By 9,30 am we were off. Over breakfast I'd figured out the tide times - we thought that even though we'd not booked, it might be worth getting to Teddington incase we could go out on the evening high tide. You are supposed to book Brentford Lock out of hours, but we know from experience that this isn't always the case.
I steered for most of the day - including hair raising boating through lots of kids in sailing dinghies at Sunbury, two of which managed to crash right infront of me.
We arrived at Teddington before 4pm, I went to see the lockie and he said we could go onto the tideway at 5.30pm. We were at the back of the queue so when our turn came, the lock was already full, so he put us in the super huge barge lock instead, with a trip boat. I was a bit dissappointed that they used the middle gates (instead of the end ones) to save water, but at least we can say we went through the barge lock!
Once onto the tideway, it started to pour down. We've not been on the River when the tide is high - it really does get high, swallowing the end of peoples gardens, the bottoms of roads and leaving park benches knee deep. And the rubbish! Quite a shock to see bin bags and bike wheels after the super clean non tidal reaches!
Bu the time we turned for Brentford Lock we were freezing cold. I made tea while we queued for the Thames Lock.
Once in Brentford, we rafted up - really busy here - no room! But we made it! Hanwell flight tomorrow!
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