Stranded - April 2012

 

I was planning on carrying on to Peterborough but we stopped at Elton and carried on into the pub instead.  Then one crew member flew back to Italy, one went North and I went South.  It rained.  It rained and it rained.  I have a mooring on The Nene and know that it goes up and down more often than a tarts knickers so I had moored against a high bank, tied the stern rope to a tree and left plenty of ply in the ropes. Still while I was away I worried about the boat.

 I came back to the boat four days later, aware that the Environmental Agency had issued Strong Stream Advice.  The floating pontoon for the lock was being buffeted by the torrent of water coming through the lock and swans nests and debris zoomed passed.  When I saw a telegraph post hurtling downstream I decided the EA’s Strong Stream Advice was justified.  The boat was very high but dry, unlike the bank which was sodden and wouldn’t hold the plank safely.  The best way to get on was to go half way along the boat, stand on a solid bit of bank, then fall towards the boat, catch the rail, step onto the gunwale and walk along it.  Reasonably easy in daylight less so in darkness when I couldn’t work out what to do with the torch and when I put the torch somewhere I thought useful it shone in a useless direction or shone in my eyes and blinded me.

There was only one other boat stranded at Elton, a river cruiser and the occupants wisely spent most evenings in the pub so if I fell in there would be no-one to hear me scream.

The rain continued and it was three weeks before the locks were returned to their rightful position and the river deemed navigable.  By then I had better things to do than spend another four days travelling to Ely so I turned around and the boat and I went home.