[Gllug] River Thames

[Geoff Fox]

John Hearns wrote:
> On Tue, 2005-07-12 at 15:20 +0100, t.clarke wrote:
> 
>>If anyone has a view of the Thames up-river of Dartford Crossing, and
>>is interested, an aircrafyt carrier with a Harrier up front is coming
>>up the THames presently (just passed Northfleet/Tilbury).
> 
>
> Woo!
> The last time, the Hermes anchored off Greenwich, at the liner terminal
> which is at the mouth of Deptford Creek.
> I gather such a large draught ship cannot get up further.
> And it was a very, very low tide earlier today (anyone nautical
> care to explain why?)

High tide at Southend today was 5.3m and low this morning 1.37 (info 
from xtides, a good ol' Gnu Public License prog). Tides are ok for 
sailing locally but looking further up river the chart datum of the tide
even as far as Tower Bridge is over 5.8m. Not certain what draft
an aircraft carrier is but probably wouldn't have a problem getting to 
the tower if it's going that far especially on a rising tide.

I saw the ship today at Leigh-on-Sea but was too far away to notice as 
an aircraft carrier. The ship was so tall that it was clearly visible 
whilst passing behind Canvey Island.



> 
> I often see cruise liners on the way up to Tower Bridge and the pool of
> London, one tug at front, one at the back. But these are modern vessels,
> and I would guess low draught.
> 
> Do you happen to know the reason for the visit?
> 
> There was an aircrat carrier in Portsmouth last week, as part of the
> festival of the sea.
> 

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