Tidal Thames meet 18-19 Aug 2018

Couldn't see Olives tweet, unless Kate is a stage name, or olive is the boat

The Mr says it takes 3 hours, I thought it took about 4 from Brentford to the Barrier?

3 hours sounds about right for that distance running with the tide  needed a sanity check 

So that's an hour or so from Teddington to Brentwood, 3 hours min from Brentwood to the Barrier, then at least another couple of hours to Gravesend (I need to check the distance) perhaps a little tight for the smaller single engined boats 

Chris Meyer wrote:Couldn't see Olives tweet, unless Kate is a stage name, or olive is the boat

Kate and Olive are indeed the same person

Kate is my real name. Olive is the marina cat at Brentford

Is staying at Brentford a useful option, it's usually packed here but they do have guests sometimes, on the small pontoon outside or maybe in the marina. There is a lock so if you're inside you need to wait for the high tide to exit. When we go to the barrier we go on the tide going out so it helps us. We don't have a radio so I phone from my mobile

Even the smaller boats should be ok, if we leave 2 hours before the top of the tide, low water at tilbury is 19.58 giving 6.5 hours, Teddington to Brentwood would be much more than an hour but if we're talking brentford much less, we could marshal above richmond half lock, and swarm through when the gates are lowered (saving £7.50 per boat on lock charges) that is less than a mile above Brentford. I/2 lock goes down 2 hours either side of HW 13.22 leave say 3.5 to barrier 17.00 give or take still gives 3 hours to tilbury before slack water, I reckon its a goer.

BTW hi Kate and Cat

And back 

same, you wont have quite the same over the ground speed but the ebb flow isn't as great, obviously we would need to do a fair bit of research, one option might be to do a stop off at limehouse on the way back if it looks tight.

Hmm 42 miles Richmond half lock to gravesend, 25 gravesend to Limehouse, run down in a day saturday, run back sunday/ monday that monday is the bank holiday, think it can be done, obviously boats would have to be in good shape, and proper anchor warps/chains, but it will be a trip to remember.  I'm guessing the narrow boats locked out of limehouse.Maybe Deano could tow half a dozen?

If the trip can be/is arranged starting or finishing with the Thames meet, PG will be up for it.  
I will need to book leave accordingly, so confirmed dates ASAP would be good.

Read the title again Dave ... you might be retired by then  

Prof Pat Pending wrote:Read the title again Dave ... you might be retired by then  

 (I thought he was retired ! )

I knew that!!  I've got a wedding to pay for, retirement is a way off, but we'd likely to be up for it.

Hopefully we wont be going round in circles, still hoping to persuade TTB to part with the second prop, now collected 1st from Alan (snapper) thankyou Derek and Alan , think if this comes off, its got to be a commemorative T shirt, in fact beginning to think we should have commemorative, badges, burgees or pennants for every meet (not Anne though, it would sink under the weight)

We wouldn't be able to see where we were going 

Stravaigin on the other hand would have no such problems

We will, we will, 1st locks in 2 years tomorrow, excited, up to Beale Park, 1 year late.

Conrad has given me the contact numbers for Limehouse and Gravesend, so I will enquire as to feasibility/costs etc, it could turn into a true convoy, with Fridays Child picking up boats as he comes past, although suspect the task of getting all the boats from Richmond and back together might be enough of a challenge.

All sounds very exciting, Barb and I would definitely be interested and there is plenty of time to plan our calendar to include such a trip. Not sure Barb fully appreciates what would be involved but I think I might keep it that way for the time being!

This site has plenty of information including a Thames guide pdf. The club often run cruises on the tidal sections and allow anybody to accompany them. Well worth a look.
http://www.stpancrascc.co.uk/

Hi all, I noted down some timings a few weeks ago, then got snowed under at work and didn't post them, so here they are might be useful in planning??: travelling with the tide and going at approx 5 knots:

09:00 - left Brentford pontoon
09:15 - Chiswick Quay
09:41 - Hammersmith Bridge
10:18 - Battersea Bridge
10:45 - Westminster Bridge - this is where it starts to get a little choppy
10:50 - Waterloo Bridge - very choppy
11:01 - London Bridge
11:08 - Tower Bridge
11:26 - Limehouse marina
11:36 - South Quay / Greenland
11:50 - Greenwich
12:20 - o2 arena (ferry landing, you can see it for ages beforehand)
12:50 - Thames Barrier (this is a best guess, as the tide turned at o2 so we turned too!)

Thanks Kate, good to get some actual numbers rather than best guesses 


We've clearly got some planning to do

I was on a Thames clipper to Greenwich yesterday morning and we passed another Freeman, so its not just me! Much as I tried I couldn't see the name  Looked like a 22? Whilst lunching in the Trafalgar pub we saw it again, was going quite a pace, good strong engine.

Hi all, have now spoken to Gravesend town Pier, they have capacity and like the idea of hosting this cruise.
He has recommended the smaller boats raft on the inside and possibly the larger on the outside if needs be. If rafted 3 deep (lots of fenders) up to 18 boats could be accommodated, he also has buoys which could handle any overflow at the moment he could handle 15-20 boats, do we think there would be the interest?  Suggestion is marshal above richmond half lock, transit half lock at 1.30 on the saturday 26th August overnight at Limehouse basin, charges for groups £3.42 per metre per night. Cruise down to Gravesend on Sunday, Overnight there £30.00 per boat, return Limehouse bank holiday monday then back up to non tidal Tuesday,  Gravesend have capacity but would like some idea of numbers as soon as possible, do we think this could fly??

http://dodington.net/33.pdf
http://dodington.net/35.pdf
These are the downstream/upstream guides to cruising the tideway but we will of course have a pilot in the shape of Kate

Chris

I would recommend getting off the tideway and into some form of marina. Vessels run with the tides and it can get very splashy, simply being moored... I see there is now a marina at Gravesend, that would be a better idea than the buoy that Trilly tied to for the night in 1979.... used the dinghy to get ashore and had the devil's own job getting back again with the current running...must have used up  all the energy we'd taken on from the fish and chips!! Limehouse is a very pleasant place to stopover, there's a Gastropub on the corner of the entrance...a nice spot to sit and look across the river with a tall glass of something on a hot day. https://bwml.co.uk/limehouse-basin-marina/