More Olympic Park waterways travelled

We had a long day yesterday - that's why I'm writing this the day after, rather than in the evening of the day itself (if you see what I mean). Long, but certainly interesting, and including waters new to us.

My alarm went off at 0600. I wanted to be sure that we were ready to go as soon as Tottenham Lock was mended. The first CRT team which looked at the problem said that if people were sent from Enfield then they could be here early, which they were. They pressed a couple of buttons and - look! - both top gates started to close. The problem had been a hydraulic pump overheating. No doubt they reset the system and all came back to life.

WB Pericles said that we could go first as we had the time constraint of a booked passage through Carpenter's Road Lock later that morning. At 0800 We were successfully worked through Tottenham Lock by CRT, then we made a dash for the Olympic Park. At Old Ford Lock we saw Joe, the helpful and friendly CRT person who was going to see us through Carpenter's Road Lock. In the end we must have been about 45 minutes later than our booked time of 0900 there.

This is the lock, approached under a highly reflective footbridge.

Carpenter's Road Lock is the only one in the country with a radial gate at each end. Having passed under the first gate ...

… the gate closed behind us; then the next gate was opened slightly to equalise the level with the river beyond. As this is all part of flood control, the level here could be higher or lower than the previous pound. In this case it was lower.

With the gate raised sufficiently we left the lock and turned right onto the Waterworks River. This is looking back towards the upper end of the Waterworks River, which I had wanted to explore but Joe said it was too shallow. It also seems to be outside CRT's jurisdiction, although Nicholson marks it as navigable.

Did I mention that we had been joined by David, Penny and Florence? No? They boarded at Carpenter's Road Lock. Do you like this twin peaks photo? That's the Olympic swimming pool.

Just before City Mill Lock we turned left onto Three Mill Wall River, passing a sculpture inspired, so the sign said, on pick-up-sticks.

We continued south for a short distance, then turned left to nose into the Prescott Channel. I had intended to go down to Three Mills Lock and wind above it, but the channel looked a bit too narrow with shallow sloping sides so I reversed out and went back to City Mill Lock.

This, again, is built to be able to cope with varying levels and has two sets of V-gates at each end.

Emerging from City Mill Lock took us on to the Bow Back River ...

… we wanted to make a very sharp right turn onto the City Mill River.

This manoeuvre completed, we came round past the Olympic Stadium, now the home of West Ham United FC (photos in a previous post) and rejoined the River Lee Navigation where we went straight up Old Ford Lock. At the junction with the Hertford Union Canal we turned left to go up (confusingly) Old Ford Locks. Our guests stayed with us until Regent's Park. Approaching Camden I got talking to two Spaniards who were interested in seeing us work through the lock.

We briefly considered seeing if we could find a space in Paddington Basin, but decided to carry on to Harrow Road Bridge 3 where we had moored three weeks ago. We tied up alongside Go with the Flow, another IWA festival attendee.

After another early start (Go with the Flow wanted to set off before 0730) we are now making our way through west London on the Paddington Branch.

Timelapse: Islington to Pickett's Lock

At last! Here is the first of a series of timelapse films recording our epic cruise from Northolt to Northolt via Hertford, Bishop's Stortford, Limehouse Basin, Thames Flood Barrier, Radcot (almost as far up the Thames as you can go), Brentford and Bull's Bridge. Except that I can't find the first section, from Northolt to Islington. Perhaps I hadn't set up the timelapse camera for that bit.

This timelapse sequence starts on the morning of Monday 16th August 2010 from the north portal of Islington Tunnel, and proceeds via the Hertford Union Canal to the River Lee Navigation as far as Pickett's Lock.



Edited to correct a couple of errors and to add: the film seems to be running very jerkily, not like the original. Perhaps it's my computer.

Props. Two different ones.

On looking through the photos I took on our exciting cruise I found that I'd taken one of the original propeller, the one which fell off at Bablock Hythe.


I had to clear rubbish from it along the Hertford Union Canal, and saw how clear the water was. When removing plastic bags etc. from the prop on a canal you can't usually see what you're doing as the water is too murky. With a fair amount of weed the water clears. Interestingly I can't see the locking washer, but this could be just the angle of the photo. It has been suggested that the washer could deteriorate over time, which might lead to Vetus props coming off all over the place, but this was denied at the Vetus stand at the IWA Festival. Perhaps the washer was never fitted in the first place.

And here is the new propeller, on the Thames at Chertsey five days after it was fitted the second time. It's still there! You can see the rim of the washer, and you should just be able to make out where it's been knocked over a flat on the nut.


The truncated conical grey thing on the back end is a sacrificial anode which is held onto the nut with a set screw.


And above is a shot of the nut and the vital washer (from the first callout).

Islington to Waltham Abbey

On Monday morning we made a reasonably early start from Islington and made our way down the remaining four locks to the junction with the Hertford Union Canal, or Duckett's Cut. If you weren't expecting the junction to be very soon after Old Ford Lock it would be easy to miss it, as it looks narrow, and like the entrance to an old wharf.


We continued our descent alongside Victoria Park, until we reached the Lee Navigation. Here we turned left, to start our climb to Hertford.


Immediately you're next to the building site which is the 2012 Olympic venue.


Willow looking small in Tottenham Lock

The first few locks on the Lee are paired, and some are electrically operated. These lower locks have hydraulic gear both for paddles and gates, the manual pumps being marked P and G accordingly.


We arrived at Waltham Abbey in time, and in the right sort of weather, to have a barbecue, so we did, on a towpath busy with walkers and cyclists.


Surely this would be a nice, quiet place to tie up, we thought, but after dark a boat which had been moored near us set off for a night-time cruise. (You can just see it in the barbecue picture.) No lights. Revellers with drink on board. Outsized parasol at the stern. After a couple of hours it returned. That night we were awoken by rowdies knocking on the boat and calling out and giggling. Were they from that boat? We ignored them and went back to sleep.

Yes, I'm a day out with these posts - I'll try to catch up when I have time! We're actually tied up in the middle of Hertford now (slightly behind schedule), listening to the rain. And we're under a willow tree - I hope it's not the infamous crack willow.