Apart
from doing the high priority areas of re-pointing mentioned in the
previous post the list below needs to be completed before moving on
board full time - and I thought I had retired!
- Re-home our chickens and house plants
- Finish off the cratch
- Fix a decent tunnel light
- Replace glass in stove (someone put an oversized log in last winter)
- Fix up the 4G aerial and wireless router
- Sort out phones
- Paint front deck
- Fashion a bike cover
- etc. etc.
Here are some photos expanding on the above:
I fitted the cratch boards whilst at Paddington. The cover maker has
measured up for the cratch cover and should be ready to fit any day
now. The strange boat in the background is based on two narrow boats
lashed together and an outboard engine added. We last saw it at the
junction of the River Stort on the River Lee. It was set up for a gig
with full drum kit on the top - just another commune boat which seem to
be popular in London.
The white plastic boat was being refurbished by a Polish girl -
Katrina. She lives with her husband and young lad on a Dutch barge and
had bought this boat to do up and rent out for private parties etc. She
had just had a baby which was in St Marys hospital next to where we
were moored. She had to keep taking breaks from her renovations to walk
to the hospital to breast feed!
Home required for the girls…
Cover required for the bikes as they are rather exposed to the elements here.
Living in a steel shell makes broadband reception problematical.
Solution is this 4G antennae that I need to mount on the roof and then
connect to a wireless router inside - no more expensive dongles!
We
were due to move aboard at the end of October when Karen starts her
year career break. Her final project goes live a week later so it will
be the first week of November. Never mind, she just goes back to work a
week later - if she ever goes back.
I’m panicking a little as we have just reviewed the list of “Must
do’s” before we leave. On their own they are OK but I have to carry out
some re-pointing on the house first; two areas must be done before
winter. We have had mortar bees and damp is coming in in a couple of
places in the lounge.
Excited this evening as we hope to be picking up Buddie tomorrow from
our local RSPCA centre. He is about 10 months old and very happy.
We
set out from Limehouse basin on 7 August 2014 along the Limehouse cut
to join the river Lee. The river Lee is navigable for 27 miles up to
Hertford with 18 locks. At Hoddesdon (6 miles before Hertford) the
river Stort branches off north east for 14 miles with 15 locks.
This is a map showing the rivers Lee and Stort. Our trip up and down the Stort is covered in September under Buddy Walks The Plank (River Stort).
The Limehouse cut leaves Limehouse basin to the east and runs dead
straight for a mile until it hits the river Lee at Bromley by Bow. We
had hoped to moor along this section so that Karen could pop into the
office in Canary Wharf for the odd day but it was far too rough to think of leaving the boat even for an hour.
The London end of the river Lee also leaves a lot to be desired. An
amazing amount of litter on the tow paths around Hackney. Lots of duck
weed between Bow and Walthamstow; we had to stop four times one evening
to remove weed from the propeller.
It was interesting going past the site of the 2012 Olympics and good
to see that the Bow back rivers are being rejuvenated so that one day
boats may be taken right into and around the Olympic park.
Here is the extent of weed through Bow, although coming back down in
October it had all but disappeared. It is said that spring and summer
are the times to aoid the river Lee and its weed problems:
The largest tidal mill in the world was built at Bow in the 18th century and has been restored; very impressive.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom as there were some very pleasant
stretches and we found plenty of places to moor away from roads,
railways and houses (I’ve lost count of the number of photos of Karen
sitting on the towpath with her slippers on!).
Here are some views of well known London towns from the river point of view:
When we were moored at Dobb’s Weir near Hoddesdon we managed to find a
mooring right next to the car so handy for transporting stuff on board
for our year out.
Going through Harlow we saw what must be one of the largest wind turbines erected on a boat:
At Sawbridgeworth we christened the washing machine to make sure
there were no leaks and it worked OK - drying is going to be fun in the
winter so I will be erecting an attachment on the tiller to take a
rotary clothes line.
My youngest son, Jake, and his friend Tripti joined us on a rainy afternoon at Tottenham:
Ware and Hertford were nice places to visit and walk around and the
gazebos at Ware were interesting. These are covered in the Gazebos At Ware blog entry in September
These are the 18 locks on the river Lee, number one being at the far end in Hertford and number 18 in Bow.
In
the last week of July we decided to move out of Paddington basin and
cruise to Limehouse basin by Canary Wharf. This is the whole length of
the Regents canal - nine miles and 12 locks. On the first day we went
through Regents Park and the zoo, Camden, Islington and Kings Cross. We also had two
tunnels to go through; Maida Vale tunnel which is quite short (272
yards) and Islington tunnel (960 yards).
