Kensal Green to Victoria Park (Hertford Union Canal)

(Posted by Alan)

A deliberately light schedule planned for today. We want to get to Limehouse around lunch time tomorrow, (Wednesday), so just needed a positioning move that got us within easy striking distance.

Despite my recuperating fractured pelvis, I seem to keep being the one taking Charlie for his early morning constitutional - a bad move as that is when he is most lively, and me least so! The banks at Kensal Green are liberally littered with goose and duck poo, and this appears to be a delicacy to a young Spaniel, so I diverted through the "nature area" by the boat, to be quite surprised to find a young man sleeping rough. Of course I know London has many homeless, but I hadn't expected to find one bedded down so close to where we had spent the night in a lot more comfort.

Once underway, Cath got me to moor at the "Sainsbury's" stop, and headed off, saying she would be not very long. A great deal later she returned cursing and generally spitting blood saying it had some of the stupidest arrangements she had ever encountered in a supermarket. I decided tact should cause me not to ask why, but if she can bear to talk about it, perhaps she will add an addendum to this post.

We pressed on to Little Venice, where "boaty things" like emptying the toilet cassette, and jettisoning rubbish were attended to in the rain.












I normally enjoy the Maida Vale to Camden stretch, but found myself inside trying to battle with British Waterways to book a passage through the Thames locks at Limehouse and Brentford tomorrow.

Could they make it any harder ? Indicated times show that we would not lock though at Brentford until after normal "day" hours, so need a lock-keeper for the "on demand" bit in the evening. I was armed with the latest "Tidal Locks Availability" booklet for 2010, but that didn't help.

The number published for Thames Lock, Brentford actually routes you instead for an answerphone for Three Mills and Bow Locks.

There is a "do it all by e-mail" option, which we tried to initiate last evening, but has remained unanswered all day.

The corrected number for Thames Lock, Brentford was also on permanent answerphone nearly all day.

So I never saw the passage through the zoo - instead I was trying to arrange extra credit on my mobile, to replace all that used up trying to get sense out of BW. Additionally my dear old bank has for no great reason decided to issue me with a credit card with a whole new number, and Vodafone's systems weren't having any of that. (This provoked a security alert from my bank later on, which also needed attending to - and I go boating intending to relax!).

The descent from Camden was tackled with increasing rain, as we once again battled with all the barriers that have been erected in a bid to safeguard the drunken public, but generally increasing risk to boaters.

Below Hampstead Road Locks at Camden










Tarporley













At it's home base we were joined by the community boat Tarporley, and although it pulled out across our path, they signalled us to pass.

Very unusually we had to wait outside Islington Tunnel for three well spaced boats travelling the other way to clear it.

Tarporley then followed us very slowly through the tunnel, so we waited some considerable to see if they intended to share the next lock, which we had already entered. They did, but as they approached they veered heavily towards our rear end. Now I don't particularly like trying to put my body between 20 plus tonnes of converted Town Class working boat and Chalice, but some action was required, as it looked fairly certain that Tarporley's massive bow was going to hit our cabin before the hulls touched. I managed to "field" Tarporley, only loosing a bit of paint on our rear coamings.

"Sorry about that, it's a new skipper under instruction" I was told. "He needs quite a bit more instruction" said I!

Locking through with Tarporley in more rain









Tarporley turned at Kingsland basin, so we pressed on alone. The moorings above Old Ford lock at Victoria Park, as usual, proved to be fully occupied, and generally double berthed, with overflow onto the lock landing area, so we carried on down. An attempt to moor just past the Duckett's cut entrance proved "interesting", as an underwater ledge holds you about 18" from the side. The pound seemed to be falling, and we seemed to be on an increasing tilt.

So, after taking Charlie for an extended walk in Victoria Park, (it needs more poo bins, council, please!), we moved Chalice a few hundred yards up Ducketts. We are wondering when other areas are so congested, why nobody is moored here. We are hoping it's not for any sinister reasons that we end up finding out tonight!

Eventually managed to speak to a very helpful lock-keeper at Limehouse. He says he has no idea why BW advertise e-mail bookings, because for certain nobody looks at the e-mail address given. He also acknowledged that contact details for Brentford are not how it now works. When I had just about given up hope of hearing from them Thames Lock, Brentford finally called. We may finally have made the required arrangements.

Even going on the tidal Thames can surely not be as difficult as booking it!

Kensal Green to Victoria Park
Miles: 10.3 , Locks: 8
Total Miles: 56.3 , Total Locks: 62