Cruising the Olympic Park

Hackney Marsh to Limehouse

July 2017

We spent an uneventful, if slightly edgy Friday night at Hackney Marsh. There were lots of boaters around so there was safety in numbers I guess, but of all the stops on this trip this mooring felt the least secure. Subsequent discussions with local boaters suggests that the area is OK.

Olympic Stadium and Orbit Tower

The most distinctive thing about these lower reaches of the Lee is the weed. The floating duckweed carpets the waterway in many areas, but the real danger is the long stringy stuff which lies beneath the surface and it is to propellers what stingers are to car tyres. I accepted that my propshaft was never clear of a ball of the stuff, but eventually it builds up till there is no water exiting the back and forward motion (including steering) is completely lost. There seem to be two types of aquatic stinger - the one which is shrugged off with a blast of reverse and the other which hangs on tenaciously and demands a visit to the weed hatch. Fortunately, beyond Hackney the weed is of the former variety.

 Old Ford Lock

The last lock on the Lee is Old Ford Lock and its approach was guarded by several hundred yards of solid Duckweed. We struggled through the thick Sargasso Sea and entered the lock by ramming the thick green carpet into an ever denser blanket in front of us. The stuff doubles in density every three days and is even faster in hot weather. CRT try to remove it but the 70 tons taken out last week really was a drop in the ocean.

Below the lock the water cleared where the Old River Lea joins the Lee Navigation, and we had an unexpected choice. Just the day before CRT had unexpectedly removed the barriers to the circular park waterway, opening it up to cruising at will. Never one to pass up on a new waterway experience we did a hard left into the Old River Lea and passed close under the western side of the Olympic Stadium, now home to West Ham FC. 

You get really close to the stadium!

The river curls round the stadium to carpenters Road Lock which is in the final stages of preparation for navigation, opening for booked passages in August and offering access to the River Lea and Waterworks River.

Carpenters Road Lock

Olympic Stadium 2017

The concrete lined channel loops right round the stadium offering impressive views from most points of the compass, until ones attention is drawn to the Arcelor Mittal Orbit tower, the distinctive twisted structure which offered height and focus in the Olympic Park. These days it is a giant helter skelter and, as we passed, a base for a massive abseil drop.

Low bridges - for comparison we fit through Froghall Tunnel

There are a couple of low bridges at Marshgate, the mid point of the ring but none so low to cause any problems for narrowboats. This back section is a bit silted and whilst at 22 inches the motor sailed across, the deep drafted stern of the butty next to me ploughed a groove and black mud boiled up astern. Nothing a bit of traffic wont address.

City Mill Lock

Then it was into the "death by Duckweed" zone past City Mill Lock and back on St Thomas Creek to the Lee, just upstream from Bow Locks.

So, what did I think of this addition to the boating scene?

I found the trip round the Olympic Stadium fascinating, especially viewing it from water level. The channel itself is nothing to write home about, bounded by the original high concrete banks The frequent signs of welcome  from CRT accompanied by a threat of a £150 fine is you as much as stop suggest one does not linger hereabouts - a message strongly directed at the large and growing local liveaboard community. A downside to this policy is a missed opportunity to visit the Orbit Tower - the ride may be pricey but it would have added hugely to the experience and offered an unforgettable birds eye view of the East End. Maybe a 4 hours mooring pontoon could be tolerated?

The weed is an issue on the Bow back Rivers, but this is seasonal. And now for a fascinating but entirely unauthenticated story told to me by a local boater at Bow Locks. Its reported that the Duckweek is Churchill's problem. It seems that the Luftwaffe used the shiny rivers for bomb aiming in WW2. In an attempt to address this issue Duckweed was (allegedly) imported from the Amazon and sown to cover the surface, whilst leaving the water clear beneath and thus did not impede the freight boat movements unduly. The stuff is supposed to die in winter, and whilst it decays absorbing all the oxygen in the water, it never dies completely and each year it returns. This is probably completely untrue, but why why let a an absence of verification stand in the way of a good story. 

Bow Locks

Finally, on the subject of Duckweek, it has high nutritional values but given the pollution issues in the Lee you are strongly recommended NOT to eat the local produce! 

Our journey ended in Limehouse Basin where we found a 44ft slot which was just enough for us with the butty on the outside. Boat length is a significant factor when mooring in London. I have lost count of the times we have found a spot which is just long enough for the motor, and would probably be ok up to 50ft. However the standard 57ft boat would have far fewer mooring options. Its interesting that the typical live aboard boat is less than 50ft in length.

