Report & Pix From St Katherines Dock
Our Journey up the Thames and arrival at St Katharine’s Dock 9.11.06
We have reached our home for the next 6 months - LONDON!!! We arrived at St Katherine’s Dock Marina at around 3pm Thursday 9 November!!
We anchored overnight on the Wednesday night at a place called Sheerness after a 24 hour passage from Cowes in the Isle of Wight and we left at 7.00am in the morning for our journey towards London.
It was an incredible 45 mile journey up the River Thames and we have some great photos of AC on the last past of the journey taken by Megan Bonetti (partner, lover of Seally on board ) who is a Lawyer at Clifford Chance which are resident on the 27th floor of their building at Canary Wharf. So once we reached the flood gates she could see us. Apparently our arrival caused much interest amongst her colleagues in the firm and she managed to take photos from just about every office on the floor – all 100 plus of them which she delivered printed copies to our boat around 5.30pm. What a treat for us to have some of AC while we are in transit.
We were boarded by the Police at one stage, whilst underway – to check out our credentials! We would like to think of it as a Police Escort up the Thames - what a welcome!
The Lock at St Katharine’s did not open until 2.10pm and we finally went through at 3pm. As we arrived a little early, at just after 1.00pm, we filled our waiting time quietly motoring around, popped a couple of bottles of champagne and took some photos of us against the backdrop of the Tower Bridge – still unbelievable that we are here in London!!!
Another of our friends, John Stewart, was on the dock to greet us and after a few drinks (many) we all wandered up to the Dickens Inn for drinks and then next door to a great Indian Restaurant – delicious!
Gosh this day will certainly be an everlasting highlight (along with our arrival in New York and the Panama Canal) however the fact that we are finally in Europe, our destination, and in London, makes it all that much more special.
You should see our position at St Katharine’s – we are so lucky – docked in the central basin of the marina with about 8 other large boats – right outside a lovely 18th century building housed with many shops, restaurants etc plus a Starbucks! But I can assure you our coffee is better on board! Then just a little 2 minute walk to the famous Dickens Inn Pub (our friend Craig Whale said in an email to us recently – great Clubrooms) and more restaurants. There is also a four star hotel in one corner which look very nice too.
The last time we were at St Katherine’s Dock was about 9 years ago where we had lunch at the pub, with Megan and Seally (New Zealanders who have lived in London for the last 13 years) at the Dickens Inn pub on the Dock. I remember it so vividly as if is was yesterday and thought would it be amazing to stay here in a boat – not ever thinking we would do exactly that!
Since our arrival in England on the 28th of last month we have spent 2 two days in Falmouth where we arrived, 6 days in Dartmouth, 2 days at Cowes on the Isle of Wight and 2 nights and 4 days at sea getting to London!!
We enjoyed Falmouth, a very attractive village and it was perfect place to have our first couple of days on land to rest up, fuel, provision and take in a couple of bars celebrating our arrival!
Then we headed off to Dartmouth to meet up with Matt Clarke our friend from Cosmic Girl. We arrived at night, however the channel was well marked and the lights from nearby buildings provided us some welcoming light coming up the River. However the first sighting of a well lit building was the Dart Castle, build in the 1480’s and was originally used to protect the River entrance by putting a chain across from bank to bank – a truly impressive sight at night!!
Matt and his father, John who met us on our arrival, had arranged for us to tie up on the pontoon outside the Royal Dart Yacht Club overnight before moving in the morning to the Darthaven Yacht Club.
Dartmouth is where the Britannia Royal Naval College is located which provides a great backdrop to the village.
Matt arrived back from his weekend in London on Monday and Lorraine, our dear friend (otherwise known as Doris from Hawkes Bay) and her business partner, Sandra, arrived on Tuesday to spend a couple of days with us before heading back to London.
In those two short days we had a lovely time catching up and taking in two great pub lunches. At Matt’s suggestion Wednesday, we all went by dinghy 4 miles up the river to a little pub called the ‘FBI’ (Ferry Boat Inn) in Dittisham. On the way we passed a boat house where Agatha Christie wrote some tales!! What a fantastic little pub, the FBI, on the water front – just a hop, skip and a jump (thankfully) from where we parked our dinghy. The people who ran the place were so welcoming; Debbie, the Cook and her Husband joined us. We ended up all sitting down having a drink and a chat at the end of lunch.
Thursday was exploring the Village and lunching at The Royal Castle Hotel, which was a very famous Coaching Inn dating back to the 1400’s!!
We left Dartmouth on Saturday accompanied with Matt and Seally (who had travelled down from London to join us) headed for Cowes. A pleasant trip motoring arriving Cowes on Sunday around midday. We enjoyed having a crew and they were great company. Matt of course being a Captain on his boat was a great assistant to Terry with navigation which was a tremendous help on this busy channel, especially around Dover and Seally who would take a hand to everything else and became obsessed to prefect the art of making ‘flat whites’ on our espresso machine – gosh he did it well too! A great experience for him as he intends to buy his own boat back in NZ in the future.
