Pictures of safety ladders

Three days of activity here, let me summarise...

Sunday, a short ride from Limehouse up the cut to St. Thomas Creek (since the towpath from Bow to Old Ford is currently inaccessible) then sneakily around the Backs and onto City Mill River towpath.

There was another scooter in the Limehouse cut. A pretty red one this time.

The towpaths through the Olympic Park aren't all open yet. But there were a few more to cycle around West Ham Island. So that's nice.

Sunday, one and a half hours.


Monday, a journey to Enfield to meet up with RE and move Jena to Bow Wharf.

Jena was proving recalcitrant. Her gauges had all been reconnected, so the rev counter and voltmeter were working fine. A fitter was there to replace her tiller bearing, but it turns out Jena's swans neck was welded to the tiller and couldn't be removed (without an angle grinder) to fit the new bearing. So the fitter just changed the filter on the black water tank's vent instead.

We set off. And as per usual, overheated within 10 minutes. Cue much swearing and letting off of steam and threatening to turn around and go back to the yard.

After some persuading, Jena let us move again.

We met up with CK at Stonebridge and had fun playing serious lock-keeper with the controls there. I took some photos of safety ladders as we headed down towards East Wick.

If you ever fall in the cut, you may be grateful for one of these and the railing or chain next to them to hold onto to pull yourself along.

We pumped out Jena at East Wick and filled up with water too. Then we headed for Bow Wharf, where we tied up alongside Sophie and headed home. One thing more I noted at Bow Wharf was the Vespa from below the Hertford Union Middle Lock, now drying out amongst the other rubbish pulled from that canal.

6 hours.


Tuesday we completed Jena's journey to Kings Cross for the St. Pancras Lock Open Weekend. We gave out some maps and goodies along the way to gongoozlers at the locks. Then I took Jena through Islington Tunnel, regarding this as a test of my skills after the RYA training.

I didn't hit the sides. 🏆

Then we did a 360 degree turn in the basin at Kings Cross, so we knew that could be done, and then test-moored Jena between the pontoon towpath and stop-lock, just to be sure we could.

Finally, we tied up at Camley Street garden, earning the ire of the supervisor there. Apparently no-one had informed them we'd be leaving our boat in those moorings, and we weren't entirely welcome. Having little choice we left this to be sorted out by phone.

4 hours.


In the evening I went to the 'induction'/briefing for volunteers for the St. Pancras Lock Open Weekend. There were a lot of people in a small room. But there was also pizza.

1 hour.


Do come to the open weekend.
If you're lucky then the £5 chunks of lock-gate wood won't have sold out by the time you get there (I want one!)

Litter Picking Wick Woodland

Today's been a long day, but an immensely satisfying one. I had suggested to Sandile that we do a litter pick at Wick Woodland between the A12 and the B112. Once I knew he'd be there I spread the word on Facebook and through Darren Starling to the email list of London rangers.

This morning I met Darren at Here East and, over breakfast, discussed my progress as a volunteer. Mostly, things are going well, and I look forward to going on some leadership training events later in the year.

Then our volunteers for the litter pick arrived, RE, CK, RB, VF  and DD, and after a couple of circuits of the site in the flat-bed truck Sandile was there too. Eventually the truck was manoeuvred into a spot below the A12 - and we got to work with bin-bags, gloves and litter pickers.

Here are the before shots:

And the during:

We cleared every scrap, including the full porta-potti, another boat's push-pit, duvets, pallets, foam cushions, an inflatable dinghy, bags of wool insulation and innumerable sacks of bottles and cans.

And the after:

Sandile drove the flat-bed full of trash to Old Ford Lock where we transferred it into the almost-full hopper in the unused lock chamber.

I feel accomplished, but achingly tired!

A productive 5 hours.

Top of the Lea

We gathered this morning, at Enfield, to take Jena out for her first cruise of the year. Sorwar Ahmed and his trusty crew of mooring measurers were to come with, on a journey up river towards Hertford. Among them was G, the latest mooring ranger recruit for the West of London. Nice chap.

But the river had other ideas. It was frosted hard with ice up to an inch thick. And although some of us were keen to smash on through, heads more wise to the complaints that might be generated by a widebeam CRT boat smashing ice past the moored GRP hulls of the cruising clubs of the Upper Lea advised extreme caution.

Sunken boat above Enfield.

Indeed one well respected chap swore blind that the boat above had been victim of an ice sheet cruelly spearing through its hull, although some others denied that was the case.

Caution won out.

RE, CK and I got on our bikes and cycled for Hertford instead, leaving Sorwar to walk his crew behind.

The birds don't much like the ice either.

Ice appeared and disappeared as we headed North. In some places over an inch thick, but in others, where there was flowing water, the river was entirely free. Some boaters were struggling through the conditions, others, were very much staying put.

At Fieldes Lock the Elsan was in a sorry state, working, but with a pile of boater rubbish against the side. There just aren't enough bins for boaters it seems, and no peripatetic rubbish collecting boaty entrepreneurs in the East either!

