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LONDON CANAL CRUISES |
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Gallery
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THE GALLERY: HELIX AT WORK AND PLAY
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Helix often helps out at local functions and special events. At the annual Islington Canal Festival, one of the more unusual duties is the carriage of a brass band through Islington Tunnel. The acoustics are reverberant, but musical. Here, the band tunes up at City Road lock. |
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Helix sometimes carries film crews and their cameras, shooting programmes on or about the waterways. This particular camera circled London, making a TV documentary about the journey known as the 'London Ring', which includes a section of the River Thames. |
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Tower bridge does not open for narrowboats. But during the making of the London Ring documentary, it opened for Helix, or rather for the camera. One wonders how many motorists and passers-by looked around in vain for the passing ship. |
| Narrowboats rarely travel far down the tidal Thames; it simply isn't their natural terrain. However, Helix and her crew seem to have an affinity with salty water. Seen here with Lucien at the helm, she passes through the Thames Flood Barrier, bound for the estuary and the river Medway, leading a party of ten other boats. |  |
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In one of her most prestigious appointments, Helix was one of the two narrowboats present in the parade staged on the River Thames in 1995, to mark the 50th. anniversary of the end of World War Two. The river was closed for this spectacular event, featuring many historic vessels and aircraft. Here, guests aboard Helix and narrowboat Galatea look back upon HMY Britannia and the royal party. |
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Gallery
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