Plans.

We have been talking about where we will be going next. We have decided that we will head south to London. We haven't really been south of Braunston really, and I expect that this is the wrong time to be going that way as my biggest fear is the lack of mooring places and having to just keep going until we find some where. First of we will head down the Soar and through Leicester and call in at Debdale to see the lads who built 'Holderness'. I will have a few questions for them, but nothing bad really just the best way to run cables etc as they know where the timbers and frames are. Then we will travel up Foxton and down the Grand Union to London.

Foxton Locks.

I'm not sure whether we will go up the Thames and back via the Oxford or save that for another time. The Thames river again sounds a bit of a hassle to find berths at the height of the summer which is when we will be there. I am willing to listen to advice on the subject if anybody has good advice on the subject. I like the idea of doing the tidal Thames from Limehouse to Brentford as to pass the Houses of Parliament etc would be a real treat. Actually I have been under Tower Bridge already, well the bridge was open.

We passed under Tower Bridge to tie up in the Pool of London alongside HMS Belfast on 'Salvageman'.

I think the 'Salvageman' was jointly the most beautiful ship I sailed on. This also gives me the chance to gratuitously post another photo as the one is below is the joint favourite. I sailed on two of this class.

I think that these were the last ships to be built to look like ships as containerisation had just started and everything didn't need to fit boxes then. This is 'Priam' and I also sailed on 'Patroclus'.

After starting off this year on the Stainforth and Keadby at Thorne and then travelling to Sheffield and back, up the Trent and 'doing' the Chersterfield, and then the Fossdyke and River Witham, and then the Erewash we really did get a culture shock when we started on the Trent and Mersey and we passed boats every day! and even had to cue at locks!!! However I think that I have been on the canals long enough now to be chilled with this sort of thing so we will give the deep south a go. I have heard that they talk funny down there, that the beer is flat and costs north of £4 a pint and you can't get a decent fish and chip supper to save your life. I'm hoping that there will be some saving graces to make it worth our while. I'm sure there will be, and I will enjoy showing where we have been and what we have been doing.