Bulls Bridge Friday 12 August 2016

An early start, away by 9-15 on a very clear morning. It wasn’t long before we were passing Harefield Marina, this is basically a flooded gravel pit that is connected to the canal in several places with just a thin back between the two for the rest of the time.

The local water birds seem to enjoy the bits of broken down bank and shallow water as can bee seen by this goose and Cormorant. 

At Denham Deep Lock we had to wait for a wide beam to come out, he managed to lose one of his fenders in the process, luckily Diana retrieved it before it sank as he was using car tyres, just what you need in the paddle or gate of a lock. The lock is so ten feet six inches deep.

Just below the lock Denham Boat Services have several of their boats moored including a floating dry dock, basically a barge with a tank welded into it with the end open. The barge is filled with water to sink it, a Narrowboat is floated into the tank and the barge refloated by pumping the water out.

We passed this paddle wheel powered Narrowboat, I don’t think it was Jethro Tull but similar layout.

A sunken boat is always a sad site and this old butty looked very sad. I couldn’t see her name, but someone’s pride and joy.

I am sure the next boat is also someone’s pride and joy but I wouldn’t fancy it myself. The steering position is so bad the steerer is standing on top of his generator to look over the top.

We tried to get a pump out at Packet Boat Marina but it requires a £15 card which I didn’t have, there is a vending machine to dispense the cards but it required £15 in change and we couldn’t get that together between us. The is also a notice to say they are not available at the office. this was after we had winded to bring the port side against the pump out unit.

Passing West Drayton I was surprised to see they are electrifying the line and are in the process of putting overheads cables up. I thought this would have been the case years ago.

As well as the paddle boat we saw another unusable boat, this one has had a VW grafted on the back for some reason. It all been fully welded but I don’t quite see the point unless its stripped out as a wheelhouse.

We arrived at Bulls Bridge to find most of the moorings vacant. As we passed the old dry dock that Tesco restored its sad to see it falling into disrepair with the walkways falling off the gates. What a useful facility this would be in the London area if it was fully working and leased out to an operator.

Today’s Journey   

10 miles 4 locks in 5 hours.