It was a long day on saturday, we got up at 3:45am and were standing at the end of a dimly lit alleyway in Rochester by 5:20am trying to spot Misterton in the dark. We were met by Alan Pratt, the tug skipper and by 6:30am we were away. The Thames estuary was rougher than I'd anticipated, with solid water coming over the front of the tug. At times all I could see of Misterton behind us was the wheelhouse, the rest was obscured by spray and water.
For a while it was pretty rough out there, I wondered if I'd feel sick, but I didn't. I was also worried about Mary, but she was smiling away as she sat in the corner of the tug' wheelhouse. Turned out she wasn't really sure about the conditions, but thought she'd just smile anyway. I knew my worries about being ill were unfounded when I managed to wolf down a fry up in the cabin below while we bounced around.
We got to see all the London landmark sights from the water, Dartford Bridge and the Barrier, both of which Mary's dad had worked on. Tower Bridge was good, friends Piran and Loretta were there and took these photographs.
Almost as big as HMS Belfast ;-)
We made it to Teddington by about 4:00pm and I think we all thought we only had a couple of hours to go. Alan phoned his wife to get her to come and pick him up from Staines, reckoning we'd be there in about 2 hours. Well, it took a bit longer than that, there were 5 locks in all, and the lockeepers went off duty at 5:00pm, so we had to do the last three ourselves or with other boaters. At one lock we met a gloomy chap who told us it would take 5 more hours to get to Staines (in fact, it took about 2) which was worrying Alan as his wife was already there waiting for us. Luckily, Claire, our landlady, found her and made her a cup of tea, so all was well.
Finally at about 7:30pm we tied up Misterton with the tug Nipashore alongside and we were home.