Tuesday 24 August 2010

Dobb's Weir to Limehouse Basin, with a look at the Olympic Park

Friday 20th August 2010

See how behind I am with these cruising updates! We're actually tied up at Folly Bridge in Oxford, as per the schedule, but I haven't had a chance before now to do any blogging, owing to having to make navigation lights on Saturday, and the long cruising days we've been doing since then.

But back to last Friday. I got up at 7.00 and walked to Dobb's Weir Lock to set it, before bringing Willow in.


Further down the Lee, south of the junction with Duckett's Cut, we stopped to have a closer look at the site of the 2012 London Olympics. It's a construction site on a huge scale.


Concrete is made on the spot, with supplies of the raw ingredients coming by lorry and train. Reportedly by boat too, via the Bow Back Rivers, but I didn't see that for myself.


I was anxious to get on to Limehouse Basin, so that we wouldn't miss the safety briefing given by the St. Pancras Cruising Club for those crews going out onto the tideway at the weekend. We turned off the Lee onto the Limehouse Cut, another waterway I can tick off. At the junction are Bow Locks, and a sighting of the buildings of Canary Wharf.


And then we were very quickly at Limehouse Basin, which looked completely different from a boater's perspective. We were directed to a 40 feet gap between boats, so we were able to tie up against the wall. Handy. Willow is the green boat to the left of Solace.


David took Fergus home on the DLR, returning on his own by bike later to join us at the safety talk.

More about that, and about our adventures on the tidal Thames, and how we nearly came a cropper, at another time. For me, now, it's time for bed. Another early start tomorrow!

1 comment:

Vallypee said...

There's something very exiting about this post after your travels through peaceful country. Great pics!