Thames Discoverer took part in the annual River Blessing in TeddingtonRTBP has been very happy to take part in this special service on the river in Teddington for the last few years. This year it was a little different as the service was a much smaller group and was filmed on Friday 12th July to be posted on the church website on Sunday 14th July. The Rev Joe Moffatt, who is also Lifeboat Chaplain for the RNLI, led the service and the procession down to the river. Jane Newman was part of the procession – flying the flag for RTBP. Also in the procession was Chris, our friendly Commodore from Tamesis Club. Thames Discoverer was waiting on the water to join in the celebrations – Gunnar, Ian and Sophie were onboard along with 2 RNLI lifeboat crew. We enjoyed the RTBP and RNLI collaboration! The sun came out and it was wonderful to see Thames Discoverer back in action on the river, joining in the celebrations. Thank you to the Rev Joe and to Katherine from St Mary with St Alban Church for inviting us to be part of this special service on the river. We look forward to more time on the river soon!
July has not been the sunniest month so far, but Gunnar has been getting to know Thames Discoverer and Thames Venturer. The boats have been waiting patiently at the dock and we are looking forward to resuming our activities on the river when it’s possible. In the meantime, Gunnar has been out on the river with volunteer skipper, Ian, on Thames Discoverer and having a general spruce and tidy onboard and at the dock. A small team of wonderful volunteers came together, keeping social distancing in mind, to do a tidy up and much needed clean. Nigel, Terry, Ian, Jon and Gunnar’s daughter, Jule, rolled their sleeves up and got stuck in. The sun did come out from time to time and Thames Discoverer and Thames Venturer enjoyed some TLC.
RTBP Friends and volunteers have been helping where they can with PPE supplies and other support in the community. Carter House Nursing Home, Lee House Residential Care, Mottistone Grove and Ruils all wanted to share their thanks for the support. Thames Venturer and Thames Discoverer are still waiting patiently in the sunshine at the mooring in Kingston. We look forward to being back on the river as soon as it is safe.
Seeing as we are unable to run our education days right now, we are bringing our boats, activities and the river to you! The River-Based Experiment pack, with the accompanying video, and the Eco-Activity pack have been created so that the activities can all be completed from home, using equipment that will likely be in your home already. Each activity is adapted from our education programmes and links to the National Curriculum so can be used as a supplementary learning material or as an informative practical activity for children. The experiments in the videos are aimed at KS2 but can also be enjoyed by KS1 as they give a ‘virtual’ experience of being on the river. For the rocks and soils experiment, it is possible to conduct your own experiments at home using improvised equipment (if you have access to). It is worth watching the video first and assisting your children throughout. Otherwise, both experiments have been recorded so that children can still get the full experience from the video, without requiring any equipment. Feel free to pause, rewind and fast forward the video in order to get the most out of the clips. In the activity pack, the Eco-Boat activity is aimed at KS1 and the Eco-Audit is for KS2, but both can be completed by all age groups with assistance. The activity packs have in clear instructions for each task and what equipment will be needed. We hope these activities will help to keep children engaged until schools can join us on the river once more! Find the links to all the resources below:
River Thames Boat Project 