A Tideway treat!

On Monday, taking up the kind invitation by Sue and Richard on nb ‘Indigo Dream’, we took the tube to Canning Town to join them on board for a day of tideway cruising.

With bacon butty in hand, and amid glorious sunshine Richard “set sail” at 9:15 along with Andrew and Frances on nb ‘Doris Katia’ and one other boat (sorry forget the name) and headed up to join a convoy ……..

……….. of various interesting and assorted craft ………

………  who were leaving the recent boat show at “Excel”.

With a huge “Sunseeker” floating palace leading the way (in the far distance), the road bridge was swung open for the larger vessels ………..

……… and, when we little boats came up the rear, it was closed again while we were passing through – giving us the feeling that we were about to be decapitated!

Once on the other side of the bridge we were in the huge expanse of King George V Dock next to the City Airport.  It’s an awesome feeling to be so close to the planes taking off ……..

……… and, as we cut across the bottom of the runway, the thrust from the aircraft engines was enough to blow our little narrow boats sideways across the water!

We were soon in the King George V lock – so vast it was difficult to see the top gates!

After exiting the lock we were soon out on the Thames and being carried up river on the tide.  Here are two pieces of mischief (Sue and Doug) if ever there were any! with the Thames Barrier in the background.

Opposite the O2 Arena we turned right into Bow Creek ……..

……… and the short run up to Three Mills Lock.  Using Bow Locks is the preferred option for the lock keepers so this picture, with Three Mills in operation, is a fairly rare occurrence.

The route from Three Mills to the Limehouse Cut is made pretty interesting by three equally very low bridges – it felt rather like crawling under a snake’s belly!

With Limehouse Cut traversed we entered Limehouse Basin and the end of an amazing day.  We have to say an enormous thank you to Sue and Richard for their consistently wonderful hospitality, every time we’re with them, and the chance to experience something new and very exciting.