This Storm Goretti, aka Storm Spaghetti as a certain 8-year old dubbed it this week has kept us guessing.
We had a warning of “significant snowfall” so someone was expecting a snow day of making snowmen and sledging (as were his teachers). They weren’t the only ones severely disappointed when the snow failed to materialise but slushy roads and pavements emerged instead. Friends just a few miles away were meanwhile sharing pictures of snowy drifts, closed schools, and white fields.
Being on a river above a weir where water is moving continuously means we won’t get frozen in, but we have seen many boating friends on canals are immobile due to thick ice. The lock froze when no one used it. There has been quite an (ironically) heated debate on social media groups about whether boats should be moving in these conditions. Thick ice can damage the blacking on narrowboats and actually tear a hole in a fibreglass boat, but some boats such as the traditional coal boats who are literal lifelines to those who need the fuel they carry for power, heat and cooking have been trying heroically to make it through frozen waterways.
For us this week has seen biting winds and some torrential rain. Volunteering for Canal and River Trust this week was a chilly affair but worthwhile. Boatdog and I were particularly impressed with a significant haul of litter which as Shrek would say is “better out than in”. If you fancy volunteering where you are, there are many options – just visit https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/volunteer
Water levels have been rising with the rain, and further downstream CRT have this week taken action to lower levels downstream between two locks heading towards Loughborough. This they did based on the predicted rainfall, reducing levels for the length of that 3 mile long pound by 30cms, about a foot. This was to try and mitigate the risk of flooding which some households in Loughborough experienced for the first time last year when levels rose.
It appears it worked. For us upstream the situation has been different. We have risen about that height today as water thunders past us heading towards Loughborough the weir. If things get really nasty we could head into the lock and sit there but for now we are loosening our ropes to allow the boat to keep floating up. She would have to rise a very long way to float up onto the towpath which is a comfort and we aren’t yet at the point of needing to buy more, longer ropes to ensure she rises straight in the water and doesn’t start tipping because the ropes are too tight or short. Tipping narrowboats are not good. There are vents and exit points for water that can, under pressure and at the wrong angle become water access points, resulting in a sinking boat. For that reason we are checking ropes every couple of hours and have adjusted our fenders too. Unfortunately all our fenders are the floating variety and the side of the river at this mooring point slopes in well under the water so we are not protected from bashing against it as the flow moves us but we are fine.
As the tiver water has started seeping onto the towpath we won’t be going up much more because water will then flow away from the river across the land alongside. Some years ago when we lived in bricks and mortar near here we watched as a narrowboaters was rescued by the Fire Service from flooded fields. He had set off despite the warnings and was unaware of where the river started and stopped. His propellor became embedded in the grass and soil of the flooded fields.
On a lighter note, Boatdog has adjusted to jumping up much further to get onto the boat today than she did yesterday, and even adopted a rather ridiculous tippy toe walk to avoid most of the slush.
All this is basically displacement activity along with a jigsaw, making market bags, work and starting 10,000 hours of watercolour painting, has a positive bonus. It serves to keep us occupied while we wait with increasing impatience to meet the new arrival.
Pickingupducks 