Around the corner (above the lock) was even worse, several vans full of fly-tipped rubbish!

I took photos and reported it all when I got home.

We made it to Hertford and had a quick lunch before RE and CK got on the train back to the smoke. I frugally cycled back to Broxbourne where my Oyster card would once again be valid.

On the way back I shot a giant.

Time (actually doing volunteer stuff rather than larking around on the navigation): about 2 hours.

Quick survey of the Hertford Union

Delayed from last week because of bad weather, today I cycled the Hertford Union again.

This time I was alone, and since the H&S course yesterday I was rather more conscious of the hazards of lone-working, so this time I made doubly sure of my PPE and also made sure that Darren Starling was informed of my movements before and after my stint.

That said, being alone didn't last long as before I set off I ran into J - the data collector I'd met on Tuesday and who shared the two courses at Milton Keynes with me. We chatted a little and then I set off. I also spent some time before I left, on the phone with R, who was about to move a "Conver" weed-boat similar to the one I'd crewed on a few months ago. After I couldn't be much help about where keys were or how to use the controls to raise and lower the debris collection ramp, I passed on the phone number of the operative who had been with me on that boat.

At White Post Lane there are a couple of places where there's an opportunity to add some more Share The Space signage - in particular at the access points to the towpath either side of White Post Lane bridge.

I took a few photos at the lower lock. The painting of the stonework here has deteriorated a lot, and will need re-doing very soon. I'm going to suggest this as another towpath task-force task to Sandile, for his schedule.

Worn away paintwork on the stones at the Lower Lock.

Just past the A12 bridge at the bottom of the ramp to Wick Lane there was a Vespa in the canal. I sent in a report, but as I climbed the locks I met up with Aidan (remember Aidan?) who was skippering the workboat 'The Lee' down the locks towards Lea Bridge. His workmate had already reported the Vespa and they looked at removing it, but had to move on.

Vespa in the cut.

At Old Ford Lock, someone had rescued a seagull with a broken wing, so the volunteer lock keepers were waiting for someone from an animal rescue charity to arrive. I took the opportunity to look in the stores/refuge there. Unfortunately, it seems someone had moved a vast amount of material from Bow Wharf there, and without a great deal of care had stacked it right in the middle of the lock keepers' refuge. It was blocking access to their equipment and there was an array of Health and Safety issues, I took photos that could have served as 'how many H&S hazards can you spot?' illustrations for the course I was on only yesterday and emailed an URGENT report with them.

I turned around and made my way back down the HU. At the locks I had to remonstrate with a widebeam boater, who had left the head gates and paddles open at both the Middle and Top Locks. I shouted at them a bit (just to be heard over their motor) and they stopped and put things right - although I had to instruct their crew on how to use a windlass and wind down a paddle(!)

People on boats who are new to doing such things are a regular problem. It's going to need some work.

2 hours.

Two days in Milton Keynes

So, thanks to the generosity of the CRT I spent yesterday and today in Milton Keynes at the Canal & River Trust's headquarters there.

The building where CRT have their HQ reflecting the sunset.

I was visiting to be trained in two courses: Basic Fire Water Save A Life which is a basic fire and water safety course involving some CPR and resuscitation training, and H&S Foundation which lays out the basic Health and Safety requirements and responsibilities for Trust staff and particular volunteers.

Taking the two courses is part of my process for becoming a qualified volunteer skipper for CRT craft - something I'm rather fond of doing. I was, however, the only volunteer there, all the other course attendees were CRT staff, from all over the country and every level of the organisation. It was great meeting people as varied as my latest local data collector and the National Heritage Manager as well as the lead staff of the Stoke Bruerne Canal Museum.

Both courses were excellent and gave me rather a lot to think about, especially the Health and Safety course which has me rethinking quite a few of the things I do as a volunteer in terms of improving how safe I can be and how safe I can make activities for others. It also flagged up some difficulties volunteers have in accessing CRT policies. I don't want to share it all here as I'm still thinking through this stuff and want to discuss it with Darren Starling and other staff - but I'll want to share some of it with other volunteers when I meet up with them again.

Sorry, I'm being a bit vague. More when I work some of this stuff through my brain and into action!

Rain, poo, and litter.

We met this Sunday in the rain at Three Mills at 11.00 am. At the start this was just J and me, and we made our way North under the road at Bow and slowly up towards Old Ford Lock. We talked about birds a little, I'm no twitcher but I was pleased to identify a grebe in the pool at Three Mills.

Three Mills at low tide.

Just above Three Mills, before the Bow Free Wharf we also found a bit of towpath side wall on the point of collapse. That got an urgent report.

Further on, we passed the push-pit and waste bag Richard reported from our previous patrol. A bit disappointing not to see this moved.

At Old Ford I took a look in the sanitary station and gave it a bit of a tidy and sluiced the elsan a little. The bins that we'd tidied up the previous Saturday were overflowing - another one for the the reporting system. And S - from that Saturday - joined us as we continued North towards the Hertford Union.

