Before Westminster Bridge, we were overtaken by a police launch, racing up-river, followed and overtaken in its turn by a police inflatable, which kicked up an enormous wash, chucking us about quite a bit. A few minutes later they came back down river at a more sedate pace - with an ominous black bag tied alongside - another poor soul who had finally given up the struggle.
After the bridge, a convoy of five LARGE cabin cruisers came down on the opposite side of the river. As the wake of each approached, we turned to cross it at right angles, since these waves were also large. By the time we reached the wake of the last but one, we were on the opposite side of the river ourselves! So we had to signal to the last of them that we would pass him on the "wrong" side", which information and manoeuvre he gaily took in his stride, clearly seeing that we were suffering a "little" from these large and steep waves! Being light and only 30 feet long, we were more or less mountaineering up and down them! Looking steeply DOWN from the stern to the bow, and then again steeply UP to it was a very odd experience. Fortunately our freeboard is high, and the bow lifted easily to each wave as it came, throwing the water well to each side, none at all coming aboard. It might have been a little different (and wet!) in a boat with a finer bow, and less freeboard.
The ruins of Battersea Power Station.
A short way before Richmond, a very strong wind sprung up, and drove solid rain at us for a few minutes, soaking us right through, and making visibility and boat handling extremely difficult, as there was an island mid-river, with boats moored around it, both hard to see, and to miss! In all this weather there had been plenty of racing shells on the river, often crewed by women, who looked even wetter than we were. The rain stopped by Richmond and Teddington.
Teddington Lock at Last!