By Monday we were off the River Lee, having stayed put on Sunday as it rained all day. We were hoping to come back into Limehouse Basin by a different route which would have taken us past the Olympic site but due to unfinished towpath improvements that way was closed until the 26th. Instead we moored up just inside the Hertford Union Canal and walked to the site instead. We could see the aquadrome the main stadium the velodrome, the basketball centre the Olympic village and it all looked very advanced.
They had what they called the View Tube. Which was a covered walkway with maps and plans and info on the site the layout and what was going to happen post Olympics and it was all very interesting and we both thought that we would like to be around during the event even though we hadn't got tickets to date. We got to Limehouse basin by 4pm ready for the trip back up the Thames Tideway in the morning. High tide at London Bridge was at 1.30pm and so we had to leave at 10am to get to Teddington Lock (the end of the tidal section) with the rising tide.
It was a beautiful day and very hot not a lot of wind and we were both able to relax more than on the trip down. We had to escort another boat as they did not have the required VHF radio.
The rest of the week was cold windy and quite rainy but we had to press on in order to get back to Reading and to the boat yard that we had chosen to leave Sammy Jo at while we travelled home for Margaret's ear op on Tuesday. We also went back through Henley again and with only 2 weeks to go before the regatta it was very different and busy. The rowing course had been set out down the middle of the river, with with posts and marker buoys and all manner of things in the water. Tents gallore boats everywhere and as it was ladies weekend there was even some racing going on.
So 9 1/2 weeks after the off we are back where we started, but now with the rivers Thames, Lee, Stort, Wey & Godalming Navigation all ticked off the list and also 100 mls, 157 locks and 2 tunnels under our belts. Sunday we all travelled to Roydon by taxi, train, underground, and train, where we collected the car and drove to Kent. Charlie achieved a first by going up the escalator at the Baker Street tube station. Monday Joe became World Squash Champion at his age group at the World Transplant Games. Tuesday Margaret had her ear op....all OK and Joe won a bronze medal in the individual golf at the WTG. Wednesday Margaret a bit spaced out and in the evening John had a cold starting..... with avengance as it turned out.
Thursday we travelled back to the boat arriving about 3.30 pm only to find out that we had left the boat keys at Amy's. At about 7.00pm Sue & Clive went past in Lady Godiva so we agreed to meet them in the morning at their mooring spot just by the pub.
On Friday Joe was on BBC Radio Solent featuring on their Time and Place spot at about 8.20 I also had to send my phone off for repair/replacement after it's dunking in the canal and would you believe it....2hours after backing it up my computer crashed never to start again on this trip. This meant I would not be able to reinstall the phone when I got it back, but luckily the repair co. said they would do it for me. We eat at the pub in the evening and made plans for the next day. Saturday we didn't go to far and ended up staying the night at out lunch spot as it turned out nice. I changed the oil in the engine and Clive had an open air haircut and we watched some tennis. Sunday we moved on to a pub recommended by Timothy West and had lunch with a world squash champion
So by Friday 27th we had reached the end of the River Lee Navigation. We had been following the 
Years ago there had been loads of gravel extraction and so now there were a whole series of beautiful lakes and nature reserves with bird hides as well. Also a lot of marshes that were well laid out with footpaths and with the actual River Lee cris crossing. 
We made a mental note to come back to this area when we have our camper van. On the way we had passed through Waltham Abbey, 
We went into Hertford for a few bits of shopping and the obligatory Fish & Chips then we set off back down the Lee to where the River Stort Navigation branches off to the East. From the start the Stort was lovely, much nicer than the Lee it meandered a lot and the locks were easier although they were not as wide so you could not get 2 boats side by side. We made up for this by not having to close the lock gates on exit as is the practice on rivers. 
That's fine unless there's been a boat going the same way then the first thing you have to do is close the gates. There was an interesting reason for the narrower locks. This region was a prime grain growing area and the wide Dutch barges on the Lee had a monopoly on transporting the grain to 
We wanted to do the Abbey as well but a wedding and time prevented. 
for 21st June, so B & B has been arranged at Amy’s. Thursday we were back at 
have to pay as we had borrowed a card from my Uncles daughter in law. We also passed a little boat yard and for the benefit of Dragonfly and Lady G I bought myself a ‘Brolly Mate’. A T shaped bracket that slips over the tiller to hold the brolly over the helmsman when he’s steering in the rain. It wouldn’t work for the ladies as I have noticed that they don’t do steering in the rain. By Saturday lunch time we were sitting outside the Anchor at Pyrford just having lunch when DISASTER STRUCK. I need to set the scene….In order to facilitate the comfort of the crew when cruising it had been decided that a pair of chairs (the stacking type you see in schools and church halls, with all in one seat and back and metal legs) would be fitted, minus their legs, to the wooden stool type arrangement at the stern that we currently have. The said chairs had been spotted languishing and unwanted at the back of the N.T. workshop at Dapdune Wharf Guildford. For the princely donation of £5 to the N.T. coffers a pair had been procured. Yours truly made short work of dispatching the legs and fitting one to the driving position. It functioned just as a chair should, to make a more comfortable helming experience. By the time we reached the Anchor the passenger seat had also been fitted.
years decided to part company with the metal. The chair was only fixed very firmly to the wooden bit. Without any warning I executed a perfect back flip (no twist) into the canal. Chair and book both floated but I sank, the metal lining of the canalside removed a fairly large portion of skin from my head with a glancing blow, luckily, but I don’t really know what I hit my knees on but they both collided with something. With great restraint Mrs Helmsman assisted me to a somewhat soggy seated position on the edge of the canal, trainer shod feet dangling in the water. On looking later at the space between boat and metal edge I consider myself lucky to have escaped so lightly. As I sit here a week later the head and knees are pretty much back to normal. ‘No need of a trip to Norfolk Liz’. The fairly new iphone in the pocket may not have faired so well, although functioning at the moment the prognosis is failure eventually.
in case the threatened evening rain happened. By Wednesday with the funeral behind us we left the Wey at midday and went back on to the 
and the 3 ½ hour run through London to Limehouse Dock Marina. All went well and we even arrived about ¼ hr early, the only tricky bits were identifying the entrance before we past it and getting in without getting swept into the starboard wall. 
The options were to hang a left and go straight in, taking account of the back eddy (who ever he is) or zoom past (the ebb tide was going at a rate of knots by then) and turn back and enter on a right hand at a more controlled speed against 
the flow, if we had enough engine power to overcome the flow. A guy at the other end says he always go straight in as its quite hard to turn in the flow so on arrival with the flow not looking too bad (so I thought) I went straight in. It was quite nerve wracking deliberately heading for a very large wall to the left of the entrance at speed (essential) trusting that the good old tide would ensure that I missed it. In the event I 
could have done with a quite a few more feet to the left as I only just missed being slammed into the far wall then almost hit the near wall in my efforts to avoid the far wall. The degree of lean that Sammy Jo developed was quite alarming, (Graham you would have been proud of me and all without a sail or keel) We had travelled down with the tideway with another novice and as we levelled out in the relative safety of the lock cut 
I saw him suddenly abort the intended left turn to follow me as he obviously wasn’t going to make it and he hastily signalled that he was going to turn. He pootled in a few minutes later in a very controlled manner but did afterwards say 
that he thought he was not going to make it against the flow and feared ending up out to sea. Today..Saturday we did a lovely walk all round the docklands unfortunately not the 
We continued a little further and then moored up just past the entrance to the Hertford Union canal, and our intended route to the Lee & Stort, some where near Victoria Park and Bethnal Green. On Sunday we moved on into 
South African, 
