Where is everybody ?

[oldgit]

Logged on expecting to find loads of interesting tales and pictures !

Us on our way to Maidstone,Aylesford Bridge,we followed a yacht from Essex with its mast stepped up through the lock,several boats parked outside the Malta Inn and quite a few hardy souls moored in the town centre.Bit of a shakedown (see what drops off) trip before our trip to London at end of month.Fitted a new(to me)ex Post office Espatcher,seemed a good time to try it out.
Flows fairly high and hard but no warnings out.All looking a bit desperate and wintery until the leaves start appearing on the trees.
For any Medway boaters interested the new floating restuarant is up and running outside the Bishops Palace.
Essex boatyards cannot be doing all that badly as noticed a couple of big newish sports Sealines with their labels stuck on the side, lurking in Allington marina.
River was totally clear of rubbish,nary a stick anywhere ,probably due to floods,however in true Medway tradition there appeared to be the remains of a pony washed up on a mudbank just below the Priory......

 

[Bassplayer]

I'll be there as soon as I get my "new " boat! Just goes to prove what I always say that the Medway is a vastly underrated river. Dead animals notwithstanding..

 

[Captain Coochie]

Well i got up early to get the steering sorted and take the boat out but guess what ............ Couldnt get out there as the pontoon was under water AGAIN
So how come your river isnt still in flood but the Thames is ?

 

[No Regrets]

Decorating on Saturday, and finished early, so thought I would attack a small Central Heating issue.

Ended up waiting for plumber, missing prepaid Bray CC event etc etc....

DOH!

Thames still knackered, I'll stay at home methinks...

 

[bradtarga34]

I was thinking how quiet the Thames was, very few boats about but some nutters on canoes coming through Marlow about midnight last night. Saw a few hire boats about as probably change over day, and red boards as we got to Boveney and apparently all the way to Tedders. Windsor was very busy considerng we have hardly seen any boats but good to see some familiar boats around. We managed to get a spot on the Brocas thanks to outdrives and high river levels and a friends boat rafted next to us. Seen some very chipper lockies, especially at Marlow and been having a really ggod time, despite the boat being trashed by a muddy pup, but she has been fantastic for a 4 month old.

 

[TrueBlue]

So how come your river isnt still in flood but the Thames is ?

It all depends where the rain fell...

Now that may seem a facetious comment, but I use it to illustrate a point -

Some time ago the EA published a plan and within the discussion there was a map showing all the major streams and tributaries that feed the grand old river.

It was absolutely horrendous; just like a mycellium fungus.

So it's no surprise that the river floods; all those little streams feeding a narrow and often silted channel.

The Medway is a much smaller river and its catchment area is quite small.

Anyone care to add anything?

 

[boatone]

Anyone care to add anything?

I don't think we need any more rain on our (Easter) parade .......

 

[oldgit]

It all depends where the rain fell...Anyone care to add anything?

Medway catchment area much much smaller than Thames and different geology underneath.
Generally accepted by us estuarine dwellers that any flooding due to rain normally clears within 24 hours.
Most of our feeder streams are fast flowing and tend not to "store" water but just dump it straight into main river.
We also have a couple of largish reservoirs up stream.

We do tend to get it over with fairly quickly.

Above pix lifted from http://www.allingtonlock.co.uk/home.php and data from EA pdf.
In drier times.

 

[alistairedw]

At Twickenham we had our annual Easter dinghy race scheduled for yesterday morning. River flowing fairly fast but a reasonably strong breeze so I launched my dinghy (with a Support Boat in attendance) to see whether it was possible to make any progress upstream.

After about 30 minutes of hard work I finally managed to get back upstream to the pontoon that I had set off from. Speed through the water occasionally very impressive. Speed over the ground very low. So that is two races we have lost already this season.

Looking at the forecast for next week there seems to be very little rain about so hopefully the flows will abate fairly quickly.

Levels at Twickenham rose over a metre between Saturday night and Sunday morning.

 

[oldgit]

Not much going on in the salty bit either

About 5 mins ago !

All those yachts in foreground should have gone back in by now.

 

[teddington_lock]

Levels at Twickenham rose over a metre between Saturday night and Sunday morning.

