Thames Charity Swim

Boat is about 5m long.
Printed it all at work yesterday, the words & letters we've got are what we've got to work with. Can't print any more! Can leave out THE and OF, abbreviate LITRES to L.
Have handed it over to Jim this morning, he is on the case, but any good ideas appreciated...

Unofficial official inside update on Walliams schedule:
He will stop overnight at Old Windsor tonight (Saturday).
Sunday night he will stop at Kingston.
Monday morning, he will swim from Kingston and be at Teddington Lock quite early, then down to Richmond. Apparently the organisers didn't even know about the tide. If he arrives at Richmond a long time before 4 be might be able to make a bit of progress downstream, but once it starts coming in properly he will find himself going backwards fast and have to stop.

EdRandall wrote:

......................If we can laminate them, then punch 4 holes top and bottom they should remain stable when strung them along some old 30lb line between a mast at the front and rear of the TAC protest ship.................................

I have a nearly full, 1000 metre spool of 50lb bs mono - I know it's too late for this event but may come in handy for any future TAC protests.

Also, the lengths of 1/2" steel reinforcing rods (to make grappling hooks) are ready for delivery to TAC by whatever means, If I manage a trip to the Thames this year (which is unlikely) I can bring it along - alternatively if anyone is likely to be in the Basildon, Essex area maybe they would be kind enough to pick it up?

I'd deliver it myself but the 100 mile or so round trip is too much for me at the moment.

Each A4 sheet is 21 cm wide, 5m boat gives you 23 letters max. per line;
Spread this over 2 lines:

39,000,000,000L OF SEWAGE
IN THAMES EACH YEAR

cheers barry, we'll put a shout out to see if anyone from your way, is coming our way

spent the whole afternoon mucking about with these letters, ran out of laminating sheets in the end

it now reads 39,000,000,000
ltrs sewage
in thames
each year

Well done Jim, I thought it would be a tricky one.

More news

http://www.metro.co.uk/showbiz/875047-david-walliams-set-to-face-barrage-of-raw-sewage-in-river-thames-swim

Also on the Beeb website (where I understand it's the most read story at the moment):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14866031

ok, so no-ones got sea legs
well you land lubbers, hows about someone getting pics of our protest

there aint no way I can steer a decked out protest vessel, and be on the riverbank taking pics at the same time

come on folks I'm working my proverbials of, this is a one of opportunity, thats to good to miss

dont worry jim,ill be your cabin bhoy

nice one willy, I was beginning to think I might have to call it of, the wind is gonna be a big problem, especially with our sewage sign/banner, its 3m long and 1m high

jeff has offered to pick keith up after jack goes to school, so it looks like willie, me and the crazy crab in the boat, and jeff taking the pics

Argh, bummer about the sign in the wind, has anyone got a megaphone?!

Seems the swim plan has changes slightly, he aims to swim 21 miles today (Sunday) and be at Teddington Lock for 19:30 after all. I hope they've told the lock keepers!

So you could possibly save your Monday and do it at Teddington all this evening?
String the banner up along the bank or between 2 people holding sticks, somewhere near the lock.

http://www.sportrelief.com/walliams scroll down and click on the "Twitter" section.

thanks ed, so where the hell will he be tomorrow morning?????? richmond,barnes embankment??

well would you adam and eve it
my intel is he's stopping at kingston tonite and arriving at tedd 2moz morning

Yeah that's what I heard yesterday, but his organisers say on Twitter this morning, finishing Teddington Lock 19:30 tonight. Therefore 2 opportinuities, he will start from the same place again Monday morning early (like, between 6:30 -7:00 am)

Jimmy Carr says "Make a noise, bring something loud" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dC25h9_C70k
You heard it guys, Whistles, those vuvuzela things, megaphones, do it!

He's at Penton Hook right now, we're taking a detour via Walton on our way out to see if we can catch him there.

I might be wrong but still reckon he will get stuck at Richmond on Monday, held up by the incoming full tidal tide at the lock.

Nice one chaps.

Guess you are already doing it but lifejackets are a must. Not only could they save your life but the pr for the TAC will undoutedly be very poor without. Ihave one if needed but would need to get it back Monday eve.

Looks like he's made it to Teddington Lock roughly on schedule 7:30 this evening. £822,000 raised so far, not bad at all.
Tomorrow he will discover what sewage filth is really like.

Allowed or not, lots of people are hanging banners from the bridge at Teddington http://yfrog.com/h8o8lthj

Latest from twitter:

Quote :

Day 8 of the #thamesswim - 6.45 start at Teddington, with the grand finale at Westminster around 6pm.

The river will now be tidal so it's Teddington to Kew 1st thing, break for the tide to turn + Kew to Westminster from 2.30 - 6

Don't think they've spotted that the tide table times are GMT.
High tide at Richmond is 15:55 BST tomorrow. However far down he can get before the tide defeats him, he's going to be waiting there for an extra hour.

See also: http://www.pla.co.uk/notice2mariners/pdf/U29_of_2011_w_-_Teddington_to_Westminster_-_Comic_Relief_Event1.pdf

we'll be out there this morning
picking willie up at 6.30, then decking the boat out, gawd help us in the wind, keith is gonna hop onboard and then we'll do our best to get some attention
would like to stick with him to the finish, but we'll see how everyone feels and if we can cope with a 10ft x 4ft banner in the wind

was gonna go down and have a look this morning as its me last day off , but overslept . Ah well , might have a couple hours fishing instead .

a mahoosive thanks to jeff for picking keith up and taking some pics
even more gratitude to both keith and willie for stepping forward

it went summit like this, after rigging the boat out we joined 'em all at twickenham, the PLA accompanying 'em said we were ok, and the crew on the support vessels waved, took loads of pics, and were more than happy for us to tag along
all was swell downstream to richmond lock, except for the wind, which with our banner acting as a sail made steering hard work
anyways the flottila went through the lock and we had to wait for the next turn, we then followed one of their support vessels out of the lock, managed to ground our prop on the bottom 3 times which was disconcerting given the banner was acting as a sail and with no engine power we were helpless, having got to some deeper water we made haste to catch up, and follow the support vessel
downstream of isleworth ait, the support vessel became grounded, we grounded again, then started scraping downstream towards them, panic, quick sling an anchor overboard, this didnt hold bottom either, the wind was to powerful with our banner up, with Izaak glimpsing us through the clouds we managed with the help of an oar to just miss'em, it was engine up and paddle like crazy to the shore,
we beached the boat, all hopped out and regathered our wits, should we continue or remain where we were for hours till the tide turned
we decided to persevere, and after alot of grief managed to get to some deeper water, lower the engine and continue
reaching kew we found out that it was breaktime, so we beached the boat again and waited for the tide to come in, cut down the banners, lowered the flag and headed back home

the wind had made it unsafe to continue, and we were gutted that we couldn't make it to the finish

Blimey...good to hear you're all safe boys.

I'm now glad I had to work

Great effort guys, top work. Sorry it was all a bit of a last minute rush and maybe not planned through well enough, all this flippin' wind coming along suddenly ...

Hopefully we'll see some more pictures soon.

He's just broken the million pound barrier.

I think i read somewhere that BT were a sponsor to the tune of £40k a day, very quiet in the Thames water camp though

Great effort today fellas, the amount of grief and everything else, big pat on the back.

DW has raised over a million now, staggering.