Saturday 9th June 2007 Three Mills & back via Bow Creek Wendy shopped early at Tesco (long before I was awake), and then we had a lazy day. Mid-afternoon most of the boats went off to Limehouse for a visit to "The Grapes" before locking out onto the tideway to go up Brentford Creek then round to Lea Mouth and up Bow Creek and Abbey Creek to look at Prescott Channel before locking in at Bow. We and a cruiser called "Club Claret" decided to miss out on the tideway and lock out of Bow at 19:00 to join the others on their way to Abbey Creek.
At 18:26 we went up-river to Bow Bridge Junction where we winded and came back to just before Bow Locks, where we were joined by "Club Claret". We stopped to clear the blade. I'd managed to throw off some of the grot, but there was still a lot of plastic there, including a heavy-gauge plastic sheet twisted up with some weed which felt like a rope. I used a hook provided by our boat-builder to deal with that bit of the load. While we were dealing with that, "Club Claret" was called into the lock and set off down the Creek. Eventually our blade was free and we were able to go into the lock. We were in two minds whether to wait in the lock until the others (already overdue) appeared. A 'phone conversation with "Club Claret" told us that they were some way down the Creek with no sign of the others, so they were obviously running very late. So we decided to set off down the Creek slowly, to meet the rest of the flotilla. By the time we reached the DLR bridge with no sight of the others, we were beginning to wonder whether to turn back, as we were all due to lock back in at 20:00. Then we saw "Galatea" and another boat, which wasn't one of those we were expecting. It looked rather like Terry Streeter's "Arun". It was "Arun". Terry had met the others at Limehouse and decided to postpone his trip up the tideway until next day and join them. We winded behind this pair of boats as "Club Claret" came in sight behind them. We decided that both light and tide were fading, so we'd miss out the trip up Abbey Creek to Prescott Channel. We had to wait a short time while "Galatea" & "Arun" locked through, then we did the same in company with "Club Claret". It was nearly high tide and there was only about three feet rise to the lock. As we were locking though, "Ernest" arrived and headed up towards Abbey Creek. We tied up before Three Mills bridge at 20:27 and learnt that the delay for the main flotilla had been threefold (a) the expected grounding in Deptford Creek (b) "Rhino" getting a steel rod round its blade and (c) "Panacea" having an engine (or gearbox?) failure. "Panacea" had been taken in tow by "Ernest" until the more powerful "Rhino" had finished clearing its blade, whereupon it took over the tug duty. A little while later "Ernest" joined us and moored outboard of "FC3". They reported that the footbridge across the bottom end of Prescott Channel was still in place and the tide had been too high for them to get under it. From that point they'd not been able to see any of the work on the new lock. Finally "Rhino" arrived with "Panacea" in tow. The three chaps on "Club Claret" had taken their boat to Limehouse, where they'd booked rooms at the Cruising Association. Then they came back by taxi to join us for another barbecue. Unfortunately Wendy couldn't join in as she'd developed a bad headache and went to bed. John put their engine-room step on our well-deck locker to make a step up onto the high bank. DAY'S RUN 3.6 miles, no locks in 1 hr 49 min TO BE CONTINUED -- Mike Stevens narrowboat Felis Catus III web-site www.mike-stevens.co.uk Defend the waterways. Visit the web site www.saveourwaterways.org.uk
