A Cruise On The Ouse

[addicted]

We're waiting for the flood waters at Ferry marina to allow us access to our  berth to wintertise . It's very frustrating .We don't have the boat lifted each winter as we used to. We think it's better in the water than out. So it's just anti-freeze through the raw water system,  and a little down the loo, stopcocks to engine and loo turned off.drain down the domestic water and leave the  taps open. Tube heater in engine bay with thermostat set to kick in below 4deg. Bedding soft furnishing wrapped in plastic bags, cockpit upholstery put in saloon, numerous damp traps. If during the winter months exceptionally cold weather or prolonged freezing weather is forcast we'll  go and put a couple of oil filled heaters on board set to kick in below  5deg. We go and check over the boat about once a month.

 

Carole

[Bikertov]

1 hour ago, Smoggy said:

I may have to pop into Jones myself this weekend to pick up another pot of non toxic anti freeze.

If I get a chance with all the other bits that need done.

If you pop in on Sunday I might be there - do give me a shout and say 'Hi'

[Bikertov]

On 07/11/2023 at 09:51, mikeyboy1966 said:

I’ve not been onboard since the end of august ,every time I’ve planned to go down the weather has been horrendous.

need to do some basic winterising just in case.

Seems like I missed you today Mike.

I saw some belongings by your mooring earlier today, but it didn't look like anyone was onboard. When I called by later on just before I left, the covers were on your windscreens so I guessed you were gone by then.

Maybe another time !

 

[mikeyboy1966]

I was probably walking the hounds.

I was planning to pop over and say hello but I ran out of time and had to dash.

I’ll no doubt catch up with you soon.

[mikeyboy1966]

It’s a shame the SSA was still in place and the lock out of action over this weekend !

quite a few people unable to relocate boats for the coming Crane out.

id seen on Facebook that a rental cruiser from Ely has been stuck at Jones since October the 13th,also a narrow boat moored downstream of the lock.

I must admit ,it’s been a bit of a disappointing season for us this year,

we had more than one conversation about relocating the boat to another waterway with us weighing up pros and cons.

we may get lucky and have a dry mild winter so we can have some days out.

[Smoggy]

Ssa was one of the reasons we moved to the Broads and the first season there we'd get notifications of it coming into force while driving to the boat that confirmed the move to be a good choice.

Living a 10 minute walk from the boat had its bonuses too though.

[dom]

I'm really surprised the SSA is still in place. I biked down to Earith over the weekend and the river is high, but not especially so. Only one of the Earith sluice gates is raised and even then only slightly. If the SSA is still in place, I'm surprised Earith isn't wide open to try and shift as much water as possible before we get more rain.

[Bikertov]

The water levels in St. Ives yesterday we basically normal, and the flow of water on the river really did not seem strong in the slightest.

Yet the lock was still closed to navigation ?

I guess I'd better get used to this for a while at least !

[dom]

I saw a group of young rowers down by West View Marina. They certainly didn't seem to be having any issue with currents, sat not moving in the middle of the river.

The road at Earith regularly floods and the EA have a hand in whether the road gets closed or not. If that's anything to go by, their hours of work are strictly 9-5 weekdays, which seems ludicrous to me.

Must be really frustrating for you!

[mikeyboy1966]

Jones underwater again.

 

[dom]

Earith causeway is very close to going over. Boaters down at Denver are complaining at the lack of water at the sluice moorings again, so it looks like the EA are dumping water there to try and relieve things upstream.

[Smoggy]

It's running pretty hard through st.neots so there's plenty more coming your way.

So when do you recon the hosepipe ban will come in to force?

[Bikertov]

5 hours ago, mikeyboy1966 said:

Jones underwater again.

 

I've been keeping an eye on the webcams all week - the depth marker is showing 1m high 

Glad I am out the water for the winter !

[mikeyboy1966]

5 minutes ago, Bikertov said:

I've been keeping an eye on the webcams all week - the depth marker is showing 1m high 

Glad I am out the water for the winter !

I’ve no idea where my boat is,

it was hopefully moved last weekend to a floating pontoon,

either that or it’s sunk/floated away/ been nicked.

was going to go down today but the weather was just nasty and I didn’t fancy driving down

[mikeyboy1966]

My normal berth is the other side of the two big trees.

iirc,that’s the 3rd time since Easter that the spit of land has been submerged.

the 1st time,just after the boats were lifted back in,the water was so high that the cruiser next to mine lifted its stern mooring line off the pontoon and was sideways on resting against the big willow tree,actually floating above the normally dry land.

big shout out to the staff at Jones though because it was soon sorted (this was a Saturday evening.

the following week the pontoon was modified.

the web cams did go off though whilst it was recovered 

[Mouldy]

21 minutes ago, Bikertov said:

I've been keeping an eye on the webcams all week - the depth marker is showing 1m high 

Glad I am out the water for the winter !

