Another lovely day in London…7am and T was sitting upstairs in the glass dome Starbucks cafe, sipping English Breakfast brew and overlooking Poli Poli …waiting for M to emerge for her shower and the forward hatch to open…signalling that Christine and Mike were on the move.
Photo…M on the move across the blue bridge from Poli Poli. Photo taken by T in the Starbucks glass dome upstairs.
Another day of visitors to Poli Poli …Paul, a friend of Mike’s arrived before noon from Worthing…had a look over the boat, then a four hour lunch with Mike whilst Christine did 19,000 steps up to St. Paul’s Cathedral …somehow got lost in Holborn and paid £30 for a taxi to bring her back to the boat!!
M and T sat in warm sunshine and enjoyed a Waitrose picnic salad…watching all the City boys and gals scurrying about the dockside. In the afternoon lock opening two American boats came in plus an enormous canal type barge…heaven only knows how they managed to park it.
Photo below is the one and only lock at Saint Katharine’s Dock. It faces south across to Butler’s Wharf on the south bank of the Thames.
Talking of locks…they are the key to us making an exit from Saint Katharine’s Dock. So we acquired a copy of the timetable for the lock openings…which stated that they would be open from 6am to 7.07am on Sunday. The only lock openings that occurred on Thursday, Friday or Saturday were mid to late afternoon which were no good to us…unless we intended to do a night sail of 40 n. miles down the River Thames. Why Sunday….. well the first early morning lock opening…and we had been monitoring the Storm Callum forecasts …arriving Thursday and passing through by Saturday. So Sunday looks the best day to depart London and return to Sovereign Harbour on Monday 15th October…afternoon. We shall see.
Unfortunately I have to report….rain…it started about 5pm. Light rain …but it broke up the feeling of a very late Indian Summer here in London.
At 6.30pm our next set of visitors arrived …Abi our lovely god daughter and her friend Maggie. Abi works for a national publication up in Tottenham Court Road and Maggie works all over place …but mainly from home in Borough ( Southwark ).
After a look round Poli Poli …we walked in drizzly rain over Tower Bridge to the South Bank where we dined in Hayes Galleria at the Cote Brasserie. There was much fun and laughter …and good to see Abi again and really nice to meet “talent spotter” Maggie.
On our walk back to the boat , passing HMS Belfast on one side and the London Mayor’s lopsided beehive on the other, marvelling at all the lights and glitter of the riverside landscape…more than matching the New York or Paris skylines.
Another lovely day ended…there was of course an element of London making up for the greys and gloom’s of much of the northern Circumnavigation.
Toby's sailing boat Poli Poli 