A few boaters were setting off for Stonebridge Lock from the moorings at Old Ford. They had lashed together three boats for the trip, one abreast the boat with power, one moored to its stem. It was an impressive assemblage and I'm sorry I wasn't able to get a good photo of it.

The bins at White Post Lane and East Wick were overflowing too. There's no nearby rubbish disposal for the long term moorings at East Wick, something that CRT are probably going to have to do something about if they don't want these particular bins full every day.

The towpath at Wick Woods is quite nice, contractors having cut back a bit of the foliage. But the other side of the towpath, towards the wood, has been used as a bit of a dumping ground, literally, there were at least two porta-pottis in evidence.

Two large toilet cassettes.

I've suggested to the Sandile, the local Volunteer Team Leader that perhaps a towpath taskforce clean-up here might be something we do soon.

As a team we turned around and made our various ways back home. Me to send in a half-dozen reports from my photos.

2 hours, pleasantly if smell-ily spent.

BAD WEATHER

Given the severe weather warnings. I'm cancelling tomorrow's survey of the Hertford Union.

Repairing benches at City Road

These bench/planters were put here by the Hanover Primary School, but some of the wood supporting the bench parts has rotted away.

Darren Starling, Jack Newman and Sandile Mthiyane organised a team of volunteers to remove and replace the rotted wood on two of the planters.

 

Jack Newman, mid-repairs.

Volunteer A, with a repaired bench/planter.

I concentrated on one of the smaller ones which succumbed to our repairs after a few hours - by which time my energy levels were pretty low. So I cycled back home, to save some energy for another day.

3 and a half hours.

Minging duck weed again!

First of all, dear reader, you must know this. Old duck weed really stinks. Duck weed makes and grows itself from 'nutrients in still water' or as we know it, duck poo. And after it has accumulated in the canal to form a nice thick layer (thick enough to support any rubbish thrown there, a walking duck, a brick) it has gently composted and releases a thick, sulfurous, cess-pit reek when you disturb it.

Rubbish on a floating mass of rotten duckweed.

So this morning we were carving into a six inch cake of rotten duck weed at the tail of the disused side of Old Ford Lock on the Lee Navigation. 'We' being in this case a hurriedly assembled towpath task force lead by Sandile Mthiyane the Volunteer Team Leader for CRT in the East of London. As well as myself there were four other volunteers and Jack Newman the Volunteer Team Leader for CRT in the West of London (apparently the dividing line is the Islington tunnel.)

We split into two teams, one covering the foliage cut-back between the Old Ford Lock Footbridge and just below the Greenway Bridge, the other pulling rubbish and rank, rotten duck weed from the disused lock and putting it in the hopper there, and also clearing up the rubbish disposal site.

This was hard physical work, moving rubbish into a hopper involves a lot of heavy carrying and lifting, and we had to be particularly careful. But with work we dug down and even found some clear water under the rubbish and six-inch cake of minging weed.

A channel of 'clear' water begins to appear.

Jack clearing rubbish.

After lunch I switched teams to put a rake and broom to work on the footbridge, clearing away half-rottted leaves to make it less slippery. Then we dived under the sewer pipes and cleared away a lot more leaves and ivy from some overgrown pathways there. The result was better sight-lines through a somewhat less slippery towpath.

4 hours of heavy labour.

Quiet, sunny day.

Riding on my own once more today. From Lea Bridge I took a lingering look at Essex Wharf and then rode past the filter beds where Aidan was working on the weed-cutter 'Taranchewer.' (Aidan? I dunno, he's CRT staff who always seems to be where works are going on, often arriving mysteriously by bicycle, I really must ask him what his rôle at CRT is next time I see him.) I waved a cheery hello and cycled on.

Hackney marshes were quiet, and relatively tidy. Like everywhere on the system they could probably benefit from a litter pick and a boat being there to receive the rubbish, but the towpath and beyond was actually pretty clean. Here and there, boats were moving, even the broken down ones were getting a tow.

With little to see or do I rode further: on past East Wick (where the mooring sign needs a bit of attention with graffiti scrubs) and Sweet Water moorings. Then, between the Monier Road footbridge and the railway I happened on a tent alongside the towpath. Seems that it's sometimes occupied by a rough sleeper (according to the nearby boaters I asked) and so I put in a report asking for someone to get them some help.

The next person on the towpath was a PCSO, so I pointed it out to them as well.

Then down to Old Ford Lock (on the Lee) and a quick inspection of the sanitary station. Grotty as usual, and the doors and taps left unlocked. I took some rubbish from the inside (including an empty litre bottle of vodka) across the lock to the bins and shut the door and tap-covers.

Then back to Timber Lodge in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park for a panini and coffee before going home.

2 very easy hours.

Update: I found out more about Aidan. He's Aidan Slater, a CRT Waterways Operative - which is a sort of cover-all term for people who do a variety of useful work on the navigation.