Back to the Marina

After yesterday's rain, today was dry. We set off early just to be sure that we make it back to Packet Boat so that we can leave for home tomorrow morning with time to be ready for a PCC meeting in the evening. There was also no wind so it felt a good bit warmer than the past three days.

Of course, we were re-tracing our route, one which we have cruised several times in the past 18 months so there will not be too many photos - a matter of looking out for something new!

At Old Oak we saw a depot holding what seem to be parts for the CrossRail tunnelling project which starts not far from here. They covered a huge area and no doubt they will be taken away to be fitted into place before much longer.

Although still quite chilly, we are not far from the Spring Equinox and some of the water birds were beginning to sort out places for nesting and collecting suitable materials. The swan looked as if it was a typical house hunter, deciding whether it could make use of someone else's previous nest.

We stopped briefly at Alperton outside the Sainsbury store so that Mike could pick up a newspaper.

At Ruislip Road Bridge 18 we spotted a decorative plaque which was presumably installed by the developer of the adjoining block of apartments.

Just after Engineer's Wharf we stopped for lunch. By now the sun was breaking through.

Sorry to harp on about bird feeders but it seems that Uxbridge Road bridge at Southall is a popular spot for this unwanted activity - a huge flock of birds are clearly not interested in foraging further for their food. as a result, the canalside is a real mess - this is supposed to be a designated Visitor Mooring but quite useless now.

The sun turned quite warm and blue skies made a welcome appearance. It lasted for the rest of our journey back to the marina.

As we approached Bull's Bridge Junction we passed four boats in quick succession - having seen hardly any so far today. We had picked up some rubbish around the prop - Mike decided against stopping in the bridge hole even if it seemed unlikely that anything would be coming now, pulling in just before the bridge. After clearing the remains of several plastic bags we set off again to be surprised at a large barge about to make the turn!

A quick stop at Tesco for rolls for tomorrow's journey and then we were turning into the marina. It was a different and much shorter first trip than we had planned, but it felt good to be underway and it gave us a chance to check out that all is working. Mike had to attend to his CanalMap software which has had several extensions over the winter and quite a bit of tweaking is needed. At least he gathered data to look at back at home.

16.6 miles - 0 locks