We spent two days in Cowes including taking in the Rugby game between the All Blacks and England – good to see we can kick butt – again! But hope we haven’t peeked too early?????
We are looking forward to setting up home in St Katherine’s and exploring London and spending time with friends. We are looking forward to Murray and Lesley joining us n December and spending with New Year with them along with friends Carol Ann and Thomas (Atlanta Georgia) who are renewing their wedding vows at a Scottish Castle near Inverness on New Years Eve – otherwise known as Hogmanay!!! And of course some other of our friends have said they will visit us whilst we are here – we are so looking forward to that.
Our first New Zealand visitor in London, friend Errol McKenzie, arrived yesterday to have lunch with us. We went to meet with Megan in the Canary Wharf are at an amazing pub/restaurant call the ‘Gun’ situated right on the Thames – in fact we passed it coming up! Although it was a wee bit cold we sat on the terrace and enjoyed a delicious lunch. As luck would have it, a Naval aircraft carrier – HMS Illustrious - came up the river and was turned by pilot boat exactly in front of the restaurant, ready to berth in full array of pageantry – bagpipes included! What a special sight!
Afterwards we went to catch up with Megan at her office and meet all those colleagues that had been part of our journey (unbeknown to us of course) up the Thames on Thursday.
The last ten days we have been settling in and getting to know the surrounding area. We are lucky to have a great supermarket only 3 minutes walk away and a good hairdresser for me that is close by. We have been buying heaters and getting ourselves prepared for the cold months ahead. We have even bought an electric blanket for our guest cabin - we want to ensure our guest's are cosy!!
We are doing loads of walking and enjoying this immensely! London has a fantastic transport system with buses and trains so as long as there are no mishaps it is a great and efficient way of getting around quickly!
Of course we are continuing to socialise and have enjoyed a dinner out with Seally and Megan in Notting Hill near where they live last Thursday. The this pass weekend was spent with friends Faye and John at their home in Brentford. They treated us to a couple of dinners at their local restaurants – both the food and atmosphere were excellent – a very pleasant and relaxing weekend excursion! So already we are in the swing of London life and so special to have some great friends here making us feel immediately at home!
Please keep in touch and meantime will endeavour to keep you posted of our time in London.
Thank you all for your wonderful messages of congratulations and commendations – we are so grateful and humbled! We are feeling relaxed, relieved and excited all at once! Now it is time for celebration and looking forward to our next phase of our adventure – living in London!
Lots of Love
The Jolly Rogers
On board Alpha Crucis at St Katharine's Dock, London.
Blog - http://alphacrucis.blogspot.com
UK cell : +44 778 7793398
Skype address - tlrogers
We have reached our home for the next 6 months - LONDON!!! We arrived at St Katherine’s Dock Marina at around 3pm Thursday 9 November!!
We anchored overnight on the Wednesday night at a place called Sheerness after a 24 hour passage from Cowes in the Isle of Wight and we left at 7.00am in the morning for our journey towards London.
It was an incredible 45 mile journey up the River Thames and we have some great photos of AC on the last past of the journey taken by Megan Bonetti (partner, lover of Seally on board ) who is a Lawyer at Clifford Chance which are resident on the 27th floor of their building at Canary Wharf. So once we reached the flood gates she could see us. Apparently our arrival caused much interest amongst her colleagues in the firm and she managed to take photos from just about every office on the floor – all 100 plus of them which she delivered printed copies to our boat around 5.30pm. What a treat for us to have some of AC while we are in transit.
We were boarded by the Police at one stage, whilst underway – to check out our credentials! We would like to think of it as a Police Escort up the Thames - what a welcome!
The Lock at St Katharine’s did not open until 2.10pm and we finally went through at 3pm. As we arrived a little early, at just after 1.00pm, we filled our waiting time quietly motoring around, popped a couple of bottles of champagne and took some photos of us against the backdrop of the Tower Bridge – still unbelievable that we are here in London!!!
Another of our friends, John Stewart, was on the dock to greet us and after a few drinks (many) we all wandered up to the Dickens Inn for drinks and then next door to a great Indian Restaurant – delicious!
Gosh this day will certainly be an everlasting highlight (along with our arrival in New York and the Panama Canal) however the fact that we are finally in Europe, our destination, and in London, makes it all that much more special.
You should see our position at St Katharine’s – we are so lucky – docked in the central basin of the marina with about 8 other large boats – right outside a lovely 18th century building housed with many shops, restaurants etc plus a Starbucks! But I can assure you our coffee is better on board! Then just a little 2 minute walk to the famous Dickens Inn Pub (our friend Craig Whale said in an email to us recently – great Clubrooms) and more restaurants. There is also a four star hotel in one corner which look very nice too.
The last time we were at St Katherine’s Dock was about 9 years ago where we had lunch at the pub, with Megan and Seally (New Zealanders who have lived in London for the last 13 years) at the Dickens Inn pub on the Dock. I remember it so vividly as if is was yesterday and thought would it be amazing to stay here in a boat – not ever thinking we would do exactly that!
