The Club Tidal Trip was a great success judging by the comments I’ve heard from members.
Sunday 13th JuneMonday 14th June14 Boats rendezvoused at Hampton Court and after a few Do’s and Don’ts set off to go through Teddington Lock a couple of hours before high water. I must say it did look impressive with our club boats taking up over half of the big barge lock! Apart from one incident with an anchor falling overboard and another with a suspected overheating engine, we all arrived safely at Limehouse Basin at about 1700 hours that evening. After a quick shower it was everyone over to the clubhouse for a pint and some food. The intention then was to hold a briefing on the next days schedule but, as with all best laid plans it was not to be! We had a party instead!! The briefing had to be held next morning when everyone’s head had cleared!
Tuesday 15th JuneThe fleet left Limehouse at about 1300 hours heading for Gillingham Marina in the River Medway where we had again arranged for a meal in the club house on arrival. I think most of us were a bit tired by the time we got into the marina as it was about a 7 hour trip and due to the unfavourable tide times, we had to wait outside the lock for some time until there was enough water for us to enter! Once again it was a fairly uneventful trip apart from escorting a member of the Weybridge Mariners Club (who had lost all his electric’s and had a suspected engine fire!) And Doug on Adventurer having some gremlins in the engine room!
Wednesday 16th JuneA lazy day ending in a B.B.Q at a riverside spot about half a mile from the Marina on the opposite side of the river. Roy on Baglady kindly ferried us all to the beach. The B.B.Q was organised by John and Jean (Malian) who are members of a sailing club there. (Many thanks to both of them for their hard work cooking all that grub and especially for driving everyone back to the marina afterwards)
. Thursday 17th JuneAn early start (0430 hours) saw the fleet locking out of Gillingham Marina and heading back up river to South Dock. All went well until Andara had an engine problem and Sandringham collected a rope around his prop both at the same time. That caused a flurry of activity among the escorts! All turned out OK in the end with Sandringham being towed back to South Dock where we managed to cut the rope off and Andara proving to be a false alarm
All boats locked of South Dock Marina and headed back up to Teddington where the fleet split up, some spending the night at Hampton Court and others continuing towards home. All in all everybody seemed to enjoy the experience which was made even better by the excellent weather and above all the calm sea conditions.
