The London Days ...
Esconced in the visitors corner of Regents Canal Dock (or "Limehouse Basin Marina" as they like to call it nowadays but that just ain't right as far as I'm concerned!) we were determined to make the most of our time in the big city.
The start of our first day was somewhat delayed and disturbed by the need to move the Thames Sailing Barge "Cabby" onto the visitors pontoon in order to receive a delivery of diesel direct from the tanker. This entailed, perforce, moving three of our five boats onto the main pontoons overnight!
T'was all good fun as we all got stuck in to help move the barge ...
Then we all set off on our own separate expeditions.
Jane and I made our way into town on the Docklands Light Railway and thence onward by underground as I wanted to visit Arthur Beale's Chandlery in Shaftesbury Avenue. I mainly wanted a replacement fairlead for the one ripped off at Queenborough and they had exactly what we needed. In the end, I bought two deciding that one weathered one and one shiny one would drive me mad and anyway I could thus change the straight fairleads for handed ones which would be a definite improvement.
Jane bought some new deck shoes which she's wanted for a while and we wandered on doing a bit of shopping here and there and grabbing some lunch along the way
We walked back to Tower Bridge along the embankment in very pleasant weather. Apart from the joggers it's a lovely walk. The joggers aren't too bad to be honest but some people really shouldn't be allowed to wear skin tight clothing! (Me for starters which is why I don't!!!)
Back on the DLR to Limehouse and then a quiet evening on board
Tuesday saw ourselves and Clive (Sirenia) heading off downriver on the Thames Clipper service to Greenwich ...
I couldn't resist a wake shot, these things are simply awesome! They accelerate from a standing start to over 30 knots in a couple of hundred yards
I've wanted to visit the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich for a long time and I must say I was not disappointed. It was very enjoyable with well laid out exhibits and just enough interpretation
A pie and a pint followed and then we moved on to the Cutty Sark. I was, I will admit, prepared to be disappointed this time as I was unconvinced by what I'd seen of the "renovations"
But in fact it's very good and well put together
There's again just enough information and interpretation without going over the top and well informed and helpful volunteer staff who are happy to chat with visitors were a bonus
Sad that there is no mention of the "City of Adelaide" though, as she was the original and first iron composite clipper ship built (of course) in Sunderland! From her design, the later clippers like Cutty Sark were developed
We could have squeezed in the National Observatory and so on but we left plenty to justify another visit on another occasion without trying to do too much in one go
Then it was back to Limehouse direct by DLR for some more fun with barges ...
"Cabby", having filled her diesel tanks, needed to go back on her mooring. Two little Dutch "pushers" were visiting the basin and were inveigled into helping. Despite their diminutive size and small engines, these little boats are genuine working craft built originally to push Dutch barges around when manoeuvring.
With one at the front and one at the back they were astonishingly effective at shifting the bulk of "Cabby"
An evening out at "The Narrow" turned into an evening out at The Cruising Association 'cos "The Narrow", the best pub in the area, was heaving and there was no chance of a table. Not that we minded as the food and beer were OK at the CA. The night fell ...
Wednesday morning saw the departure of the rest of the East Coast Forum crowd leaving "Erbas" in splendid isolation in the corner of the dock. I had work to do or, to be more precise, work to plan. That entailed some time aboard customers boats whilst Jane had a good tidy up aboard "Erbas"
Then we spruced ourselves up for a night on the town.
We'd discovered that a show we wanted to see was on and that we could get good tickets despite the short notice so we'd gone ahead despite the planned tube strike starting at six this evening.
... where, as you can tell, we saw "Lord of the Dance" in its latest incarnation. The show was great fun and very enjoyable and hats of to the dancers for giving it a full on energetic performance despite the very thin audience (mid-week and a tube strike to boot, we all did our best!)
(And no, Flately himself wasn't performing, He only does Friday and Saturday evenings. We knew that already anyway but it didn't make a bit of difference)
Esconced in the visitors corner of Regents Canal Dock (or "Limehouse Basin Marina" as they like to call it nowadays but that just ain't right as far as I'm concerned!) we were determined to make the most of our time in the big city.
The start of our first day was somewhat delayed and disturbed by the need to move the Thames Sailing Barge "Cabby" onto the visitors pontoon in order to receive a delivery of diesel direct from the tanker. This entailed, perforce, moving three of our five boats onto the main pontoons overnight!T'was all good fun as we all got stuck in to help move the barge ...
Then we all set off on our own separate expeditions.
Jane and I made our way into town on the Docklands Light Railway and thence onward by underground as I wanted to visit Arthur Beale's Chandlery in Shaftesbury Avenue. I mainly wanted a replacement fairlead for the one ripped off at Queenborough and they had exactly what we needed. In the end, I bought two deciding that one weathered one and one shiny one would drive me mad and anyway I could thus change the straight fairleads for handed ones which would be a definite improvement.
Jane bought some new deck shoes which she's wanted for a while and we wandered on doing a bit of shopping here and there and grabbing some lunch along the way
We walked back to Tower Bridge along the embankment in very pleasant weather. Apart from the joggers it's a lovely walk. The joggers aren't too bad to be honest but some people really shouldn't be allowed to wear skin tight clothing! (Me for starters which is why I don't!!!)
Back on the DLR to Limehouse and then a quiet evening on board
Tuesday saw ourselves and Clive (Sirenia) heading off downriver on the Thames Clipper service to Greenwich ...I couldn't resist a wake shot, these things are simply awesome! They accelerate from a standing start to over 30 knots in a couple of hundred yards
I've wanted to visit the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich for a long time and I must say I was not disappointed. It was very enjoyable with well laid out exhibits and just enough interpretation
A pie and a pint followed and then we moved on to the Cutty Sark. I was, I will admit, prepared to be disappointed this time as I was unconvinced by what I'd seen of the "renovations" But in fact it's very good and well put together
There's again just enough information and interpretation without going over the top and well informed and helpful volunteer staff who are happy to chat with visitors were a bonus
Sad that there is no mention of the "City of Adelaide" though, as she was the original and first iron composite clipper ship built (of course) in Sunderland! From her design, the later clippers like Cutty Sark were developed
We could have squeezed in the National Observatory and so on but we left plenty to justify another visit on another occasion without trying to do too much in one go
Then it was back to Limehouse direct by DLR for some more fun with barges ...
"Cabby", having filled her diesel tanks, needed to go back on her mooring. Two little Dutch "pushers" were visiting the basin and were inveigled into helping. Despite their diminutive size and small engines, these little boats are genuine working craft built originally to push Dutch barges around when manoeuvring.With one at the front and one at the back they were astonishingly effective at shifting the bulk of "Cabby"
An evening out at "The Narrow" turned into an evening out at The Cruising Association 'cos "The Narrow", the best pub in the area, was heaving and there was no chance of a table. Not that we minded as the food and beer were OK at the CA. The night fell ...
Then we spruced ourselves up for a night on the town.
We'd discovered that a show we wanted to see was on and that we could get good tickets despite the short notice so we'd gone ahead despite the planned tube strike starting at six this evening.
We did the overground, underground, wombling free thing and found ourselves in a Wetherspoons for a meal and a drink before walking to the doors of the Dominion Theatre ...
(And no, Flately himself wasn't performing, He only does Friday and Saturday evenings. We knew that already anyway but it didn't make a bit of difference)
With no tubes running central London was somewhat chaotic when we left the theatre so we strolled along Aldwych etc. back to Bank in order to catch the DLR to Limehouse
Home at last, tired but happy, we were soon fast asleep in our berth
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