London Calling!

Wednesday 8th April 2015

It is a bit too early to call it, but the beginnings of summer are with us - for a third straight day we have awoken to and enjoyed another beautiful day.

We needed to fill up with water before the first lock, which involved a lengthy wait as another boat was there quite a while before us - it didn't seem like a slow tap when we finally were filling so have to assume that he had a large tank almost empty.

Again we were having work through as a single boat in the lock - most set against us and just a few travelling the other way.

They all were all slow fillers and slow emptiers - most of the engine time today was taken up with the water fill and locks - out of a total of 3.75 hrs that the engine was on we were propelled for just over an hour.

We used the washing machine again today, but this time Diane put in a couple of kettles of hot water. The thinking being that although we are essentially using a cold wash cycle, the water still gets heated a bit - it did go through the cycle without any problems - so at least we can get the washing done without any hassles - we will still be getting the alternator checked as soon as we can.

At Lock 70 we met a lovely young couple - in their 20's, so young to everyone, who were liveaboards.
The woman of the couple was proudly telling Diane that she started steering the boat today and went well, whilst the young man was telling me much the same with similar pride - he spoke about her need to learn in case something happened and she needed to take control of the boat. He also went onto talk about CaRT's crack down on continuous cruisers and how much he agreed with it, saying that if boaters want to stay in a particular area then they should find a mooring - he gave an example of friends that had done just that.

Earlier in the day we spoke to another boat that had moved a mile that morning to carry on complying with the new CaRT rules - whilst he didn't acknowledge that he agreed with the rules, he didn't rubbish them either.

He did however teach me a new nautical term - the practice of coiling the rope(s) on the deck (or in our case, the roof) is called "Cheesing the Rope".

I dare say that there are 1001 other terms that I probably still have to learn.

We are now "officially" in London, having passed under the M25 Motorway and entered the "controlled" water space of the "London Central Waterways Authority".
 

Almost into London - that is the M25 - traffic was moving

now we are in London - seems a lot sunnier down south

I noted to Diane this morning that it was a month ago yesterday when we left Paul and Elaine in Macclesfield and apart from a few days in Stone on the way down, we have been pretty well on the go almost every day - covering 293 lock-miles.

After our last leg tomorrow we will be slowing right down.

This afternoon has been taken up with work (for me), boat polishing (for Diane), explaining to the lady moored behind how to use cross-pins to moor up, and a very interesting phone-call from Canada.

When we moored up there was some noise from the nearby A-road and also some from the train line, none of which we could really hear inside, but really do they have to keep practising their bell-ringing until after 10pm

3 Miles, 5 Locks
YTD: 263 Miles, 150 Locks, 6 Tunnels, 2 Lift Bridges, 11 Swing Bridges
Totals: 3157 Miles, 2271 Locks, 104 Tunnels, 36 Lift Bridges, 162 Swing Bridges