Thames Trip - Northolt to Beale Park and back
(c)Michael Askin
15/10/2004
For personal use only - please contact me for any other uses, thank you.

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Day 1 – Saturday 2nd October 2004
Northolt to Teddington

Originally a friend from work was going to join us for the weekend, as he has never been on a narrowboat before. Unfortunately I got a text message from him saying he had a stinking cold, and decided it would be best not to go. By the time I managed to get Dad up, and load the boat up, and empty the loo it was 11am. We got to Bulls Bridge by 12, but after shopping it was 1:20pm. The original plan was to get to Thames Locks in Brentford by 4pm, but this was slipping. A couple of keen kids out for the day helped with two of the locks half way down the Hanwell flight, at least it was dry. Then just as we reached Clitheroe’s lock it started to pour down, but just as we reached Brentford Gauging lock it started to clear up, and a brilliant double rainbow appeared. I ran inside to get my camera, but by the time I had got back outside it had already started to fade.

I phoned Thames lock as we went through the high street bridge, but all I got was the answer phone – I was getting worried as I thought you could just turn up during operating hours. When we reached the lock I could just see the lock keeper getting back into his cabin. He was in the toilet when I rang!!

The tide was running nicely as we joined the flow, and we managed 7mph without fuss. We went the none navigational side of Isleworth Ait, since we were on a rising tide, and if we got stuck would soon float off again. It was interesting, and saw a large barge used as a floating dry dock. I got worried when all of a sudden a row of boats were blocking the way, but as we got closer we found a way through. The tide was pushing us into the boats, so I had to really take the corner carefully.

When we reached the other side of Richmond the tide had started to slacken, and the skies had opened up again. Teddington Lock appeared around the bend all of a sudden, but it was not clear which lock was in use. The barge lock had its gates open, but there were two red lights (one for the barge lock, and the other for the launch lock). According to the Thames website it said to use the launch lock, so I went slowly towards it passing the end of the barge lock. Unfortunately I could not see the sign until to late which said it was closed, and then the light on the barge lock turned green!

We went through the lock with another boat which had come up the tideway. The rise was only about one foot, so didn’t take long. I did manage to get a nice picture of a double rainbow as the rain disappeared a second time. We moored on the moorings above the lock at about 6:30pm. They were quite empty, even though only half was available due to improvement works.

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Rainbow over Brentford River Island, Brentford Brentford Gauging Lock Thames lock at Brentford
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Tidal Thames near Brentford Star and Garter Home on Richmond Hill Double rainbow at Teddington Lock The office at Teddington Lock
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Rainbow at Teddington Lock Shoestring at Teddington Sunset at Teddington Teddington Weir

Day 2, Sunday 3rd October 2004
Teddington to Penton Hook

After seeing the weather man saying it would rain all day, I was quite surprised to see it was dry when I got up at 9:30am. It was about 10:30am when we finally set off, and I had a hard time trying to avoid the sailing and rowing boats. We had to wait for the lock at Hampton, and a small fibreglass fishing boat, and an aluminium narrowboat caught us up. The boat club opposite the lock had all the flags flying, apparently they were having “sail-past” to honour the commodore of the boat club. They even had a jazz band playing.

Neither boat continued up to the next lock, which we did alone. We took the long way round Desborough Island, it was raining by now, and it continued to rain for the next several hours. I was going to stop at Nauticallia, but with the rain, and the fact that the lock was ready, we decided we’d visit on the way back. I asked the ferryman where to moor, and he said to moor on the other side of the river, and ring the bell to call him.

At Chertsey Meads I met up with a work college who has a boat there. He joined us in his inflatable dingy through the lock, and up to Penton Hook Marina (I just wanted to have a noisy). Colin didn’t have much petrol so he went to buy some, and then he to return back to give his lad a lift to the station. We went through Penton Hook lock on our own – the locky said we would be the last boats moving on the river, but when we got out, another boat game down the river, but the lock keeper didn’t notice him, and closed the gate. As the other boat approached us, I noticed a good mooring just above the lock moorings, so we pulled in there.

