As regular readers of this column will know, I’ve written a number of times about the problems of illegal fishing on the Thames and its tributaries in our area – and despite increased vigilance from the Environment Agency, it has clearly not gone away.
Recent developments
Keep a clean licence
Huzzah! At long last the wintry weather seems to be loosening its grip on us. The clocks have sprung forward and the temperature is heading up towards more sensible levels – and that means that for most boat owners the time is rapidly approaching when we can get our charges back in the water and start enjoying life afloat once more.
Be snap happy this spring
At last, it’s starting to get a bit warmer and those endless grey, dreary days appear to have given way to bright spring mornings and lighter evenings.
Ignoring red boards could even be fatal
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote in this column about the rowing four which wrapped itself around one of the stanchions below Walton Bridge and was quickly turned into matchwood by the fast-flowing stream.
An almost fatal lesson
You sometimes wonder what goes on in people’s heads, don’t you? You probably read in last week’s Herald and News about the youngsters whose rowing four crashed into Walton Bridge throwing its crew into the water and totally wrecking the boat.
Stocking-fillers for skippers, from a tenner to half a mil
For all those suffering the annual problem of what to put underneath the tree for their boat-obsessed other halves, here are some suggestions – some to be taken more seriously than others…
Why a floating house is good for the head (and toasty warm)
“Doesn’t it get terribly cold in the winter?” That was my first question to Pamela and Edward Burrell aboard their beautiful old Dutch barge, Angelus, when I went to their mooring at Sunbury to talk to them about living on the river.
Old salt lends sea cadets a hand as they struggle to keep HQ shipshape and dry
I’m always delighted to hear about the hard work put in by volunteers aimed at helping youngsters make the most of their free time. So it was with a great deal of pleasure that I attended the official unveiling of a new roof for the premises housing Sunbury and Walton Sea Cadets on the banks of the Thames next to Shepperton Marina recently.
No little act of bravery
As ceremonies take place in many countries to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the start of the Second World War, we have our own opportunity to pay tribute to acts of extreme bravery when the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships (ADLS) stages its annual veterans’ cruise up the Thames from Kingston to Weybridge on Sunday, September 13.
A marine makeover
When Nicky and David Prior bought the Bridge Marine boatyard in June 1984, it was a rundown wreck of a place.