This will be the tide ... very large ones for the last few days.

We have approximately 2 feet of extra water on our tail at 'low tide' at the moment. This has risen slowly from our normal level as we have pulled each weir gate .

DW came through over the weekend , some very tired chappies. Gave one particularly haggard looking pair a creme egg each , and their reaction was like i'd given them a gold rolex !

TMYC back up on the tide tonight , so i'll be a busy bunny.

 

[Gavi]

I took the family out for a run yesterday. It was a bit fast but good fun. Have retired to The Bells this afternoon though. Plenty of flow here...

 

[bradtarga34]

Whizzed past Gavi's place while he was getting lashed, but at least swmbo and back up sister was there to give us a wave past... Our starboard engine made a horrible sound attempting to start coming out of Penton lock and after a bit of jiggery pokery at Laleham moorings I am feeling the worst that the starter motor has pooped itself... Major downside is that I have no powersteering and it is red boards, great- not! Thankfully only 2 locks tomorrow so hopefully will be OK. I hope you all had a lovelly Easter break.

 

[bradtarga34]

This morning I thought I would check a more obvious issue, the battery. Sure enough, after working perfectly it has all of a sudden failed, but I guess that is what tends to happen with them nowadays. Thankfully the battery crossover switch is doing it's job and can start the engine using that, as wasn't looking forward to the run home today as the stream here is really racing along, actually have small standing waves...

 

[Gavi]

This morning I thought I would check a more obvious issue, the battery. Sure enough, after working perfectly it has all of a sudden failed, but I guess that is what tends to happen with them nowadays. Thankfully the battery crossover switch is doing it's job and can start the engine using that, as wasn't looking forward to the run home today as the stream here is really racing along, actually have small standing waves...

That must be a relief! Blame the dog.

p.s. lathered!? me!?

 

[oldgit]

Just out of interest does your boat feature that typical weedy Fairline set up found hiding in my mates
F43 even with 2 x 500 HP volvos.
Appeared to be composed of two or poss three tiny little things hiding in cornwer barely enough to light a bulb or two and all done in the name of saving a kilo.
Even my old heap has 2 battteries per engine and 2 for domestics making six in all

 

[Andrew_Fanner]

Well, I am sitting in the MJTYC clubhouse, with a beer, hoping that someone will turn up and OK my required changes for the boat safety exam. Its 18:25 and I am losing that hope. The battery charger let out a dark brown smell and some smoke earlier too. Tomorrow, up the slip for antifoul and things for three days. Stiill, the new cooker I had to buy does good bacon and the galley is pretty much done

 

[bradtarga34]

Yeah, typical **** battery set up... 2 x 135 ah for domestic and 1 x 135 ah as a starter battery, certainly doesn't give you much time with those measley batteries... Ramped the domestics up to 4 x 150 ah Mastervolt slimline AGM's in the same place as the other 2 batteries and needless to say that has transformed our weekends away where we I was constantly worried about the cockpit beer fridge conking out, amongst other issues of course... I am thinking of replacing the lead acid starter with an AGM just so I can have my Sterling charger box of tricks ramped up as currently set to lead acid due to the starter battery being the weakest link, so to speak. Had 6 nights away, 4 with out shorepower and heating running about 18 hours a day and battery didn't drop below 12.4 volts, so very happy and champers and Sauvignon Blanc kept nice and cold!

 

[CX54WEK]

We ventured out onto the Trent for a few days. It made for slow going heading upstream with the wall of water heading down and took an age to get from Torksey to Fiskerton, but it was worth it in the end with good food and good beer on offer at the pub. Then we had a short hop (really short 3 miles!!) downstream to meet up with some friends and spend the evening in Fardon before heading back to Burton Waters on Monday.

Uneventful trip with the whole of yesterday spent spring cleaning her again. Shouldnt have bothered polishing her, what with the salt water at Hull then the Trent water she has a nice scum mark already after four weeks afloat!!!

 

[No Regrets]

That'll be the T-Cut then ;-)

Two coats of professionally applied marine polish and a StarGard might have lasted longer than two weeks.....LOL

(Awaits retaliation)