With the weather forecast for this weekend showing all sorts of weather from "Tornados" in some newspapers through to flash flooding and heavy rain and wind we had to choose between going to the coast to see Bournemouth Air Show or going on the River Thames to the Rewind festival.
With the thought of bouncing around in the rain off Bournemouth and slogging along the A27 to leave Dorset and join the M3 we opted for the the Thames.
The summer season on the Thames consists of three major events: the Regatta, the Festival and the Rewind Festival. The season concludes with the Rewind festival. This is a 1980's festival on the banks of the Thames. Boat access is provided with paid moorings although the festival itself is not particularly visible from the river as the main stage is set a long way back.
However with the boats moored on the banks and the free-loaders anchored in the main part of the river its quite a party atmosphere on some of the boats. This is the only time I have seen crowds of boats actually anchored in the Thames rather than moored to some fixture. This is the real advantage of trailer boating as we get the best of both the sea and river worlds. The boat party raftup is pretty much unique to the Thames in the UK.
We travelled down and were guests of the Hoptroff family so it was time for a mini-raft up and party.....
A real DIY Bimini top!
Paul Daniels and the Wonderful Debbie Magee