Are you?  Still?  

[Smoggy]

Your boat is fine Mickeyboy, just had a lovely trip up the river, and yes it's been nicked.... 

[Bikertov]

5 hours ago, Mouldy said:

Are you?  Still?  

No, not quite...

Of course i would dearly love to be on my boat, on the river. But even the Broads are high and have issues right now.

My boat is at least safe, and hopefully I will go to it next week to check up and do a few bit of tinkering on it, abeit in the car park !

[grendel]

I did a cycle ride along the river in Canterbury yesterday, and its  still very high and still running very fast, a couple of spots where the path was underwater for a hundred feet or so, but only a couple of inches deep, it hadnt deterred the joggers cyclists and dog walkers one bit.

[Bikertov]

23 hours ago, mikeyboy1966 said:

I’ve no idea where my boat is,

it was hopefully moved last weekend to a floating pontoon,

either that or it’s sunk/floated away/ been nicked.

was going to go down today but the weather was just nasty and I didn’t fancy driving down

I'm planning to go next weekend (Sunday), to check on my boat and do a few bits of maintenance.

Happy to have a look for yours and make sure it is still afloat, if you can't get there yourself.

 

[Bikertov]

Good news @mikeyboy1966 - your boat is still afloat !

They have moved it to the pontoon just across the basin from where you normally are.

[Bikertov]

 

The water level in the marina at St.Ives was almost back to a normal level, from being 1m high this week. You could actually see some dry land where last week it was like one big lake

But they have reversed the locks and opened the sluice gate, and it is quite a sight to watch the water flow through so strongly. 

Maybe that is how they have lowered the river levels, by effectively pulling out the plug !

However, the water level just downstream of the lock has to be around 2m higher than normal ?

[dom]

2 hours ago, Bikertov said:

Maybe that is how they have lowered the river levels, by effectively pulling out the plug !

That's pretty much it. They opened Denver Sluice up a week ago to the point that the basin virtually emptied and boats on the EA mooring there were firmly aground. They have to create capacity there first, before they can increase throughput upstream.

Levels at Earith were so high at the tail end of last week that the road flooded and had to be closed, which causes 20 mile diversions for a lot of people (me included ). All 3 gates on Earith sluice have been wide open ever since. The level has now dropped over half a metre since Friday.

The big problem is Welney, where the village sits right on the edge of the flood plains. When they do things like the above, it causes major disruption there (the road was heading for 2ft deep last week), but levels have to drop across the entire flood plain before issues subside, so they try and manage things by controlling flow at Earith. Similar issues occur at Sutton Gault, but there's a lot less population there to complain. Very high flows also cause issues with boats - I think there have been 3 or 4 in the last week either adrift, or loose on moorings.

You can see in your video that the amount of water passing through the lock is about the same as at Earith, but passing through a gap about 1/3rd the size, so flow is way faster. On the plus side, the water seems fairly debris free. A couple of weeks ago, there were vast amounts of branches and other debris coming down from somewhere. I think there's still an EA caution for a large tree adrift upstream of St.Ives.

Having been out to sea a few times, it all looks like it'd be quite fun to have a go in with the right boat, but with locks to contend with, and the flow only running in one direction, it does pretty much put the area out of use. I'm assuming the Old West and Ely Ouse are probably much less affected and people moored at Fish & Duck or Ely might possibly still be able to get out on the river.

[Smoggy]

Usually when they drop the water out at denver it's only cambridge area that gets any relief from it, the proper great ouse all goes out via the old and new bedford rivers and the welney washes, if they opened hermitage lock gates the farmland flooded would be vast.

7 hours ago, dom said:

Having been out to sea a few times, it all looks like it'd be quite fun to have a go in with the right boat, but with locks to contend with, and the flow only running in one direction,

We went out one time on the ebb and started making the decision to abort as we passed the old goba swinging moorings, we turned around ten minutes after passing them and it took just over an hour to get back to them... Had similar at hull when we passed the marina lock and turned into the flow on the humber and went from 1200rpm to 2500rpm and still took forever to get in. That was in our old RLM31 with a lack of power.

[Bikertov]

 

Having seen what apparently were record levels of high water, at 1.3 - 1.6m above normal, it looks like the Great Ouse at St.Ives has had the plug pulled out again in the last day or so. The water is back to normal levels in Jones Boatyard with dry land visible in the marina