Date - 16/05/08 Day - Friday Start - 1045 Brentford Basin End - 1600 Desborough
The mooring in the basin was fine and quite quiet. This morning we went to the BW office to tell them about the shopping trollies in Norwood Lock and while we were there I spotted a notice offering "Free" pumpouts. so we winded, took them up on their offer and had a pump out, then winded again ready to go down onto the Thames. Once the life ring was on the roof and the anchor on the fore deck we were ready to go. The gauging locks are automated requiring the use of a BW key key to first access the lock island and then operate the lock mechanism, it was then off down to Thames lock to wait for our 11.15 am departure. Spot on time the gates opened and we were away up the Thames. It was an overcast morning with little traffic about but shortly before Richmond we were overtaken by a dredger. Thank goodness he slowed down while passing us, watching him come up behind us he pushed a large wall of water with a high breaking wash following him. We had to wait at Teddington lock for a boat to come out and then we were up by ourselves at 1 pm.. There is a lot of work going on at the lock with one chamber being blanked off for refurbishment and the chamber in use has suffered an electrical failure and was closing for the afternoon and early evening for emergency repairs. I only wanted a 5 day licence for the Thames but it was £15 cheeper at £115 to have a 15 day licence, 10 days of which I shall waste. We carried on upstream for a couple of locks mooring for the night behind Desborough island quite close to the top end of Desborough Cut. -- Brian <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Join SOW and help save our waterways http://www.saveourwaterways.org