Camden was rammed full of tourists. Many had their legs dangling
over the sides of the canal and locks without realising the danger a
heavy steel boat posed to their legs when I was trying to moor for
locks. I had to be quite forceful in a couple of instances to get
people to move, especially a family of Germans.
Whilst going through the top lock at Camden I was asked if I could
take part in a TV documentary being made about the Regents canal. Of
course I agreed. This was the fourth time I had been filmed through
London; the first time was by a French tourist who was keen to record
about life on the waterways. By the time I got to the Camden filming my
story had many embellishments including the fact that we had been
living on the boat for five years rather than the previous five weeks!
Here is the girl who interviewed me and the scouter who was finding people to be interviewed.
We went through seven locks and found a mooring alongside Victoria
Park, or Vicky Park to the locals. The Park is the oldest purpose built
green space in London and, as the name suggests, was commissioned by Queen
Victoria for the East Enders. We stayed at Vicky Park for a week and
made quite a few friends, especially as most boats had to double berth.
A lot of people were regular workers who found that living on a boat
was cheaper than trying to buy or rent a flat in London. Here are a few
shots from that week.
We were amazed how many people had only just bought a boat and had
moved aboard with no previous experience. For example there was Jo, a
teacher in the East End, whose boat was as old as ours and she knew
needed completely refitting. Robin and Jen had a new boat which was on
the luxurious side; well he’s a KPMG consultant ;) He works in Canary
Wharf and Jen to the west of London so they commute by bike in opposite
directions each day. When we met them at Vicky Park Rob was having the
shorter journey.
This article appeared in the New York Times recently and we had met people from four of the boats mentioned. Living on a boat in London (NY Times).
Writing about commuting reminds me about the extraordinary number of
cyclists on the towpaths in that part of London in both rush hours. You
have to be really careful stepping off the boat!
We found a real spit and sawdust pub in Bow and saw a gig by Dennis Stratton
(ex Iron Maiden) and a mate of his - excellent end to a Sunday - and no
entrance fee.
We set out on the final leg to Limehouse on 6 August and the weather
was still absolutely gorgeous. It was very interesting going down
through Mile End and other such areas. At one point we realised we were
running out of fresh chillies so I took a wander into the side streets
of Mile End and got a handful of chillies for just 5p!
On the way down we had some good views of Canary Wharf and, of course, Barclays.
Here we are cruising into and around Limehouse basin.
And here are the 12 locks of the Regents canal:
And, finally, an Emperor dragonfly that landed on my finger when we were in Old Ford.
Having
had our bottom blacked and spent time on the Wendover and Aylesbury
arms our next target was to get to London. Last summer we went to Hyde
Park to see Bon Jovi and then the Stones the following day. We stayed
in a hotel and vowed that in future we would get the boat to concerts to
avoid the horrendous costs of hotels especially in central London.
We were due at the O2 on 20th July 2014 to see the final Monty Python
show so that was why we were now headed for London. We would go down
the Grand Union from Bulbourne to Bulls Bridge junction (just south of
Uxbridge) where we would turn left (east) down the Paddington arm into
London.
This entailed going through Berkhamstead, Hemel Hempstead, Apsley
(where the Basildon Bond paper mills originated), Watford, Rickmansworth
and then Uxbridge. This was a lock intensive stretch with 45 locks over
32 miles.
It was on this leg that I finally gave up work and as we needed to
redecorate the inside of the boat (for a second time) I spent two or
three days on the boat during the week, for a few weeks, on my own.
Here are some shots of me decorating.
At Winkwell (east of Hemel) was a swing bridge. You don’t get many
on the Grand Union but this was extra special because you have constant
spectators from the pub.
At Springwell lock (near Maple Cross) we were able to moor next to a
road so we brought a car load of pots and plants to the boat for the
summer.
It was this lock that we saw a hen/stag limo get stuck on!
We went under the M25 at J20 (A41):
And we saw this boat with a car on the back as a cabin!
There were a lot of heron on this stretch and even some ponies on the towpath. Here are some wildlife shots:
At Watford the canal runs right through The Grove, a luxury hotel, spa and golf course. We stayed for a weekend (on the canal).
Finally we arrived at Bulls Bridge junction. The Grand Union
continues down to the Thames at Brentford and we turned up the lock free
pound to Paddington.
Here are the 45 locks we went through (or the ones where I remembered to take photos).
