Limehouse

Up at 6 a m.  Walked dogs.   The girls were up and already having breakfast and were gone by 7:15.   Then the tidy-up!    Finished the washing up from the night before and then set off at 8:15 for Limehouse.   The paired top locks at Camden are always a pain.   There is no adjacent lock landing so single handed operation is not a doddle.   I tied up with stern and centre rope to an old pulley wheel right on the corner by the small arm where the trip boats moor.   Then shuffle down the gunwale to get on and off.   Both locks were empty.   The next full, the next empty - seemed no logic to it.   The wind was quite strong and the boat ended up across the canal by the third lock.   Wind was also a trouble at St Pancras - both bottom gates open and a BW workboat just disappearing round the corner ahead.   Fortunately the workboat had moored up before Battlebridge Basin, so no delays through Islington Tunnel.   Indus and Pictor were moored above Islington Lock (City Road Lock) and both top gates open - and after that it all seemed to go my way.   The plan was to stop above Old Ford Lock for lunch, but both top gates were open, so rather than look a gift horse in the mouth I carried on.    There were quite a lot of chatty gongoozlers on the towpath and I do hope that the two who were contemplating a canal holiday go ahead with it.   There was room on the wall at Limehouse and just the moment I moored up, the heavens opened and the promised rain arrived.