Lock Fighting in the East End!

Francis

Friday the 13th. Got up in bright sunshine after a quiet night apart fron some strange creature scrabbling and making a snorting noise on the water line in the early hours. As we were preparing to leave we met Francis, a film maker, who was interested in boats. We invited him to share a bit of our journey and after stowing his bike on the roof we set off for the Hertford Union Canal. Francis, who was great company, left us at the first lock and has emailed a nice photo he took of us. Great to meet you Francis.

We had the usual hard slog through the locks especially when we got on to the Grand Union Canal. The lock gates blow open when going upstream but we devised a method of holding them closed with the stern and a pole and quickly opening a top gate. The gates are heavy and it took two of us to open a few. There were very few boats out and about so no-one to share the load with.

This cormorant was sunning itself on the end of City Road lock. The Islington tunnel was an experience as our bow light failed less than half way through the 960 yards. I went to the front with a torch but Graham expertly steered us through - a thermal trip had blown so we can rectify.

Entering the Islington Tunnel

We headed for Camden for a late lunch. All the locks were against us and overlooked by the usual crowds of people. The bottom two were bad enough but the most overlooked top lock was broken on one side and was really hard going. We moored and had a well deserved Spanish take away.

The trip through Regents Park and Little Venice was lovely and we managed to get the last spot in the Paddington Basin, after a struggle against the wind whipping between the tall buildings.