Log

Journey to Upper Clapton

Summary

This is a trip of 3 miles, 1 furlong and 2 locks from Tottenham Marshes Pipe Bridge to Turnover Bridge No 19 travelling south on the Lee and Stort Navigation (River Lee: commercial section).

This will take 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Route

Lee and Stort Navigation (River Lee: commercial section)
From Tottenham Marshes Pipe Bridge to:
Tottenham Lock No 17 [see navigational note 1 below] 1 mile, ¾ furlongs, 1 lock
Turnover Bridge No 19 2 miles, ¼ furlongs, 1 lock

Totals

Total distance is 3 miles, 1 furlong and 2 locks.

This is made up of 3 miles, 1 furlong of commercial waterways; 2 large locks.

This will take 1 hour and 30 minutes.

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Reflections

Reflections on Bargee Life 1

It’s a fact, there are more and more people moving onto boats in and around London, for a simple but sad reason: renting has become too expensive.

What do you do, if you lived all your life or a major part of you life in London, have work here, a social network (as in ‘real’ people) – you don’t want to move to some place where it’s affordable to rent and leave all behind?! So, the next step is you get yourself a boat. And some boaters really are poor, so they end up with ‘yoghurt pots’, plastic boats. It’s cold but at least there is a shell around the body and you are not homeless.

We belong to the affluent boaters, we can buy coal, diesel and we can bring Quintessence to the mechanic if something goes wrong, etc. Fellow boaters simply can’t do that and if the engine breaks down, or worse no money for diesel, they can’t move. Then you have the friendly guys from the CRT enforcement team who regularly come with their shiny computerized toys to check our license if we did the moving bit too. And beware you overstayed for a day or two, an email will land in your inbox with the request to move on, else… well, else if you get a reminder once or twice or more, the CRT will issue only a temporary license for the next renewal. The temporary license is more expensive. Boaters are obliged to move regularly, otherwise the license will be revoked and if you don’t get your boat out of the water yourself, they will do it for you. Not only that, it will properly be disposed of, as in compressed like an old car. Good bye.

It is clear to us, the problem the CRT is faced with, is that the housing crisis is being partially rolled over to them. The waterways are quite old and some of them in dire need for restoration. Maybe there are also too many boats in and around the Londoner waterways, but why do get those large Widebeams or massive Dutch barges access to precisely those waterways? They really take up a lot of space and quite annoyingly quite a lot of those shiny new barges (or canal ‘vessels’) belong to weekend boaters. You can see that if you are a live-a-board, no lights during the week, comes the weekend and the light goes no. Frankly, if you can afford such a barge and not live on it, what kind of property do they occupy during the week?! But in essence our point is, large boats should not be allowed in central London.

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Journal

Every sun ray counts

Time has come, London we are coming back to town! After months out in the country side we were looking forward to be back again and mingle with fellow boaters and to be close to friends over winter. But but but… it was bloody difficult to find a suitable spot to moor. And this in Tottenham?! There were so many boats doubled up already. We did find a place after all. It became clear to us for the next six month or so space will be scarce, nothing like being on your own in nature.

And it is beginning to be cold. We felt the cold creeping in from the bottom and the mattress turned out to be not thick enough. We were freezing in bed. Natascha spoke to a friend, who once lived on a boat too, and she recommended to get a sheep wool mattress topper. Devon duvets does the trick. Not cheap but heavenly warm.

Even the cat enjoys the rare sun rays in full.

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Log

Journey to Tottenham

Summary

This is a trip of 7 miles and 5 locks from Waltham Town Lock No 11 to Tottenham Lock No 17 traveling south on the Lee and Stort Navigation (River Lee: commercial section).

This will take 3 hours and 32 minutes.

Route

Lee and Stort Navigation (River Lee: commercial section)
From Waltham Town Lock No 11 to:
Enfield Lock No 13 [see navigational note 1 below] 1 mile, 3½ furlongs, 1 lock
Tottenham Lock No 17 [see navigational note 2 below] 5 miles, 4½ furlongs, 4 locks

Totals

Total distance is 7 miles and 5 locks (not counting Waltham Town Lock No 11 and Tottenham Lock No 17).

This is made up of 7 miles of commercial waterways; 5 large locks.

This will take 3 hours and 32 minutes.

 

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