Cruising the Grand Union

Brentford Lock easily accommodated the four boats coming off the Thames, two in each lock. It wasn't long before the locks were filled and we were off again along the canal since the tide was still well up. A short cruise to the electric Gauging Locks then around the corner to the moorings. It was after 8pm when we arrived at the moorings, the first two boats had the pick of what was available, we went along another 200 metres or so finding a mooring under an old steel structure, possibly and old warehouse.

It wasn't until the morning that the ramifications of mooring under a steel framed structure became obvious. The pigeons also loved the steel frame and had deposited quite a mess over the bow of the boat, a job for later on today! One thing that struck me (no, not pigeon poo) was the colour of the water in the canal once the propeller had stirred it up, it looked like thick black soup. Looking closer in the morning, the water was very clear, so clear in fact that you could see the rubbish that the propeller was stirring up from the bottom. Cans, bottles, but mainly leaf matter accumulated over a very long time.

We cruised off knowing it was a ten lock day to get to Bulls Bridge Junction, our first manual locks for over a week! Met this guy along the way keeping watch on a Moorhen nest.

The locks were reasonably easy to operate but Rachael found several of the lock gates very hard to open and close. The last lock for the day, the top of the Norwood Locks, had CRT Volunteers operating the lock, always a welcome sight. We moored temporarily to fill with water so we could do another load of washing on the way to the nights mooring. We chatted to the volunteers while filling and mentioned all the coconuts in the canal. His explanation was that there was the high Asian population in the area tossing coconuts into the canal to appease the river gods. It may be good for the gods but it's hard on the lock gates!

We moored up just over half and hour later at Bulls Bridge Junction, just outside a large Tesco.