Goodbye Thames - Windsor to Brentford

It was interesting to chat to the Windsor bailiff while we were paying our second nights mooring fee. He seemed a reasonable guy, ultimately he was really a water parking officer who liked his job and hated mooring fee avoiders. Seems there are regular avoiders, he knows the boats! as well as visiting avoiders but he was on their trail too!

Windsor Castle grounds were extensive, as we passed by...and still passed by...and continued to pass by, all I could think of was that there was so much mooring space going to waste. Not to mention how neat and tidy the grounds were.

Staines was a pleasant little three hour run, we arrived in town before lunch. There was plenty of room on the visitor moorings just beyond the bridge but the ring spacing was very awkward so we chose the best configuration for one boat and breasted up. As it seems to be a regular occurrence, we locked up the boats and headed into town for a little shopping or in my case watching Rachael shop. She finally hunted down a hairdresser for a reasonable price, her last attempt was in Windsor, the price would have been laughable except the hairdresser was serious. Rachael booked a time and we found a nice little cafe to have a light lunch which filled in the time nicely.

Hampton Court was a must stay, we had planned an early arrival to secure a mooring. Some interesting features on the way down were the line of  houseboats, some were very extensive.

And, Pink Floyd's floating recording studio.

It was a good plan and working fine until we got to Molesey Lock. The lock had been closed for nearly six hours for repairs and they were still going. I chatted with the lockeeper and a log had gone through one of the rotten gate panels. They had a team of divers trying to fix the panel.

It was an hour and a half wait before we got through, only five minutes cruising down to the Hampton Court moorings. The moorings were full but fortunately a boat was about to leave which we pounced on, they had been waiting on the other side of the lock for the repairs to be done. There was still plenty of time to take a walk around and check out the 'lie of the land'. Hampton Court was a nice little village with three or four cafes to choose from for afternoon coffee and cake. We also checked out their breakfast menu in preparation for breakfast tomorrow morning, just for a change.

We managed a sleep in then there was an important job to do before heading back to Hampton Court Village for breakfast. I rang Teddington and Brentford lockeepers, check the tide times and book our passage through the lock tomorrow. The tide times turned out to be 0630 and 1900, not the times we were hoping for since we had olanned to leave from Hampton Court. We made a quick change around, we were going to head off to Teddington this afternoon and moor at the lock.

After a nice brekky of Eggs Benedict for each of us it was off to Hampton Court Palace for a look see. Big place and still in good repair, not sure why they needed a new one!

And one of the courtyards, there were several!

Rachael and I managed to tour much of the palace but agreed it was easily a two day job since we didn't get anywhere near the gardens. And, if Windsor Castle grounds are any indication of what to expect then they are probably extensive with not a blade of grass out of place.

We finished about 3:30pm and were back on the boat by 3:40pm. A quick chat with nb Dunslavin crew, Kevin and Carol and by 4pm we were off down to Teddington. I did see this interesting sun room on my way down.

We arrived at Teddington around 5pm and moored up. A quick chat with the narrow boat owner in front of us and he was heading to Brentford tonight, leaving at 6pm. A call to Brentford and the lockeeper was only too happy to accommodate two more boats, she was going to be there anyway!
Never having traveled on a tidal river before I was amazed how quickly the tide rose at Teddington, in less than an hour the water was at least two metres higher! Wow! The tide was still coming in when we left for Brentford and changed about half way there, it's a 90 minute trip. All of a sudden Serafina's performance picked up considerably. I didn't realise how much until I was turning into the Grand Union Canal and needed quite a lot of power to get the boat around and across to the entrance. We moored at Brentford visitor moorings for a well earned rest, it was a long day.