Tuesday, September 27, 2011

The narrow and the wide of it



Rather them than me, I caught this flotilla of narrow boats on the Thames. There was one pint in particular where they hit an eddy and it got very ... interesting... for those on board. The Canary Wharf skyline is very New York, though, isn't it?

posted by Ham at 00:02 -- Comments here: 5

Comments on "The narrow and the wide of it"

 

Blogger Norman Teigen said ... (06:15) : 

It more resembles New Jersey.

 

Blogger Kira said ... (17:05) : 

looks awesome anyway. i miss london!

 

Blogger Nic said ... (18:46) : 

Hmm yes, wouldn't fancy being on the Thames on one of those. Actually wouldn't want to be anywhere on one of those, had a canal boat holiday once, worst four days of my life!

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (23:44) : 

Enough "pints" and any boattrip would be interesting,

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (03:07) : 

Scariest boat trip of my life was a ride from Murano to Venice on a vaporetto (the "bus"), which is about the size as these. It was just after most of the glassmakers closed, so it was SRO with both tourists and locals.

About halfway back (conveniently close San Michele - look it up) we got hit by a thunderstorm that looked like the opening credits of Gilligan's Island. Everyone who was on deck tried to squeeze inside and below. There were whitecaps on the lagoon. While the pilot tried to steer into the waves as much as possible, he needed to go across them to get back to Venice, so they would wash over the gangway sides and across the deck.

I found my way below to check on my senior citizen mother, and found her on the open-air back deck. She explained that this was the closest place on the boat to an exit - in case she needed to use it. As we were being tossed by six-foot waves, the old man sitting next to Mom (much older) smiled at her at said "Tee-tahn-eek! Tee-tahn-eek!" A little too close to the truth.

Most of the tourist-types tried to look nonchalant after the storm blew away and we arrived back at Piazza San Marco, but the collection of Vaporetti crews waiting to greet us as we pulled up left me thinking it was as harrowing as it felt.

 

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Name: Ham Location: London, United Kingdom View my complete profile