A Lot Going On

Saturday 21st August 2010

Moored in Limehouse Basin
No Miles No Locks.

There was a lot going on this morning with 6 or 7 boats getting ready to Lock out onto the River at 9 o'clock and others moving over to the fuel  boat for Diesel. It was not only Narrowboats filling with Diesel, the owner of the fuel boat is very pleased to see the cruisers pull along side as some of them hold 600 litres of fuel.

The Fuel boat on the inside, dwarfed by a thirsty Cruiser.

A bit of info which will only be of interest to Narrowboat anoraks is that the Fuel boat has a 3 Cylinder Bolinder Diesel engine.

The Bolinder Engine

One of the first boats through the Lock today was a Hanse 430 Yacht, checked on the Internet and you could have a nice secondhand one for about $275000.
Because of the mast the road bridge by the Lock swivels out of the way.

An Expensive Hobby

The locks on Canals are filled via sluices which lets the water in or out in a controlled action, the Lock from the Basin onto the River does not have sluices so the hydraulically operated gates are opened a bit at a time and the water pours in or out.

The Lock Gates are opened a small amount and the water comes out.

The veiw down stream, it bends to the right, goes past the O2 Arena (Millenium Dome)  down to the Flood Barrier.

At about 5 o'clock the boats that were going out on to the Thames Flood Barrier cruise started Locking out, they arrived back as it was getting dark.

Narrowboat Willow heads for the Thames Barrier.

We have had our Locking out time moved forward to 9 o'clock on Sunday morning which is good, pity about the weather forecast which is bad.

We will be looking out for these trip boats on Sunday as they cause a few waves