Noisy to Very Noisy

Friday 6 August 2010
Harefield to Bulls Bridge Southall
6 Miles 5 Locks.

The noisy Peacocks in the grounds of Black Jack's Cottage woke us up a few times last night so we decided to move today rather than wait until Monday which was the original plan.
We are surprised how few boats are on the move around here despite passing old flooded gravel pits which are now used as Marina's and Cruising club mooring's, we did not share a Lock with another boat until Cowley Lock which was the last one.

We pasted fellow blogger Captain Ahab going in the opposite direction between Cowley Lock and Bulls Bridge, he was coming back from the River Thames after joining it at Oxford.
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We had hoped to moor around the Cowley Lock area but most of the mooring are taken up with British Waterways Long Term Moorings and some unusual boats ??

Steel pontoons with wooded buildings mounted on them

Or, get a Caravan, remove the Chassis and mount it on a Steel pontoon.

We thought it looked a bit run down so carried on to Bulls Bridge and are now moored on the 24 hour mooring outside the 24 Hour Tesco. so we should have a nice quiet night !!!
In front of us on the mooring is Narrowboat Countess who is heading for Little Venice tomorrow which is what we have decided to do.

On August 22 we will be joining the River Thames at Limehouse and travelling up stream to Teddington Lock, this section is Tidal and is controlled by the Port of London Authority, their regulation require a boat of No Directions length to carry a V.H.F. radio and that a member of the crew be qualified to use it, V.H.F. radios are around £80 on Ebay and a training course with the R.Y.A. £150 so it is an expensive 4 hours which is the time it will take to travel between Limehouse and Teddington, the solution is to join a cruise organised by the St Pancras Cruisjng Club, they organise cruises thoughout the year in which they have a lead boat with a V.H.F. radio and members of the club travel on the other boats with there own Radio's, this is acceptable to the Port of London Authority and is also very reassuring for first timers.
Although we will not be locking out until the 22nd we need to be in Limehouse Basin on the 20th for a Safety breifing at the Cruising  Association.  

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