Good old Boaty McBoatface!

We're alive, and the new life-jackets are still untested.  It felt like a close thing, though.

Even though we weren't booked in till 1.30pm, we got up early to ask the Limehouse lock-keeper for advice on buoys, horn signals and so on.  We might as well have had a lie-in.  I don't know what we were expecting, but I think it was slightly more than "not ta worry, keep right, and try not to hit anyfing."

"You do know we're in a tiny plastic boat...?"

"Like I said, keep right, try not to hit anyfing."

In a way, the casualness was the most reassuring thing of all.

At 1.30 p.m sharp - maybe these lock-keepers aren't as casual as they seem - the gates to the lock opened, and in we went.

The Thames was several feet below and the lock emptied fast, then the gates were opening onto the river - with two feet still to go!  It was lucky we were roped on, otherwise we'd have shot out like a barrel over Niagara (well, that's how it felt), but we hung onto the ropes until the levels were more or less the same, then we were on our way.

It was bouncy from the start, but when the big boats passed it was INSANE.   I'd been intending to video the whole trip, but I gave up after less than two minutes on account of needing both hands to hold on.  I'm going to try to post it on Facebook, but the camerawork is very wobbly and the soundtrack is almost entirely nervous giggling.  In my defence, the waves were much bigger than they look...

Mike was wonderful - he seemed really calm and I actually believed him when he said everything was fine.  I only found out later that he'd been as scared as I was.

We went under Tower Bridge and past the Houses of Parliament, all very much faster than we wanted to on account of the tide.  The boat's top speed is only about  five knots, but we were easily doing twice that.  The sea really does come in fast;  you can see the flow piling up against the pillars of the bridges.  We did a couple of circles, just to check, and even on full throttle and rudder we still found ourselves a hundred yards upstream from where we'd started the turn;  it's phenomenally powerful.

Everything calmed down a bit after Charing Cross.  I took over the steering, which was lovely - and ironically the biggest waves I had to deal with were from an RNLI boat speeding past.  But by then we WANTED waves.  Boaty McBoatface might have bobbed around like a cork near Limehouse, but she didn't sink, we didn't fall in, and now we want more - in fact Mike is itching for me to finish this post so he can Google seagoing boats for sale.

But it was good to pass Hammersmith (where Nathan was born - more lovely memories from half a life ago) and then to reach Teddington Lock again, where we moored up for the night.  Couldn't sleep though - still too high about this amazing, wonderful day.  What a trip it was, and I'm so glad there's still a little bit more to go:  we're now on our way back to Reading where we'll join the Kennet and Avon Canal, heading for Devizes and then Bristol.

London was fab.