A Cinch

If anything, Paddington Basin looks even better when it's lit up at night.  Yesterday evening there was plenty of boating activity.  First a couple of narrowboats turned up looking for somewhere to moor, found no spaces, and left again.  Then the widebeam floating bar, the Prince Regent came slowly past.  Finally, in the dark at gone 9pm, a huge widebeam Dutch barge style boat arrived at some speed.  They turned with maximum revs at the end of the basin and moored up alongside a narrowboat on the hospital side.

A couple of months ago, I happened to be working at Radio 2 one Friday when a boaty type invention was featured on the Innovation Slot.  It was called the Cinch, and grips ropes, so you don't need to knot them.  I had a chat with the man who's selling them in this country, and expressed my doubt about whether they'd ever be useful for narrowboaters (he's apparently sold loads to lumpy-water sailors).  For one thing, I'd always prefer to have a rope return to the boat to be tied, rather than have a knot on the bank.  Anyway, I ended up with a box with two of these things in it.

However, it occurred to me that the rather unorthodox mooring arrangements I'd had to adopt at Paddington might give me an opportunity to try it.  So I've used it on the line attached to the fender eye, and back round the post.

This morning I met up with Jonathan Ludford, the head press officer with CRT, whose office is round the corner at Little Venice.  We went to the M&S cafe and sat outside.  After that, I had to go to work -- and really enjoyed having such a short commute.