
There is a perfect occasion coming up. The St Pancras Cruising Club are again organising a trip to the London Boat Show. If you get a chance go for it! We did it 2 years ago, the whole thing was well organised and being in convoy with other boats means that you feel safe. Next January’s cruise apparently has 13 boats committed or expressing a keen interest and is again being organised by Andrew Phasey which is good news. If you have difficulty accessing the SPCC site then try again after 13th December – apparently their web host has closed down and they had to move everything in a bit of a hurry.
In 2007 we went out in flotilla down Bow Creek, coming out opposite the Millennium Dome sorry O2 arena
- Dome ahoy
then out through the Thames Barrier
- then out through the Thames Barrier
then you can play chicken with the woolwich ferry
Fulbourne reckoning they have right of way
and then in through the most enormous lock into the Royal Docks. The year we did it we went in with a load of gin palaces including Eddie Jordan’s new dinghy (£10M, loads of storeys, needs a crew of 7).
- Locking into the Royal Docks
You park up for 2 weeks or so in the Royal Docks then at the end of the boat show you join the migration out. We almost did not get out as the Boat in the lock at first did not want to share (Captain must have been an only Child). They eventually relented but rather than putting fenders out they had a load of kids with big guns up on deck.
- The Captain was not keen to share a lock with us ….
So a cracking good cruise in the company of experts. Go for it!
