Some Serious Stuff Ahead.

Yesterday afternoon we had our last get together with Stephen and Jayne with a few glasses of Pimms in the cool of the early evening.

Jayne, Stephen and James enjoying a balmy evening (take that as you wish!)

Later on in the evening (at about 11 o’ clock!) we met up with Sian, our friend from Bristol, and her friend Irene, who were in London to see a show. We had a terrific couple of hours with them in Soho and then it was over to Leicester Square for a snack before they had to get back to their hotel in Chelsea.

James, Irene, Sian and Doug enjoying the last few minutes before the kindly security guard (who took this photo) threw us out at closing time.  We had a great time with you both, even if it was too short.  We arrived back at Chance after 2am again!

Today we begin an almost forgotten pastime – cruising again!  We will be leaving London after this weekend, having had the most fantabulous time.  We had planned to visit London for just one week but our time, in and around, the capital has lasted 7 weeks and we must make the break now or our very loose plans will go completely adrift.

We said a sad farewell to Stephen, Jayne and son Thomas and left Paddington Basin for the last time this year.

We joined the Regents Canal and were soon at Camden Locks.

They were taking photos of us so we took a photo of them!

Camden was lacking the vast crowds which usually grace its shores at the weekends as we passed quickly through the locks this morning.

At Kings Cross we noticed that the new canal side terraces have been very smartly astroturfed.  Further on the last few locks of the Regents Canal were shared with an extremely inexperienced family of hire boaters (who didn’t even know that they should keep clear of the cill) so it was an interesting, and very slow, last section into Limehouse Marina.  Which is where this weekends adventures begin.  With quite a number of other “guests” we are teaming up with the St Pancras Cruising Club for a weekend of tideway cruising, and this afternoon a large flotilla of boats is assembling in the marina ready for tonight’s briefing in the Yacht Club which will be followed by dinner.

This is just a handful of narrow boats expected for this weekend’s tideway cruises on Saturday and Sunday.