We had planned to start our voyage up the Thames today, and despite gale warnings in nearly all sea areas and a forecast of hurricane strength winds from www.onlineweather.com, we decided that in the safety of the city, we could make our passage up to Teddington. The 21 mile passage is normally made with a rising tide, timed to allow sufficient air draught under the low Hammersmith bridge, whilst still keeping enough draught at the shallow Chiswick Bridge. Combined with this, Richmond bridge is only open two hours either side of high tide, so to avoid having to use the lock we needed to time the passage carefully.

Once through Teddington we were looking for suitable moorings for the night, and although the new pontoons at Queens Promenade in Kingston Upon Thames looked inviting, when we approached we found insufficient depth. We were hoping to moor at the encouragingly named "Boaters Inn" but the Thames policy of no overnight stays at pub moorings put us off - not something we understood from our experience on the Broads.

Instead we took our chances with the long term houseboats on the Hampton Wick Wharf - and it was out with the mooring pins and hammer for the first time this year.

Cruising Statistics

Distance: 20 nm

Total to date: 285 nm

Avg Speed: 4.7 knots

Duration: 4:15 hours

Diesel: 100 litres (est)

Wind: SW 5-6

Mooring: Free

Electricity: N/A

Locks

Limehouse

Teddington

Bridges

Tower 30'

London 25'6

Canon St 24'11

Southwark 25'6

Blackfriars rail 24'6

Blackfriars 24'1

Waterloo 28'6

Charing Cross 24'9

Westminster 19'6

Lambeth 22'6

Vauxhall 20'4

Victoria 21'5

Chelsea 24'

Albert 19'11

Battersea 22'

Wandsworth 21'

Fulham 24'5

Putney 20'

Hammersmith 15'

Barnes 20'2

Chiswick 25'

Kew railway 20'5

Kew road 20'

Twickenham 22'6

Richmond rail 20'8

Richmond road 19'10

Teddington 18'4

Kingston 23'11