A rude awakening

Wednesday, 29 June 2011 15:48

Probably the largest craft on this part of the River Thames are the trip boats from Salters Steamers.

Because of their size they make a pretty large wake which lingers long after they have gone ......

We have been passed by larger craft on other rivers and never had the experience we had last night.

Humber Princess passing on River Don, South Yorkshire Navigations

At 3 am we were rudely awakened by a large thump, Epiphany tilted alarmingly and all the drawers shot open. A little befuddled we shot out of bed to look out of the porthole. Nothing to be seen but a receding headlight downstream and lots of "after waves". The water had been taken from under us and then we were left rolling by a VERY fast (5mph is the speed limit) large craft. It was frightening and potentially dangerous. Why move a boat at that time anyway?

This Salters Steamer turned by us at Wargrave - with a bit of consideration!

There seemed to be no damage apart from to our nerves and we crept back to bed. Only for me to say "do you think we should check the ropes?. John did and our bow spike had been pulled out and was hanging in the river. So there we were at 3 am, in our night clothes, me on the back deck and John hammering in the spike at the front with the headlight and a torch to guide him!

It was a good job we checked - otherwise we could have drifted into the stream, only held by our stern pin, which had been loosened. I will leave the rest to your imagination. Eventually I went back to sleep, John beat me to it though. In the morning another boater knocked. He said it was a Salters Steamer and that due to the speed and wake of the boat his narrowboat had been damaged when he hit the boat in front of him. He was going to complain to Salters and the EA and so we sent an email to them both too. I will let you know if there is any reply!

So to happier times - look who came down the river this morning

Barney is on the back too

As we have invited Geoff and Gill to supper tonight we expected to see them again after they had been down to Mapledurham Lock for the elsan there. As we had to re-moor anyway (due to our emergency mooring in the early hours) we turned around and moored ahead of our mooring for the last few days. Barney could then get off Petroc easily and enjoy his "garden".

This is our new view from the bows

I am keeping photographic record of the variety of craft we see on the River Thames. Some of them are lovely and consdierate of moored boats. This one slipped past us around lunch time.

Seeing three of these beautiful birds above us also made my day!

Red Kite

Tomorrow we are off downstream again to see what we can see ....