CONNECTIONS

We were keen to get moving on from our night’s mooring near ‘grounded-zero’. I walked back to the site of our mishap and saw C&RT works vessel moving through the bottom lock of the Hanwell Flight. I decided to inform them face to face about our murky muddy mishap.

“Yes we know about it. Heavy rain flooded the Brent River and swept the sandbank out. A dredger will deal with it in a couple of days.” He said. “We are going to clear the debris at the weir.”

“Good” I said “but a sign is needed to inform boats leaving the Lock to keep to the Right due to risk of grounding.”

“A dredger will deal with it in a couple of days.” He said.

Broken record kicked into play with me too. “A sign indicating a high risk of grounding, now, would be helpful, please.” I said.

“I’ll tell someone.” He said.

‘Yeah right sometime never.’  I thought.

Loch Ness Monster?

We moved on down through the last two Locks into the basin at Brentford. I could feel that the metal gates on the Grand Union Locks had tenderised my tail bone and I came to the realisation that a large bubble bum, like Kim Kardashian’s, would be ideal in pushing the gates.  On second thoughts I could design a hi-vis quality fashion bum belt with encased ‘gellies’ that may as well incorporate a windlass holder as well and to seal the package could be sold with a Drone that could be used to  check out boat movement near Locks with a view towards water conservation.  Just need to find an Engineer to put together a prototype. #I’M ON TO IT

We chose to moor up before the A4 bridge opposite the GlaxoSmithKline building. The road noise was constant with heavy traffic but it was all right until we had put our ‘intel’ into the area. Passing gongoozlers went by and a small child peered in our window with the hanging Elvis. She looked troubled when she saw my face behind the little Elvis. I don’t think Elvis looked scary but it could have been my giant face!  

I stepped outdoors to say “Hello” and let her mother know that I was not an alien. Kiwi accents prevail and the long and short of it is we had both lived in the Bay of Plenty NZ. Chris used to write, sporadically, in his own inimitable style to her parent’s weekly newspaper. Her Uncle is a close friend of mine and I probably knew him before she was born. It’s a small world.

Next morning on the Della walk, Chris said he had met Mr Wellington. That meant he had met someone from NZ, on a Narrowboat, who comes from Wellington. The side hatch, on their boat, was open as we walked past so I called out and we had a conversation with him and his wife. 

They live in the same street as one of our nieces and she had told them that we were on a Narrowboat in England. Of all the canals and Narrowboats in England..... They also know another of our nieces in Christchurch and are related to her husband. It was a squeal moment again and I was full of amazement with the connections we had experienced in 24 hours.

Look beyond the close up!

We decided to move to the 14 day visitor moorings at Brentford Basin and I must say we got the prime mooring close to the facilities block with free hot water showers. 

We got it!

A  Widebeam boat informed me they were leaving at 1300hrs so we made sure to be hot on their tail to take the vacated mooring. 

We planned to stay a couple of days and then cruise the tidal Thames, downstream, to Limehouse. The weather forecast was suspect with a 43% chance of rain. The Lock Keeper, at Thames Lock Limehouse did not give us confidence over the telephone.

“The deadline to be at Limehouse Thames Lock is 1730hrs on Sunday and if you arrive later than that you will not be let into the Lock until morning high tide. When you get on to the Thames at Brentford, at 1445 you will be punching the tide for an hour and then you will be moving with the tide.”

Yikes.  We were aware that there were three elements in the equation, the weather, punching the tide would slow us down and the surly sounding Lock Keeper.  Over the past week we had become aware of the effect of the‘super moon’ and  ‘super high tide’ and we wanted our ‘super life’ to remain without risk.

A new plan took shape. I cancelled our booking at Rembrandt Gardens, in Paddington, and we decided we’ll go up the Thames to Lechlade and then head back down river and get on the Oxford Canal.

A day before we left on this new mission we decided to explore the River Wey. We could get a 24 hour license for the River Thames and then chug up the River Wey.

Thames Lock BRENTFORD

We booked the Thames Lock Brentford to open their gates for us at 0745, as the tide was still rising, on a day that promised warmth and sunny blue skies.

Early morning on the River Thames

"I'm up for it!"

Brentford to Teddington Lock took 1 ½ hours where we purchased the £10, 24 hour river license and cruised on to 24 hour moorings below Shepperton Lock where the Dunkirk boats were temporarily moored on the Dunkirk Veterans cruise.

WEY TO GO AHEAD!!