Summer 2013 - London Calling

We decided to take advantage of some extra time we had this summer and attend a barge rally in West India Docks in London. This was organised by the DBA (the barge association) and they had arranged a convoy from Teddington lock down the tideway. This gave us a sense of security as we know we are not that experienced and Misterton is pretty big and not that fast. We also decided to get a bit of extra help in the form of a couple of watermen as pilots. David and Paul both work on the river professionally and we felt would give us some useful advice and guidance as well as enable us to keep Nate amused during the trip. It turned out to be a wise investment.

We set off on Friday the 16th at about 0830 to catch the tide. There were 10 barges in total, making it worth using the 'big' lock at Teddington.

The weather wasn't great, but it was due to ease up later in the day. The trip was pretty uneventful initially, the river just seemed a bit bigger.

 There was lots to see and before long the bridges started to get more frequent as we got towards the center.

In terms of speed we seemed to be holding our own, although the engine was smoking a bit as it burned off excess carbon and oil. We passed the Battersea barge, the venue of our Wedding reception, David and Paul listened to our stories of the big day with commendable politeness.

 As we passed Westminster, the river traffic got much busier as between here and Tower Bridge is the most congested part of the river.

 Soon we were amongst the traffic and passing HMS Belfast, we suddenly seemed like a small fish in a big pond.

 It was quite a good feeling to pass beneath Tower Bridge under our own power, even if I was a bit anxious about the engine (which was fine by the way, despite being 70 years old).

 More famous landmarks were passed, including the Cutty Sark that I completely missed. The river became even wider here, but the main traffic was the Thames Clippers which are very fast - up to 30 knots (compared to our 5 knots....). Paul was able to relax and catch up on some texts on this stretch.

As the Millenium Dome came into view, we knew that our destination was not too far away.

 The entry to West India Dock looks easy, but Paul knew of various back eddies that can lurk there and he guided us in safely. It was this sort of knowledge that made us glad we'd opted for professional help, we learnt a lot.

 The lock was one of the deeper ones we'd been in, David volunteered to climb the steep ladder to put the stern line on, it was pretty dirty, but luckily he took it in his stride.

We'd been a little anxious about the rally itself, as we didn't know anyone from the DBA and weren't sure how we'd fit in, but everyone we met was very friendly and we had a great weekend. Nate was the star of the show and won a prize as the youngest attendee, which made us quite proud. All in all we met a lot of lovely people and our thanks goes out to the DBA team that organised it and gave us a focus for making the trip.

A lot of the other barges had bunting, we had none, but as a result were asked to fly the big DBA flag, it looked pretty good I must say. One thing that struck me was that as well as being the largest barge there, Misterton was the only one that still looked like a commercial vessel, which is something we've always wanted to achieve. I think we were the only 'British' barge, in the sense of being a ex-working vessel from the UK. No prizes for that though, so we'll have to be content with having a beautiful son.

The trip back on Tuesday after the weekend was with Paul only, but was straightforward and we were at Teddington by mid-afternoon. It was a great trip, and many times we were thankful to have had David and Paul there to help, as it reduced the stress considerably. We're aware that we are relatively inexperienced and that Misterton is large, heavy and not too powerful. The trip has given us more confidence in our ship and also in ourselves, which is all I'd hoped for.

Comments

[Bob]

Another excellent post!