CalicoJack
Well-Known Member
We have just returned from our first visit to St. Katherine's marina, normally we go to Limehouse; they don't like to be called St. Kats and corrected us on the VHF. Their website gave the impression that the entry was very precise, but in reality it's not. On the day we arrived the time laid down was 14:57 for the first entry, not 15:00 notice. In fact we could not get in until nearly 15:30, not that was an issue apart from the fact that if we had known we would have picked up one of their waiting buoys instead of gilling about in the river. The tide was scary and Tower Bridge looked awfully close when you have a mast, but then perhaps that was just my own mind worrying unnecessarily.
There were four of us waiting for that lock and we all followed instructions as to the order that they wanted us to enter. It would have helped if the guy running the lock had remembered his hand held, instead of having to shout instructions at us. The knuckle took the tide off nicely and we just drifted in to lay alongside, as instructed, a brand new Dutch yacht, who hated us, even though we had six fenders out that side. The lock was raised and suddenly all was calm. We were then summoned to go to the lock office to sort the paper work. This was a pain, the climb from the boat to the dock was about a metre and a half, which proved really difficult for the elderly French lady and added, perhaps 30 minutes to our time' it also generated more waves of hate from the Dutch owner as we trapsed over his immaculate decks. There then followed another forty minutes of farce. The inner lock gate was secured by a metal pin which would not come out, a sledge hammer and special shaped tool were produced, but unfortunately the dock master thought that the sledge hammer was made of glass and just tapped at it. In desperation one of the boaters got off and gave it a bit of a smack, problem solved. In the lock ar 15:30 out at about 17:10.
We had told St. Kats that we were long keel and didn't do reversing so they gave us a berth which was V shaped and meant that you had to be able to reverse out. To solve this we had to use long ropes and lots of strong arm stuff. St. Kats did say that they would tow us out, but I didn't have too much faith in their ability. I was surprised at the lack of security in the marina, the fence where we were was no more than a metre and a half high and was easily climbable, although there were guys in hi-via about in the evenings. There are not a lot of loos and showers, many people are live aboard and are plumbed in all the time so that they can shower on board, but even so the loos/showers in the lock office were busy all the time. The loos/shower in the east basin were quieter.
The lock and bridges seems very fragile, everyone we spoke to had tales of being held up because they couldn't get them working. One guy had had to wait a day because he could not get out because the lock had jammed and by the time they had freed it the tide was too low. It is important to follow instructions as things can go wrong. We saw a Belgium boat hit the lock gate as it was being lowered, they go up and down vertically, rather than swing open, because he had tried to be first in the lock. The staff try to be helpful, but didn't seem to have a lot of experience. For example they seemed to struggle to coordinate opening the bridges and the lock at the same time.The discount card they give you is worthwhile as you can use it in the surrounding restaurants and get up to 30% off the bill. The restaurants are fine, the usual chain type, but because there are so many they have to be good to survive. The only exception was the Slug and Lettuce, which describes it so well'; slug like service and tasteless food.
Would we go again...yes, but we would check with Limehouse in case they had a berth first. Being in central location is a boost, and although it is a bit noisy, this is London after all.
Oh, bye the way the photo of the marina in East Coast Pilot is out of date.
There were four of us waiting for that lock and we all followed instructions as to the order that they wanted us to enter. It would have helped if the guy running the lock had remembered his hand held, instead of having to shout instructions at us. The knuckle took the tide off nicely and we just drifted in to lay alongside, as instructed, a brand new Dutch yacht, who hated us, even though we had six fenders out that side. The lock was raised and suddenly all was calm. We were then summoned to go to the lock office to sort the paper work. This was a pain, the climb from the boat to the dock was about a metre and a half, which proved really difficult for the elderly French lady and added, perhaps 30 minutes to our time' it also generated more waves of hate from the Dutch owner as we trapsed over his immaculate decks. There then followed another forty minutes of farce. The inner lock gate was secured by a metal pin which would not come out, a sledge hammer and special shaped tool were produced, but unfortunately the dock master thought that the sledge hammer was made of glass and just tapped at it. In desperation one of the boaters got off and gave it a bit of a smack, problem solved. In the lock ar 15:30 out at about 17:10.
We had told St. Kats that we were long keel and didn't do reversing so they gave us a berth which was V shaped and meant that you had to be able to reverse out. To solve this we had to use long ropes and lots of strong arm stuff. St. Kats did say that they would tow us out, but I didn't have too much faith in their ability. I was surprised at the lack of security in the marina, the fence where we were was no more than a metre and a half high and was easily climbable, although there were guys in hi-via about in the evenings. There are not a lot of loos and showers, many people are live aboard and are plumbed in all the time so that they can shower on board, but even so the loos/showers in the lock office were busy all the time. The loos/shower in the east basin were quieter.
The lock and bridges seems very fragile, everyone we spoke to had tales of being held up because they couldn't get them working. One guy had had to wait a day because he could not get out because the lock had jammed and by the time they had freed it the tide was too low. It is important to follow instructions as things can go wrong. We saw a Belgium boat hit the lock gate as it was being lowered, they go up and down vertically, rather than swing open, because he had tried to be first in the lock. The staff try to be helpful, but didn't seem to have a lot of experience. For example they seemed to struggle to coordinate opening the bridges and the lock at the same time.The discount card they give you is worthwhile as you can use it in the surrounding restaurants and get up to 30% off the bill. The restaurants are fine, the usual chain type, but because there are so many they have to be good to survive. The only exception was the Slug and Lettuce, which describes it so well'; slug like service and tasteless food.
Would we go again...yes, but we would check with Limehouse in case they had a berth first. Being in central location is a boost, and although it is a bit noisy, this is London after all.
Oh, bye the way the photo of the marina in East Coast Pilot is out of date.
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