Once we had made the decision not to venture onto the Tidal Thames at Limehouse, (mainly because the St Pancras Cruising Club tend to run their flotillas in the spring not the autumn) we booked ourselves another week at Islington. Little did we know our Queen was going to die and our mooring was to start the day of her funeral. (Yes, my blog diary is a bit behind the times) We would have preferred not to have cruised that day but, in the end it turned out ok. We set off from Limehouse braced for a long 4 hour cruise and 8 locks
I walked around basin to set the first lock, and was greeted by a magnificent sight, a lock buddy,
Our buddy was a professional boat mover, who could work through a lock single handed quicker that Eric and I working as a team. We quickly got into the swing of me walking ahead to set the next lock whilst the two men efficiently moved the boats. The journey took just over 4 hours. There were very few boats moving but the towpath was heaving in true bank holiday style. We wouldn’t have guessed that there was a state funeral taking place a few miles away. Even the Hackney sharks had come out to keep an eye on things.
Thankfully we found ourselves a space on the eco mooring. It irks us that, despite us having booked, getting in isn’t a guarantee.
