I should plan further ahead. Getting on the Thames from the GU at this time of year can be difficult. We've been planning to spend a few days on the mighty river to get the benefit of our Gold licenceand I should have checked tides earlier because now we're quite restricted.
You see the problem is that you have to go up from Brentford to Teddington on the last of the rising tide, and when you return it has to be on the beginning of the falling tide. So you get about an hour twice a day to do these things. "What's wrong with that ?", you may ask. Well now the days are getting shorter, the right tide times are more often than not in the hours of darkness, and there's no way we're taking Herbie up the tidal river in the dark.
Were looking for a time to go out and a time to return on daylight high tides with about a ten day gap, and the choices are very very few. The longer we leave it the worse the problem gets as the nights draw in, especially at the end of October when BST finishes.
HERBIE! Journeys on our narrowboat and the trials and tribulations of maintaining her.
3 comments:
Hmm, Neil may I ask why these times are so critical? I know that it's good policy to leave in the couple of hours before high tide, but is it essential? I can imagine it's easy to get stuck at low tide too, but I'd have thought there was quite a window of opportunity there too for a narrowboat. There are obviously things I don't know about the Thames, so I thought I'd risk asking a possibly silly question....
Wouldn't that link from the Slough Arm direct to the no-tidal Thames be useful at this time of year....
The increasingly rationed daylight does put a crimp in the cruising plans - even on the canals :-)
Sue, Indigo Dream
I had exactly that problem, and hastened my journey down the Thames to get an early evening pre-dusk slot, if I'd missed that I would have had to wait a few days before the early tide got late enough, if that makes sense...
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