Sunset at Limehouse

From Limehouse Basin we walked along the Commercial Road to the Limehouse DLR Station and found the noise and smell overwhelming. Life in the slow lane is a far better way to go.

Heatwave in Hackney

Fieldes Weir to Hackney Marsh

July 2017

As I suspected, the trip downriver was achieved much faster that the upstream route. This is partly attributable to the assistance of a slight current, but more that we were running the boats line astern.

 Enfield Lock

Thursday was a short six mile run down from Fielde's Weir Lock to Cheshunt, where Helen would rejoin me after her few days away. I took the opportunity to rewire the freezer condenser fan I installed in Oxford using multi core wire salvaged from the butty when I stripped out the old loom. This was a pressing need because I had installed it using some single core wire bought with the fan from Maplins. Single core wire on boats is a no, no on account of the vibrations and the risk that the single wire will fracture and break causing a spark. 

Swans at Tottenham - like Stratford on Avon but with rubbish!

It was than on down the river in 26C heat to meet Helen from the train. I found a shady spot near a footpath to the station and waited. At 4.45pm I decided to get ready to go and find her and much to my horror the loo kind of exploded. Well, the sliding trap mechanism jumped out of its cogs and the resulting mess as I removed the loo to fix it was beyond words! Helen waited patiently in the shade at the station as I completed the repair, cleaned up and had a much needed shower. Perfect timing.

Hot days lead to hot nights and these last few have not been conducive to a good nights sleep.

Friday was hotter still and we have a rendezvous to be kept in Limehouse Basin on Saturday afternoon, so we had to make progress down the Lee. As luck would have it, every lock was set for us and every lock had a gate standing open, which meant Helen didn't have to stand out on the worst of the heat and instead followed the tennis in the relative shade of the boat. 

A project too far - including a curved steel staircase. 

The volume of traffic on the Lee is minute, given the number of craft moored. I passed just two boats heading upstream at Enfield and one broad beam came up behind me at Tottenham. This is not a busy waterway by any stretch of the imagination - its just hard to find a mooring.

Today a few observations:

1. CRT have a problem with fly tipping in their bins so have removed a lot of them, saving £15k a year. Issue - there is no where for genuine boaters to dump their waste. End result, informal tips like the one at Fielde's Weir and the moored hopper at Waltham Abbey get filled instead. I can see that boaters want to dispose of rubbish responsibly (in the main) but there seem to be no facilities. I am sure the resultant clear ups from fly tips will cost more than £15k.....

Waltham Abbey's waste collection point

2. There is a notable absence of Sanitary Facilities for Elsans. Unless I have missed it, the last one was 16 miles back at Fielde's Weir with the ones at Waltham Cross and Tottenham Hale missing, in spite of my Nicholsons indications to the contrary. Lets hope the facilities at Old Ford Lock are present! I have been wondering how all these hundreds of boats manage and I guess that there is a conection between the lack of facilities and the fact that a few years ago the Lee had 400 times the recommended amount of fecal matter! It makes me think twice before diving down the weed hatch.

Weedy Lee at Hackney Marshes

3. In the Midlands I am used to oiks starting conversation with a surly "Oi mister - how much did that cost (nodding at the boat)". I have had none of that here in London. Instead I am constantly being asked - "do you rent that boat?" These comments, and comments in London Boaters suggests that the incidence of informal boat renting is rife with big money to be made from modern day Robert Rackman's. CRT are rightly tackling this issue and the next challenge will be to identify which boats are not occupied by their owners.

And so we passed under the M25 the the generally pleasant landscape changed abruptly. Gone was the woodland and in their place mile upon mile of raised reservoir banks, industrial units and even the London Incinerator. 

 Fake sailing barges and The Shard

We started to look for a mooring at about 5.00pm and in the end had to carrry on for another 40 minutes to Hackney Marshes which are possibly not the most genteel place to stay, but there are lots of other boaters around so there is safety in numbers. A 50 foot slot presented itself and once again I was grateful that we are articulated and able to bring the butty round to the outside - short spaces are easier to find than long ones. Its also safer to have the butty out of reach of prying fingers.

We rounded off the day listening to the radio as Andy Murray made hard work of getting through to the second week of Wimbledon.

