Tideway tomorrow.

Yesterday was another great sunny day and another relaxing one for us.  We filled the day with a bit of boat cleaning and a walk into “town”.

In the morning a group of French youngsters paid homage to the roll up bridge just outside our front door.  It seems to be a great favourite with many visitors.

Further along from the boat, in Merchants Square, local workers play table tennis in their lunch hour…………

……. and during our walk along the Victoria Embankment in the afternoon we came across the monument to the great Sir Joseph Bazalgette whose skill and foresight gave London its fine and, as time has proven, most capacious sewage system.  Like most Victorian engineering it is still working very well. 

Today we left Paddington Basin and headed down the Regents Canal towards Limehouse Basin where we’ll be meeting up with a number of other narrow boats for our first tideway cruise this year with the St Pancras Cruising Club. We passed a rather unusual “residence” as we left Little Venice ……….

……. only to find much grander ones as we travelled down the Regents Canal!

The canal looks a real picture with all the spring blossom…………

The canal system throws up some very quirky things sometimes: at the bottom of someone’s garden this floating oasis with three bench seats set in each corner.

Today we travelled with Heather and Roger on nb ‘Celtic Kiwi’ who were also heading for the tideway cruise.  Together we made good progress down to Limehouse and we know it’s not far to go when we turn the corner and see Canary Wharf in the distance.

We caught up with the St Pancras Commodore, Andrew, and his wife Frances on nb ‘Doris Katia’ just before we reached Limehouse and it was a jolly good job we did.  At the last lock, while James was holding ‘Chance’ into the bank with the centre rope, he wasn’t able to hold it against the strength of the wind and Frances (and her extra muscle power!) came to the rescue and saved the day.  Thanks Frances we owe you a drink tonight!  Arriving in Limehouse this afternoon in very good time we took on some fresh water and moored up against the wall before any of the other boats arrived. A good day and a good job done – and we look forward to tomorrow.