A gloomy start leading to good times.

Thick fog this morning when we woke up. We needed an early start to get to Tottenham to drop off Rick and Marilyn and replace them with Claire, Jacob and Grace who are coming through to Paddington with us.

Despite being unable to see many yards we set off into the gloom, which actually lent the Lee navigation an air of eeriness and hid some of the rough edges. One thing fog always does is highlight the handiwork of BW spiders.

I was dreading the approach of the ghastly Stonebridge lock which nearly wore me to death on the way up. As we approached it, the sun suddenly burst through and a canoeist on the bank said “lovely day mate, did you know they’ve fixed the lock and the electrics now work?”

Suddenly things seemed much brighter, my furrowed brow turned to a smile and we sailed through with merely the press of a few buttons instead of twenty minutes winding heavy hydraulic gear. Bliss.

At Tottenham we exchanged crews (with a delay while Claire got lost in London traffic finding us) and set off down the Lee in warm sunshine.

Reserve crew:

By tea time we were safely moored up here in Victoria Park. Only just though, we got the last available space, breasted up against a boat that seems to have no one on it. Down the street is a Church dedicated to St James the Less. Less what, I wonder.

Anyway, an Indian takeaway and a can of beer later, the only problem we have is a one year old rampaging through the boat pulling everything off the shelves!