"Strike that. Reverse it."

So, up at silly-o-clock to be at Rye House at 08.30. M & D the inspectors were just disappearing off into the wilds of Hertfordshire. But we weren't following them.

My main means of transport, bike and train.

Oh no. Someone at the head office had realised that Jena was going to be needed at the IWA Cavalcade this coming weekend, so we were now tasked with getting Jena to Paddington ASAP. We spun her on her heels and headed back South.

Winding at Rye House Wharf and PH.

Fortunately it looked like the weather was going to be good, cold, but sunny, and RE, CK and myself put the kettle on, and settled in for a long day's cruise.

Jena at Fieldes Weir Lock.

We got held up a little at Cartagena lock, where a cruiser was filling his water tank. The water point there is in the lock (like many other places on the Lea and Stort) so this blocks the lock for a while. The Canal & River Trust are making some changes to the positions of water points, but this is often limited to where they can find a water supply and the permissions necessary to dig to place them. Suffice to say, change happens slowly (and sometimes with snags.)

Longboat at Waltham Town Lock.

Pylon marks the change of weather.

For my safety ladder collection:
a ladder and bollards at Rammey Marsh Lock.

We returned to Enfield Lock around lunchtime, we didn't stop. Each of us had a packed lunch and we ate in turns as we shared duties at the helm for a half-hour each. Jena used to have a microwave, and I think it might be time to ask for it to be reinstated - warm food would have been good.

My tidied-up inspection port.

I tidied up the hole I sawed in the steps so that the inverter could be accessed without moving a very heavy set of stairs out of the way (thus removing both a material handling hazard and a falling/trip hazard - a H&S win, I think.)

I took my woodworking skills a step further, the toilet door had swollen a little and no longer fit in its frame - so the door couldn't be closed or locked. I took a small block plane to the door's edge and trimmed back the overlap, it fits now. Privacy returns.

And then the skies darkened and hail rattled down as we passed under the M25 and into London proper.

Hail and rain at Tottenham Lock.

And just as swiftly, sunlight returned, the contrast between the dark skies and the sunlit river prompting me to wave my cameraphone at the landscape again.

No hail and rain just after Tottenham Lock.

Isn't London gorgeous when the sun (briefly) shines.

We reached the Hertford Union around half-past five, and started up the three locks towards Bow Wharf. The pound between the middle and top lock was down by about 18 inches. It was navigable, but only just. The middle lock falls just over eight feet, and the top lock falls only six, so every time boats lock-through, water is lost from this second pound. Without much water coming down the Regents Canal this pound may well be empty some times this Summer.

By half past six we moored up at Bow Wharf. Not on the operational moorings which were full of work boats, but (temporarily) on the new, as-yet-unopened leisure mooring there. We felt a bit guilty as we negotiated our lines past the 'no mooring' signs, but sometimes the Trust's operations do have to take priority.

And then I had my final task of the day. There'd been a report of vandalism to a water point at Old Ford Lock on the Regents. I cycled over to take a look.

Moving the Vicky Park water point upstream a boat length or two.

Turns out it was just that the freshly installed water point (with a tap that was the wrong size for anyone to use) was being moved to a more suitable location further upstream. Like I said, change happens slowly, and all too often, with snags.

10 long hours.