Aylesford bridge on the Medway - quick video

Murv

Murv

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This is the awkward bridge on the upper tidal Medway before Allington lock.
Heading downstream on a swollen river, Wife is on the flybridge steps ready to leap backwards if there isn't enough clearance talking to me on a walkie talkie at the lower helm (hence the dialogue)
There shouldn't be this much water in the river at this state of the tide but the non-tidal stretch was in flood.
Plenty of clearance, but another foot or two would have been nice, especially with a large eddy sweeping the stern around as I'm trying to line it up!


We knew we should get through OK as Oldgit had passed just before and his boat has slightly more air draft.
 
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Thank you! To be honest, I'd have preferred to have been heading upstream, would have had more chance of holding a vaguely straight line! :D
 
Neat video Chris.
For those interested in dull old facts,all that water in the river was flood water.
Normally all that should be underneath the central arch at that state of tide whould have been a few inches of water flowing past the rocks and other detritus thrown off the bridge.
Ask me nicely and can point out where various club member have left dents in the 600 hundred year old stonework. .
 
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Nice video Murv. Looked tight for clearance from a distance, I assume you knew you had enough before you were fully committed.
How's the new boat coming along ? The few pics you've posted, she looks great. Hope theirs been no nasty surprises, the turbo 36 is a great boat :encouragement:
 
oldgit said:
Neat video Chris.
For those interested in dull old facts,all that water in the river was flood water.
Normally all that should be underneath the central arch at that state of tide whould have been a few inches of water flowing past the rocks and other detritus thrown off the bridge.
Ask me nicely and can point out where various club member have left dents in the 600 hundred year old stonework. .
Click to expand...

You can see some of the scrapes and gouges in the vid, I did wonder how many were from club members! :D I doubt it will be too long before we've left our mark...

sharpness said:
Nice video Murv. Looked tight for clearance from a distance, I assume you knew you had enough before you were fully committed.
How's the new boat coming along ? The few pics you've posted, she looks great. Hope theirs been no nasty surprises, the turbo 36 is a great boat :encouragement:
Click to expand...

Thanks Jon :) I'm really pleased with her.
No, I'm delighted to report there are no nasty surprises at all.
The stbd engine gets a little hot at full throttle (creeps up to and stops at 100degC but I don't run it like that for more than a minute or so) so I need to investigate the cooling system. But, as I'd fully expected both engines to overheat during hard running I can't count that as a nasty surprise.
The throttle cable to the stbd engine was broken from the flybridge, but we knew about that and it was a relatively easy and cheap replacement job.
The anchor windlass needs a service (the kit arrived today) as it's a bit sticky but not too bad and the depth sounders can be a little eratic.
Apart from that, there's really nothing that needs doing :)
I've done a bit of cosmetic stuff, renamed her and replaced all the graphics, sorted the canopy out etc so she's looking reasonably smart now for an old boat.
I will put some pictures up at some point!

We were confident on the bridge clearance as Fred (Oldgit) had gone through moments before and radioed back that he'd got through OK.
His boat seems to have a little more airdraft than us with the arch down, we had about 12" clearance so I imagine his must have been pretty close!!
The whole trip upriver wouldn't have happened without Fred actually, it was the bank holiday of the storm, the river flooded and the tide didn't rise as it should have so we would have been in big trouble without his experience to fall back on.
Slightly annoyingly, when the river flooded overnight it pushed her onto one of the large concrete mooring bollards at Maidstone which then started trying to chew through the side of the boat.
But, it doesn't look too bad, it's easily repairable and as our first "big" boat we're going to pick a few scrapes and dings as we go.
The main thing is that we're out and about, enjoying it immensely and learning as we go :encouragement:
 
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