Damage from dropping paddles.

So today, after the previous two day's exertions I took a relatively quiet cycle ride along the Hertford Union, Lower Regents, then back up Limehouse and the Lee to complete a tour of the Fish Island circuit.

Damaged safety catch at Hertford Union Middle.

At the Hertford Union Middle Lock I spotted this damage to the safety catch. I have the word of an operative that this is caused by the action of the pawl on the wheel when the paddle is dropped, rather than lowered. Because the pawl has a bar extension to stop it falling off the wheel completely, when the wheel spins as the paddle drops, the pawl bounces over the teeth, smashing them.

This wheel was replaced last year and will need replacing again.
Don't drop paddles folks! Lower them properly, please.

At the top of the Hertford Union I fished the barrier marking the start of the closed section of towpath out of the cut.

At Limehouse I caught up with a workboat and crew working on the safety ladders on the Limehouse Cut. Because the sides of the cut are deep it would be impossible for someone who fell in to escape without these ladders, and yet still some boaters around Limehouse persist in blocking them with their boats.

I understand the desire to have something to moor to, but people fall in canals a lot. One day someone might drown because they can't get to safety and I'd hate to be moored to a safety ladder while their corpse bumps against the hull of my boat.

A safety ladder as it should be, free from obstructions for poor drowning wretches.

Less morbid stuff awaited me on the Lee.

This is a restored section of towpath next to the Crossrail substation site in Bow. The floating towpath has reopened but this section shows how nice the restored stretch will be when it is all complete. There'll even be a nice turfed stretch to shove mooring pins into, huzzah!

I finished my tour back at Old Ford Lock where a last straggler was coaxing the (supposedly closed) Elsan into accepting his two cassettes of poop, washed down with a bucket of canal water. The workboat I'd passed was tasked with putting a big padlock on the door to close the building until the refurbishment, so this may well be the last poop for a few weeks. May the refurbished hole be a little more glorious.

2 hours.