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Kingston Bridge Hampton Court Chimneys on Hampton Court Molesey Lock near Hampton
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Sail past at Molesey Lock Mooring above Penton Hook lock Penton Hook Lock rain

Day 3, Monday 4th October 2004
Penton Hook Lock to Marlow

We didn’t leave early even though I’d been awake most of the night, unable to sleep. I managed to snooze off again in the later early hours, and didn’t get up until about 9am. The main battery bank of three heavy duty batteries didn’t last long last night, and even though we stopped early to watch Stargate, and Pete Waterman’s series about trains the inverter turned itself off at 9:45pm. I started the engine so we could watch the end of the program we were watching, but the inverter cut out at 1:30am with the fridge going. I turned it off, until the morning.

Dad and I looked at the power system, and found that it was using a split charge diode, which instantly kills larges amount of charging, as the alternator senses the battery charge voltage at it’s end, not the battery. We bypassed the diode for the leisure bank, so that it would fully charge the battery, by the time we were ready for off it was about 10am, and the driving rain had stopped.

The wind was still strong, as we continued up the virtually empty river. The lock keeper at Bell Weir lock seemed quite surprised to see us, and said we were the first boat through. The engine was really suffering with these long high speed runs, and started throwing oil out of any gap it could find in the engine housing. We stopped at Windsor for lunch, which had the most traffic on the river we’d seen all holiday, due mostly to the trip boats. Dad had a quick walk around while I watched Steff Sculley getting married to Max Hoyland on Neighbours.

We did nearly all of the locks on our own, and made good progress. We just missed the lock keeper at Cookham, so it was time to turn the handles. For anyone that has not done Thames locks manually, out of hours it is possible to work them yourself. They are still hydraulic, but you have to provide the pumping by means of a handle on the side of the control panel. A lot of locks seem to be designed for user operation, but the electrics are normally only left on during lunch, or if the lock keeper is unavailable. I think it’s a ploy by the lock keepers to keep their jobs.

The engine was getting worse, and now seemed not to be able to produce as much power as it had managed before. An oil mist rose from it in plumes of blue smoke when it got hot, so we had to take it steady. Dad had a look at the air filter, and then removed it completely, soon after the engine started to run much better, and cooler.

We reached Marlow just as the sun set, and had no problems in finding space on the moorings below the lock, we were the only ones on it!

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Old tug called Atlas Water Intake above Bell Weir Lock Old Windsor Lock Windsor
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House on the Bridge at Windsor Shoestring at Windsor Windsor Castle M4 bridge
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Maidenhead Bridge Mock Tuder building at Maidenhead Boulters lock without the boats Boulters Lock, Maidenhead
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Cliveden House The river near Cookham Cookham Lock Handworking Cookham Lock
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Cookham Bridge Picturesque House on the Thames A Swan in the setting sunlight Silhouetted Trees at Marlow

Day 4, Tuesday 5th October 2004
Marlow to Sonning

I got up at about 8:45am, and so got ready noisily to get Dad up and about. I wanted to replace the fuel filter some time this holiday, so now seemed to be as good a time as any. Apart from Dad partially removing the filter, before I had time to get to the difficult to reach cut of valve, it went without a hitch. I could have sworn that there were two filters, but we could only find one. Later, I remember there was definitely one, and must have been taken out when two new fuel pipes had been fitted during it’s stay at Iver before I purchased it. We set off as a narrowboat, “Pluto” from Crick, had just passed us, so we shared the locks through this heavy locked section. They stopped at the sanitary station at Hurley lock, so we were on our own again. At Hambledon lock, another boat was just leaving as we approached so went straight in. As soon as I got a rope on the lock keeper shouted that he had to leave the lock to look after the weir, but we could work it ourselves. He said he would lift the top paddles, but for some reason didn’t before he left, so we had to do that as well. I noticed on the control panel, only the lockie could change the opposite end paddles, so we had to walk to the top panel to continue. We reached Henley at 1:15pm, and managed to get on the free two hour moorings just above the bridge at Singers Wharf. There we had lunch, and Dad went to walk around the town. Having lived at a campsite for a couple of months, I decided I’d seen enough of Henley not to be bothered. We set of at 3:15pm just after a short sharp shower, and caught up to a small tug and pan that had passed during the rain. We got caught in another short shower later in the day, but was dry otherwise. We stopped at a rather busy Sonning mooring site, furthest from the bridge. We sat down to watch a DVD (Close Encounters), but soon after the end of the film, the batteries went flat. They seemed to last all night, last night, but this was a lot shorter.