Falling Stort of my objective

The Stort Navigation

July 2017

Four days and not a single post - don't worry I am still out here and moving along!

 Parndon Mill

I left you at the Ware Boat Festival where the Saturday proved to be surprisingly busy. As the stall was all set up on the butty, there seemed no point in packing it away till Sunday evening. The Sunday had little formal action so we took part in the morning worship service held on one of the trip boats. As soon as it was over we scuttled back to the boat and got the stall up and running to pick up the passing trade from the well used towpath.

Monday saw Helen's departure for a few days so she could visit her mother in Hull, leaving me to baby sit the boats. I saw her off on the train from Ware's diddy station. Helen was looking for the right platform for London till it clicked that there is only one and trains come and go on a single track.

Brick Lock

With Helen gone and the water tank rather empty I set off down river, this time with both boats in line. This is a bit faster but crucially, the locks on the Stort and broad but not quite broad enough to fit two narrow boats side by side.

After the big Lee Navigation (oddly the river is spelled Lea) the Stort seems very narrow and winding. The waterway is known for its sinuous path and this tested my steering to the full. With constant switching from sharp right to sharp left I had the butty swinging all over the place and I am glad to report that I neither went aground nor hit another craft.

I moved up the river for about three miles and through three locks, mooring up at about 4.00pm. Then it was on with the chores and run a week's clothes through the washing machine. To run the washing machine we need to keep the engine running and supplying extra power to the inverter. 8.00pm arrived and I was still 45 from the end of the process. Etiquette is that you don't run engines after 8.00pm, so I wandered back to a boat moored 200 yards behind me. He was most surprised to receive my request because no one had asked before and it was so quiet he could barely hear its muted burble. Needless to say he had no issue with my request and proceeded to plug me for information about typical drafts of boats because he thought his recently purchased craft was much to deep (a not excessive 28 inches).

Parndon Mill

Whilst the washing was running I pressure cooked the three batches of Lemon and Lavender Marmalade I had prepared the previous afternoon. 

The mooring wasn't ideal if I am honest. A busy rail track to Harlow, Bishop Stortford and Stanstead ran close by. But is wasn't the woosh of the trains that was the problem. There must have been five or six unmanned crossings up the valley and the trains all had to toot twice as they approached each one. You could hear them for ages before they arrived and sadly one of the tooting spots was opposite where I moored. I never realised that trains all have distinct voices, even within the same models. Some offer an asthmatic rasp, other a high pitched screech and worst of all were the two tone versions which made the air tremble. However, come 11.00pm the trains (or their whistling) stopped and we had peace till 6.30am when it all started again!

Tuesday was forcast hot so I took advantage of the Greater Anglia wake up call to finish off the 30 jars of Marmalade, and then took it easy pottering around the boat till about 4.00pm when it cooled a bit and I moved three locks up river to Harlow. For those of you that don't know, Harlow is a new town and as such has about as much character as Milton Keynes. However the river seems to keep back from the town and is rather pleasant. 

Roydon Lock flowers

Usually I would want to complete all the navigable water but with it being so hot and with all the locks against me on the way up I called it a day at Harlow, the half way point. A further eight miles remain, but they can keep for another time.

I used the visitor moorings next to the station and whilst I was woken at 7.30 by the announcer, it was far more tolerable than the tooting. One good thing about Harlow it its shops. Helen left me with a long list and I manfully dragged the shopping trolley 20 mins up the hill to Sainsburys and was thankful for the gradient on the way back as the temperature had risen to the middle 20's.

Helen is due back on Thursday and the plan is to meet her at Broxbourne, so I motored through the heat of the day, gulping pints and pints of water. Roydon Lock house is occupied by a lady with an entrepreneurial bent and it was impossible to miss the fact that she sells ice cream. As I entered the lock she emerged and carefully scrutinized my menu board and asked for three jams, I in turn, scrutinized her ice cream list and settled on an Almond Magnum. The net effect was cash to me and an ice cream so I was well pleased. This time every lock was in my favour and I reached the Lee at 4.30pm. I immediately spotted a shady mooring above Fieldes Wier Lock and decided to call it a day, doing some outstanding DIY jobs in the relative cool.

IWA Ware Boating Festival 2017

IWA Ware Boating Festival 2017

July 2017

Friday was a gentle set up day, where I did more socialising with the 50 boat crews than work, chatting to all and sundry who were interested in the butty and our preserves in equal measure. 

