We had bought Lady Clare primarily as a pied-a-terre to allow Babaji to be wintered elsehere, but always knew she would have to be dry-docked for tarring and inspection. The time had come. Meanwhile it had been become necessary to get a safety certificate - or a failure certificate - to be allowed onto the canals. We got a failure certificate and planned to carry out most of the corrective work to pass while in Uxbridge.
| We have our licence to proceed.We leave our pontoon in Limehouse at 1100 on Thursday 8th April in glorious sunshine. | |
| And negotiate our first lock on the Regent's Canal, under the traffic of theCommercial Road (A13). Our marina is below the lock. | |
| A few locks up and we look down towards Canary Wharf tower in the distance. | |
| This section skirts London Zoo giving us a free view of some of the animals and birds in the aviary beyond. | |
| Little Venice where the Paddigton Arm joins the Regents Canal and an island forms a roundabout. We moored overnight in the visitor's moorings just beyond, and almost opposite the London section office. Here we met Tony, who trained at Limehouse and is now in charge. Next morning we bought diesel from a narrow boat that had just filled up from a road tanker. | |
| We had so often seen this aqueduct miles above the North Circular road; now the road was miles below us. There was nothing to tie up to so we just stopped in this dual carriageway! | |
| And here it is below us. How different from the tranquility on the canal, where we had met only one narrow boat so far. | |
| The next section to the famous Bulls Bridge in uninspiring, apart from a large golf course where the golfers use motorised buggies. I thought it was supposed to provide exercise! At Bulls Bridge one joins the Grand Union Canal. Turn left for the Thames at Brentford and right for Uxbridge and the North. | |
| The Canal soon passes through more attractive countryside. We are ready to leave this lock, needing to open only one gate for our 7ft beam. | |
| We spend the night outside the Uxbridge Boat Centre, which provides electricity, diesel and water. Uxbridge Town is quite pleasant with big shops off a pedesrianised area. Shopped at M&S. | |
| At 1130 on Saturday we are craned out and promptly blasted with high pressure water. The bottom looked quite clean but the surveyor on Monday was going to tell us we needed some replating. | |
Page added 15 April 1999