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Houses on the mill stream at Marlow Marlow Lock Riverside Cottage at Marlow Church and bridge at Marlow
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A House with built in ruins Control panel at Hambledon Lock Hambledon Lock self-op Temple Island
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Singers Wharf, Henley Henley bridge Boats at Henley Marsh Lock
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Actief Moorings at Sonning Sonning Lock The new Thames Water Building

Day 5, Wednesday 6th October 2004
Sonning to Beale Park, and back to Whitchurch

They were doing a lot of work on the lock cut just below Sonning lock, and we had to wait until a barge with a small crane came down the lock. We had a good run up to Reading, even if at times it was a bit windy, and cold. I tried to ring a friend of mine to see if he wanted to join us in a trip, but there was no answer. I’ll catch him on the way back. We reached Mapledurham in time for the lock keeper to go to lunch, so we had to work it ourselves, but since another boat was in the lock, each person only had to do a few turns.

We stopped above the lock, in what was shown as mooring on the Nicholsons, but turned out to be just a field with weeds growing at the sides. We tied up to a big wooden post at the edge of the river, and let the stern ground on the shallow river bed. At 2pm, we set off again, but turned to drop a load of rubbish at the last lock, which we forgot to do earlier. The lock keeper, now on duty opened the gates for us, not knowing what we were doing.

We reached Beale Park at 15:30pm, and just got moored up in time for a really good shower to pass over. Over the last two years, I’ve now done the whole river, so after a rest it was time to head back. We stopped below Whitchurch lock, on the edge of the national trust area, for the night.

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The remains of Pipers Island Journeys end at Beale Park Tall trees at Beale Park Pangbourne Meadow
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Clear night at Whitchurch Early Morning sun at Whitchurch Lock keepers hosue at Mapledurham Dredger/Workboat on the Thames above Reading
p>Day 6, Thursday 7th October 2004
Whitchurch to Sonning

I wanted to go up a bit of the Kennet while we were in Reading, and give my friend Mo a ride up and down a bit, but it was still 9:15am when we set off. We stopped at Reading Marine to pick up an air filter for the engine. We ordered it the day before, and they got it only a couple of hours afterwards. We passed a tug towing two big pans earlier, I thought I was going slow, but going anywhere would take them all day. Later we passed another barge with a crane on it, this one however was really moving. It had a large bolt on hydraulic power plant, but the skipper had to sit right next to it, and so needed ear defenders!

We needed to empty the elsan by the time we reached Reading, so we went to the Thames and Kennet marina, which has been recently moved from one gravel pit to another. Before Reading lock the prop also managed to get entangled with a teeshirt. It just would not come off, and really killed the already poor stopping ability of Shoestring.

We went back to the moorings at Tescos, and bought loads of stuff (again). Then we thought we would moor next to Reading Abbey due to it’s close proximity to the town. When we reached Blake’s Lock, we had to wait for another narrowboat to get their Thames licence, and come down the lock. While we were waiting another narrowboat came along. The lock keeper told us later that there had been four boats all day (including us), and we had to get two of them! Everything on this river has been in all at once, usually when you need it least.

We looked around Reading for the rest of the afternoon, and then went for a little trip up the Kennet to the next lock, through the Oracle shopping centre. We moored for the night above Sonning lock, but the TV signal was so poor, that we worked through the lock ourselves, and moored below the bridge where we knew it was good.

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Autumn leaves Autumn leaves Bel and the Dragon at Blakes Lock Blakes Lock wier
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New moorings at Blakes Lock, Reading Footbridge at Reading The Oracle shopping centre The Oracle shopping centre
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The Oracle shopping centre County Lock New Flats at Reading Evening mist
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A nosey swan Early morning sun Morning mist Another nice house
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