30th September Monday
We left Limehouse rather hurriedly as Pete had spotted another boat heading out and decided it would be sensible to lock through with them. The alternative being that if you follow a boat, you have to refill locks each time and it takes twice as long of course. So we travelled in tandem with The Meg and it's crew of four. They were heading back to Cowroast, where we once moored, hoping to do that in 3 days - don't envy them. A pleasant lot and we soon got into a working pattern with them, Pete going ahead by bike to set the locks. Even so, it still took us 5 hours to get back to Little Venice. We turned left on arrival to moor in Paddington Basin where there are free 7 day moorings, which is great for such a central position. However, you soon find that there are very few available and we travelled right to the end before finding a slot on the end of a pontoon which actually didn't have enough cleats to moor to anyway. A kind carpenter boatman popped out on a mooring inside the same pontoon and said he was leaving and we could have his space. Perfect. It is a wind tunnel down here with high rise office blocks all around and St Mary's Hospital opposite - it certainly feels like London here.
Pete discovered Phil on Eladie Rose moored by the station as was Emma Jane. They caught up on towpath gossip and the fact that so many of these boats and the ones in Little Venice appear to breach the rules and stay far longer than 7 days, thereby blocking the visitor moorings. Both Phil and Pete separately expressed their feelings about this to CRT reps at the basin offices and were told that enforcement officers do move people on. We are not so sure that is the case however.
Still, we are here and it is great to be so central. A twinkly mooring at night.
We left Limehouse rather hurriedly as Pete had spotted another boat heading out and decided it would be sensible to lock through with them. The alternative being that if you follow a boat, you have to refill locks each time and it takes twice as long of course. So we travelled in tandem with The Meg and it's crew of four. They were heading back to Cowroast, where we once moored, hoping to do that in 3 days - don't envy them. A pleasant lot and we soon got into a working pattern with them, Pete going ahead by bike to set the locks. Even so, it still took us 5 hours to get back to Little Venice. We turned left on arrival to moor in Paddington Basin where there are free 7 day moorings, which is great for such a central position. However, you soon find that there are very few available and we travelled right to the end before finding a slot on the end of a pontoon which actually didn't have enough cleats to moor to anyway. A kind carpenter boatman popped out on a mooring inside the same pontoon and said he was leaving and we could have his space. Perfect. It is a wind tunnel down here with high rise office blocks all around and St Mary's Hospital opposite - it certainly feels like London here.
Pete discovered Phil on Eladie Rose moored by the station as was Emma Jane. They caught up on towpath gossip and the fact that so many of these boats and the ones in Little Venice appear to breach the rules and stay far longer than 7 days, thereby blocking the visitor moorings. Both Phil and Pete separately expressed their feelings about this to CRT reps at the basin offices and were told that enforcement officers do move people on. We are not so sure that is the case however.
Still, we are here and it is great to be so central. A twinkly mooring at night.
Did you know that Tom Heatherwick designed the curly up bridge at Paddington Basin that you've photographed....he was the designer[and his studio] of the Olympic cauldron amongst other things too.Went to an exhibition of his work at the V&A last year, quite inspiring!!
ReplyDeleteOnly knew because Christabel had told us. Beautiful thing and so was the cauldron. Wild have liked to see the exhibition.
Delete