Arwen's meanderings

Hi everyone and welcome to my dinghy cruising blog about my John Welsford designed 'navigator' named Arwen. Built over three years, Arwen was launched in August 2007. She is a standing lug yawl 14' 6" in length. This blog records our dinghy cruising voyages together around the coastal waters of SW England.
Arwen has an associated YouTube channel so visit www.YouTube.com/c/plymouthwelshboy to find our most recent cruises and click subscribe.
On this blog you will find posts about dinghy cruising locations, accounts of our voyages, maintenance tips and 'How to's' ranging from rigging standing lug sails and building galley boxes to using 'anchor buddies' and creating 'pilotage notes'. I hope you find something that inspires you to get out on the water in your boat. Drop us a comment and happy sailing.
Steve and Arwen

Tuesday 29 October 2013

Limehouse Basin

was disappointing. I don't know what I was expecting but this was empty, sterile, impersonal......I find much of the Canary Wharf area like that....may be it is me. If I was an architect, maybe I'd feel inspired by all this glass and tower.........um! Maybe! Sometimes I I am too quick to judge. The canal barge owners may well like it here, convenient, safe, close to London. The views must be fairly spectacular. there was a small canoeing business underneath the Docklands Light Railway flyover.
Across Docklands there are supermarkets, shopping malls, cafes and restaurants. Maybe that was what I was expecting here around the basin - some cafes, shops, restaurants....maybe that was what was missing

some interesting building design

many of the canal barges seemed boarded up

this was a nice old vessel

as was this nice old boat

which proved rather difficult to get close to


best shot I could get of her....I'm guessing dutch...but hey what do I know....I can't even work out what rig I have on my own boat!

sterile or architecturally exciting....I have no idea!

 
and after all the day's excitement where do you go in the evening?

the bright lights of Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square and Covent Garden
Aren't we boring!
 
 

2 comments:

Bursledon Blogger said...

you hit the nail on the head steve, I'm in london 2 or 3 days a week, I go Waterloo, southbank, Canary Wharf - although the latter is slightly better than Limehouse it's a busy but soulless place, very smart but contrived. For boats and setting St catherine's just downstream of tower bridge is nice or was last time i was there. I used to work in the city proper and weekdays you can't beat the hustle and bustle, a 400 year old church squeezed in betweek grand buildings and more than a few proper boozers.

steve said...

Ha!
I'd forgotten about st Catherine's dock
Next time I'll tow the missus there instead

Steve