Trading in Ware

I felt the need to try and spruce up the one mushroom vent on the butty and was applying elbow grease and being rewarded with limited success. Just as I was giving up a boater came along and told me it needed to have a metal polishing machine applied to it, and then told me he had one on his boat! We duly unscrewed the entire brass vent from the roof and 15 minutes later - te da! a vent which gleamed in a way I never thought possible. Sad man that I am, I cant explain how satisfying it is to have a gleaming vent on the butty roof!

Impressive shine or what!

The  day concluded with a boaters BBQ, where an excellent spread was laid on and we were able to chat to other attendees.

And so Saturday arrived, what will no doubt be the main event of the weekend.

Watching the boat parade

As we have never attended this event before we didn't really know what to expect. Whilst we are attending the boating festival it was clear that this forms part of a much wider annual town celebration. This includes a huge "fete" on a recreation ground near, but not next to the navigation. I did pop over to the main field and there must have been getting on for 100 stalls, rides and gazebos.

The theme was flower power - looks a bit like the Queen's EU hat to me!

We had no idea what this would mean for our trade, as we would be remote from the main attractions. But on the other hand as we were the only trade boat we would be something of a novelty, and this has worked in our favour in some places.

These guys won my man of the match award

In the event there was no slow burn. No sooner were we half set up than the customers arrived enthusiastically exchanging tenners for our products. During the day the boating aspect of the event laid on water based attractions including a rather splendid boat parade and then a tricky boat handling challenge in a confined and flowing bit of water.

Steam - seductively silent

Our location proved to be ideal because most of the public chose to walk along the towpath with many stopping to chat, taste and buy. 

We have never worked out why, but some days people home in on a certain preserve, one which may be a slow seller elsewhere. Today it was the turn of Cinnamon Plum Jam, with most of out stock being sold. Don't get me wrong, its a great jam and one I have felt was under appreciated, but this was certainly its day. But why, here, today? Its a mystery.

Muscle power

In the final analysis we had an excellent days trading, right up there with the best of them so thanks Ware, we have really enjoyed being part of your 2017 celebration.

Even a pirate

Sorry for the long line of boat parade photos, when you cant leave the stall you have to photograph what comes to you!

Ware?

Ponders End to Ware

June 2017

We have been moving steadily north for the last two days, probably 16 or 18 miles, but it was against the flow and wit the boats breasted up that meant fairly slow progress.

Waltham Abbey

The navigation tracks the huge reservoirs for mile after mile and when they give out we are surrounded by flooded worked out gravel pits which form the core the the Lea Valley park. All this water makes the navigation surprisingly remote, touching civilisation infrequently.

Because we are slow we were overtaken by other boats from time to time, mostly at locks. This interaction usually resulted in a preserve purchase and by the end we were meeting them again on almost an hourly basis and getting updated on the time the jam had lasted. Few jars seem to last more than two days, which is encouraging!

An unusual tractor

We paused at Waltham Abbey with its erratic buildings and attractive high street. The aim here was to restock from Tesco but we were struck my the presence of about a dozen hairdressers / barbers in about half a mile. Surely this is oversupply. Sadly we didnt have tome to visit the gunpowder mill, which was a significant cargo on the waterway.

Waltham Abbey High Street

We ended the day near Aqueduct Lock, level with Cheshunt. A remote spot with just the occasional drone of trains as they progressed along their tracks about half a mile away.

One big gripe I have about this waterway is its lack of facilities. We have travelled three days without a sanitary station and had been banking on one at Waltham Abbey. Sadly it is no more and we had to resort to the emergency tank. Its therefore not surprising that some boated resort to less hygienic solutions. The same goes for rubbish and in the absence of proper bins we found piles, crawling with flies like the one at Feilds Weir Lock Services. The place was disgusting and a veritable health hazard.

The confluence of the Lea and the Stort marks a change in the Navigation which ceases to be straight and instead starts to follow the river, winding here and there in a much more attractive manner. 

Attractive river section

The locks remain big and heavy, 15 feet with by over 80ft long and represent a physical challenge which is one of its less endearing aspects.

If ever a couple were destined to be canal boat enthusiasts!

We finally made it to Ware after three modest days of upstream progress. My guess is that the downstream trip to Limehouse will take less then two.