PicoMicroYacht Back in Action and Exploring the London Waterways

20th April 2021

With the lockdown restrictions reducing, PicoMicroYacht is back in action. Over the next Bank Holiday in the UK, PicoMicroYacht will explore the canals of London for four days.

There is a blog which describes the background to this, including fundraising for a charity called CASPA - see the link:

https://picomicroyacht-in-london.blogspot.com/

To start this adventure, PicoMicroYacht went though the centre of London on the Thames, from Greenwich to Putney on 20th April 2021.

It was a calm day with a neap tide, making the voyage safer.

As I looked back, I could see the traffic lights of the Thames Barrier.

Round the corner was the O2, still closed, but due to open up next month.

I rowed gently to conserve energy for the 15 mile journey. Soon I was seeing the buildings of Canary Wharf, the West India Lock in the foreground.

The Thames round here is very built up, but there is still some character, for example, the garden of this house I passed.

It seemed no time at all that I had gone through Tower Bridge.

Further on the police started to take an interest in me and circled around from a distance. Eventually came along side to quiz me about my intentions. I took a discrete photograph of their launch.

I passed the London lifeboat station, reminding me of the dangers of the river, mainly for pedestrians,  who fall in. The lifeboat crews are on permanent standby to react immediately.

I went quite close to the Houses of Parliament and saw some guards with the guns at the ready, but partly hidden.

Having passed through the centre, I was feeling hungry and saw a Waitrose Store by the side of the river. There was a convenient beach and ladder. However, when I got the top of the ladder I realised it was sloping outwards away from the river wall, making it unsafe to continue. I peered over the top and then went back down. Onlookers were surprised to see my face momentarily.

Further upstream, I was pleased to reach the magnificent Putney Bridge and my finishing point.

London Rowing Club came into view, a crew getting ready for their outing.

The voyage had taken just over four hours, at an average speed of about 3.75 miles per hour.