13 Jun 2021

This journey required good weather and as the trip grew closer so the forecasts continued to improve the only risk now… was it going to be too hot?

We arrived in Gravesend for a pre-paddle recce and the obligatory stop at Macdonalds. Luckily this wasn’t too far away from the proposed get in at the rowing club. There was a bunch of athletic youths at the rowing club preparing for their Sunday morning outing. We had a little chat with them and they did suggest that we might like to try The Greasy Spoon Café as alternative to Macky D: “they serve a super full English”. We thanked them for their nutritional advice.

Tilbury low tide was at 09:39 and consistent with our plan, call sign “Kayak Group 6” was on the water ready to go, having overcome the mud hazard with the use of the 60m wooden jetty which had a very convenient set of steps to take us down into the river. We tuned into London VTS on the VHF channel 68, as we embarked on the 70km trip we had the last remains of the ebb to overcome. The river was remarkably flat and calm with no other river traffic except the rowers.

We progressed along this very industrial part of the river, the economic significance of this waterway was quite apparent, the huge cranes lifting off container at Tilbury dock, the massive Ford motor plant which took probably 10mins to paddle past its river frontage with 2 large roll on ships loaded with vans for export.

In sight, and indeed earshot, was the Queen Elizabeth II road bridge. Our chief navigator pointed out that if we were to have success in reaching our destination we should be passing under this feature at 10:48 which we duly did. Meanwhile there was duel going on; a 343 litre kayak was challenging a 34,380 tonne bulk carrier for river space.

Crayford Ness marked the point to switch to VHF channel 14 for London VTS information and also the opportunity for a comfort break on some slippery rocks.

We negotiated our way past Dame Vera Lyn Ferry at Woolwich. This stretch of the river was becoming much more populated with river traffic a combination of Clipper River buses, fast commercial tour ribs and a few other leisure craft. The wash of these vessels combined with the now walled banks of the Thames created more turbulence and clapotis (from the French “lapping of water”) nothing that presented too much of problem for our flotilla however.

At the Thames Tidal Barrier the group radio operator had some trouble with comms, but finally gained permission from the now irate VTS controller to pass the barrier. “Use G span” he ordered. In the absence of a marker, the group stuggled to identify G Span. Why he didn’t say pass through the gap indicated between the large green arrows in the first place is beyond me.

We reached the half way point at Poplar rowing club, the river was still filling with the flood so this gave us ample time to enjoy lunch in the sun on the sandy beach of the slipway. This leg of 33.95 km had taken 4:53 to complete.

Departure at slack water was at 16:21. We had tide and river flow on our side now and manage to complete the return journey in just over 4 hours.

Jon Miles