Heading North on the Grand Union - Uxbridge

We enjoyed our stay in London on our Rembrandt Gardens mooring. I will spare you all the standard pictures of London but suffice to say we managed to repeat a few experiences that we had had before as well as experience some new ones. Probably the highlight of our stay, mainly because we hadn't done it before, was our tour of Buckingham Palace, so may beautiful pieces of art, beautiful furniture and ornately decorated rooms. Sorry I can't show you any pics of them you will have to go to the Palace website for that, best I could do was a pic of the Palace as we left through the garden.

 

We slipped off our mooring Tuesday morning and out of Little Venice around 9:30 for the four hour cruise back to Bulls Bridge. I was confident we would make it before the predicted downpour in the afternoon so no wet weather gear for today. That was a bad move, the heavens opened with about half and hours cruising to go. Arriving at Bulls Bridge moorings there was no room on the 24 hour moorings so we moored across the canal on the 14 day moorings. I think I knocked the pins in and tied up in record time! Straight inside and into a hot shower.

Wednesday morning and heavy rain is predicted so we decided not to cruise today. Two of the four boats left the 24 hour moorings leaving enough room for us to move across the canal and get the water flowing into our tank. It's the first time we have filled since we left Bull's Bridge to head down the Paddington Arm six days ago. Rachael had also put on a wash as we headed back up the Arm. I know the Bull's Bridge point is a slow filler but it took ages. With no water gauge I can only guess that if we had one the needle would be awfully close to the big 'E'. I managed to just get the tank filled and the heavens opened again, that was the last we saw of the outside for the next four hours while it poured and poured. It was late afternoon before we could head across to the Tesco to fill the cupboards again. A boat pulled onto the only vacant mooring as we returned from the supermarket, they were focused on tying up and getting into a hot shower, they told us they had cruised through what I would call torrential rain.

Overnight it poured rain again, heavy enough to block out noise of the aircraft movements at Heathrow. We slept well and were ready to head off to Uxbridge today, a tidy little two hour, one lock cruise. It was a nice cruise, the canal passing through industrial area, much of the canal made you forget you were in the Greater London area.

On the way we did see the biggest set of bolt cutters I've ever seen dismantling a shed frame, it was making short work of it.

We arrived at Uxbridge and moored up just before Bridge 185, in the last spot left. Rachael had popped her head out and advised me that there was no internet signal so I took a wander past the bridge and realised that the Canal Companion had the moorings marked incorrectly, there were mooring bollards just beyond the bridge. We pulled up pins and moved beyond the bridge and tied up just before the lock with an added bonus that the extra 300 metres gave us a strong internet signal. This is critical at this time as it's our youngest granddaughter's 1st birthday party and we plan to see a little of the party live on Skype. We spent the afternoon in Uxbridge Town Centre which has a large shopping precinct only ten minutes walk from the canal.