Well we're still here! We had two really heavy thunder storms on Wednesday evening and overnight the level rose back up another 15 ins.
Four more boats arrived late afternoon so all the moorings are now full. One boat had a really hard time mooring up as the current was so strong. We spoke to him later and he told us he'd had a "tricky time" at one of the locks. He'd come out of the shelter of the lock cut into the main stream and the current was so strong he'd started going backwards towards the weir. He also admitted he was having problems with his engine. Why on earth would anyone attempt a river in flood with a dodgy engine?
This afternoon I talked to one of the men working for the Avon Navigation Trust and he told me about the antics of one boat that had passed us going down-stream about half an hour previously. He'd watched this boat trying to get out of the current into the lock cut at Barton Lock. They ended up going sideways. He said he couldn't believe anyone would travel in these conditions but was powerless to stop them.
Shortly after that, a boat came up-stream and pulled up alongside us so that the crew could nip into the village for a paper. Talking to the skipper it became obvious that he was fairly inexperienced and he told us about a few "hairy moments" he'd had since leaving Evesham. I told him I thought he was mad and he asked why? When I mentioned the fact that you're not supposed to travel when the markers are on red (and at that point they were 2ft 6in in the red) he looked totally bemused, looked up towards the bridge and asked if I thought he'd get through it. I asked him if he realised his insurance was invalid if he had an accident and he had no idea!
This morning (Friday) the river's dropped a bit again. Our current level guide is this tyre on the wall opposite us. When it's just clear of the water the level will be back in the orange and we can go, so it'll be a while yet.
No comments:
Post a Comment