We rose early as our Teddington Lock booking was for 7am.
Eric had plugged in the VHS radio and erected the aerial, to comply with the Port of London Authority (PLA) bylaws
And off we set
We were sharing the lock with 2 other boats, also going to Brentford. And as they had both done the journey before, were happy to take the lead and keep us in view.
Teddington Lock is actually a triple lock system, the “great” lock or barge lock accommodates the largest boats such as the floating gin palaces, the launch lock for the little boats like Firecrest and the skiff lock, which is a tiny narrow affair for the rowers. Although there are lockies on duty 24/7, they hold back the majority of boats until the tide is high and turning so that we are carried with the down stream flow instead of fighting against it. Hence the need to book our passage. Because we were being given safety instructions, I forgot to take many photos, and because the tide was high, it was more like going through a 6 inch stop lock than the colossal deep trench that we had seen the evening before.
Soon we were on our way, unfortunately the weather was not obliging with the view, and we can only imagine what Ham house up on its hill ought to have looked like.
We soon approached Richmond Bridge
And then Richmond half tide lock. This is a barrage lock that manages tidal river levels, you can pass under the designated arch freely 2 hours either side of high tide, at other times, you have to pay a fee to use the manned lock.
We duly went under the arch and continued speeding downstream. The journey from Teddington to Brentford is about 5 miles, and it had taken us an hour. To put it in perspective, on the canals we travel at roughly 2.5miles per hour. The london skyline was now visible, but we also saw our lead boat turning left.
And the glint of the stainless steel sculpture known as Liquidity that was our marker point to guide us back onto the Grand Union Canal
Its quite a tricky manouver to take a narrowboat across the river which has both a downstream and a tidal flow to compete against, but Eric put full throttle on and Firecrest behaved beautifully. We didnt overshoot or get swept downstream backwards. But oh what a difference, from a flowing river that was easily 100m wide, to a much narrower channel, which at this point is still tidal, and into Thames Lock 101. Thames lock also needs to be booked to accommodate the tide levels.
And then we were here, back onto the canal system, goodbye Enviroment agency, hello CRT, hello duckweed, hand cranked locks and urban jellyfish (aka plastic bags and other detritus)