Since our arrival in England on the 28th of last month we have spent 2 two days in Falmouth where we arrived, 6 days in Dartmouth, 2 days at Cowes on the Isle of Wight and 2 nights and 4 days at sea getting to London!!
We enjoyed Falmouth, a very attractive village and it was perfect place to have our first couple of days on land to rest up, fuel, provision and take in a couple of bars celebrating our arrival!
Then we headed off to Dartmouth to meet up with Matt Clarke our friend from Cosmic Girl. We arrived at night, however the channel was well marked and the lights from nearby buildings provided us some welcoming light coming up the River. However the first sighting of a well lit building was the Dart Castle, build in the 1480’s and was originally used to protect the River entrance by putting a chain across from bank to bank – a truly impressive sight at night!!
Matt and his father, John who met us on our arrival, had arranged for us to tie up on the pontoon outside the Royal Dart Yacht Club overnight before moving in the morning to the Darthaven Yacht Club.
Dartmouth is where the Britannia Royal Naval College is located which provides a great backdrop to the village.
Matt arrived back from his weekend in London on Monday and Lorraine, our dear friend (otherwise known as Doris from Hawkes Bay) and her business partner, Sandra, arrived on Tuesday to spend a couple of days with us before heading back to London.
In those two short days we had a lovely time catching up and taking in two great pub lunches. At Matt’s suggestion Wednesday, we all went by dinghy 4 miles up the river to a little pub called the ‘FBI’ (Ferry Boat Inn) in Dittisham. On the way we passed a boat house where Agatha Christie wrote some tales!! What a fantastic little pub, the FBI, on the water front – just a hop, skip and a jump (thankfully) from where we parked our dinghy. The people who ran the place were so welcoming; Debbie, the Cook and her Husband joined us. We ended up all sitting down having a drink and a chat at the end of lunch.
Thursday was exploring the Village and lunching at The Royal Castle Hotel, which was a very famous Coaching Inn dating back to the 1400’s!!
We left Dartmouth on Saturday accompanied with Matt and Seally (who had travelled down from London to join us) headed for Cowes. A pleasant trip motoring arriving Cowes on Sunday around midday. We enjoyed having a crew and they were great company. Matt of course being a Captain on his boat was a great assistant to Terry with navigation which was a tremendous help on this busy channel, especially around Dover and Seally who would take a hand to everything else and became obsessed to prefect the art of making ‘flat whites’ on our espresso machine – gosh he did it well too! A great experience for him as he intends to buy his own boat back in NZ in the future.
We spent two days in Cowes including taking in the Rugby game between the All Blacks and England – good to see we can kick butt – again! But hope we haven’t peeked too early?????
We are looking forward to setting up home in St Katherine’s and exploring London and spending time with friends. We are looking forward to Murray and Lesley joining us n December and spending with New Year with them along with friends Carol Ann and Thomas (Atlanta Georgia) who are renewing their wedding vows at a Scottish Castle near Inverness on New Years Eve – otherwise known as Hogmanay!!! And of course some other of our friends have said they will visit us whilst we are here – we are so looking forward to that.
Our first New Zealand visitor in London, friend Errol McKenzie, arrived yesterday to have lunch with us. We went to meet with Megan in the Canary Wharf are at an amazing pub/restaurant call the ‘Gun’ situated right on the Thames – in fact we passed it coming up! Although it was a wee bit cold we sat on the terrace and enjoyed a delicious lunch. As luck would have it, a Naval aircraft carrier – HMS Illustrious - came up the river and was turned by pilot boat exactly in front of the restaurant, ready to berth in full array of pageantry – bagpipes included! What a special sight!
Afterwards we went to catch up with Megan at her office and meet all those colleagues that had been part of our journey (unbeknown to us of course) up the Thames on Thursday.
The last ten days we have been settling in and getting to know the surrounding area. We are lucky to have a great supermarket only 3 minutes walk away and a good hairdresser for me that is close by. We have been buying heaters and getting ourselves prepared for the cold months ahead. We have even bought an electric blanket for our guest cabin - we want to ensure our guest's are cosy!!
We are doing loads of walking and enjoying this immensely! London has a fantastic transport system with buses and trains so as long as there are no mishaps it is a great and efficient way of getting around quickly!
Of course we are continuing to socialise and have enjoyed a dinner out with Seally and Megan in Notting Hill near where they live last Thursday. The this pass weekend was spent with friends Faye and John at their home in Brentford. They treated us to a couple of dinners at their local restaurants – both the food and atmosphere were excellent – a very pleasant and relaxing weekend excursion! So already we are in the swing of London life and so special to have some great friends here making us feel immediately at home!
Please keep in touch and meantime will endeavour to keep you posted of our time in London.
Thank you all for your wonderful messages of congratulations and commendations – we are so grateful and humbled! We are feeling relaxed, relieved and excited all at once! Now it is time for celebration and looking forward to our next phase of our adventure – living in London!
Lots of Love
The Jolly Rogers
On board Alpha Crucis at St Katharine's Dock, London.
Blog - http://alphacrucis.blogspot.com
UK cell : +44 778 7793398
Skype address - tlrogers
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