Needs Must

Today the crew decided to jump ship and use facilities on shore. We are almost out of water. Canal and River Trust advice is that navigation is not possible in the Banbury Town Centre. The interesting thing about this advice to me is that the section highlighted on the map is only from Sovereign Wharf to below the Banbury Lock. It does not include the cross streams and difficulties of the influx and outflow of the Hanwell Brook to the north of the town. This is the only navigational hazard noted in the canal guides but ignored by C&RT.

I do not know what my insurance company's view is of a boat owner who ignores advice.

But we are now prepared: A boat owning friend, who winters in Spain, flew in at the end of last week. We met for a drink and they have kindly lent me their pump out kit until they need it again in April. I have bought a bag of coal, a bag of logs and bottle of gas and a bag of sticks to tide us over until Dusty can move again. He is prevented in getting here by the rise in water levels at Aynho. His texts are always light hearted. Some day I might publish more of them. This one says "will you turn the tap off Dusty can not get through the locks or under the bridges with all this water....." He doesn't mention crossing rivers!

Flood update

The current situation, over 1 mile per hour past the boat, is causing some concern. I slackened the mooring lines overnight to ensure that we slept level as the rain fell and the water level rose.

The flow from the Hanwell brook which enters the canal upstream of us is causing strong streams in the area and is too much for the outflow to the main River Cherwell. That is why the flow is racing past us toward the town and lock where the paddles are open to allow the water to enter the River Cherwell a couple of weirs downstream.

I am assessing whether it may be possible to close the paddles for long enough to get the boat through the lock tomorrow without flooding Castle Quay for which I would not be thanked! It is essential that we work down the lock, turn at Calthorpe (Bankside or Tramway) winding hole if we are to pump out the waste tank. Then we would have to work back up.

More rain is forecast for this evening and over night which could change things considerably.

Floods again!

Pictures (above) taken this morning of the meadow area of the Spice Ball Park just behind our mooring.

And below, of the River Cherwell in the Town Centre, firstly looking toward the Mill Arts Centre


and then to the north. (Taken from the new Leisure Centre footbridge)



A look at the Environment Agency Masterplan shows that these areas of flooding are not unexpected in the 1 in 200 scenario.

Flood Alert

It is not much of a picture but the view shows Sonflower on her mooring as the flood waters rise.

I have just loosened her mooring lines to allow for more movement.

The paddles are all open on the lock and the current is now significant here. The water still appears to be rising.

The sky has cleared and the rain has stopped but the water will continue to run down from the Warwickshire Hills for a few hours yet.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to get out to the flood alleviation barrier site. The scene must be quite interesting there.

Big Town with City status

At School I was taught that a City was 'a square mile around a cathederal". Apparently the definition has changed because Cambridge is now a city sans cathederal. It's local Cathederal, the seat of the Bishop is in ELY.

But this morning we went to The City Church who were very welcoming and invited us to join them at a picnic lunch in the play area right next to our boat! We packed up a few things and were almost the first there. Here is a picture of the church in Cambridge as I like to see it. A family together at Sunday lunch!

Yesterday was a long day. We awoke and checked water levels. The stream had increased slightly and I decided to go to St Ives lock to see whether we would fit under the guillotine gate. There was 2.2m clearance so we took the opportunity and cruised through flood meadows
to Brownshill Staunch. Here the water was flowing over both gates. I rang the lock keeper at Hermitage lock to say where we were, that we would be having breakfast and then coming to his lock. He said "Forget breakfast and come now!" I took his advice and by the time I got to Hermitage lock there was very little clearance between us and the road bridge over it. "They have just opened sluices" he said, "You are better off the river now".

So we cruised on until we stopped for lunch at teh EA mooring at Stretham near to the pumping station. After a break, we made the decision to go up the Cam to Cambridge a town we have never visited. We arrived at Sunset and moored near the water point of Stourbridge Common, just 10 minutes walk from the meeting place of The City Church.

31 miles, 5 locks (10hr) yesterday.

Here we go again?

It is raining. It hasn't stopped all day and we are watching the level in the canal rising. There is a steady flow toward the lock and over the top of the gates at the moment and everyone is wondering whether the weather will turn out to be like July last year when we were very nearly out of the cut and many premises locally were feet under water.

The forecast is for showers tomorrow, more rain on Friday and then more again Sunday.

At least there will be a day in between the downpours when the Cherwell might take a bit of the flow away.

Whether the weather be wet,
Or whether the weather be hot,
we'll weather the weather
whatever the weather.
Whether we like it or not

Looking Forward

I am sorry to have been silent for so long.

This has been because of Owl's fall (See 'many a slip.....') and the need to continue life with only half the active crew. Also, because I have been slowed by the slow progress of my knee repair, I am not as fast as I could be. Early nights and early mornings have been the order of the day.

Breakfast, packed lunches, school bags to check, getting the boys to school/college, shopping, cleaning, cooking etc all take up a huge amount of time and energy. I do not want to be a single parent and do not envy those of you who have to take on that role.

Things are getting better. I have an afternoon of quiet as Pooh is out on an accompanied shopping trip and Piglet is playing with friends in Spice Ball Park. Owl is resting/reading in her recliner. I am tapping the keyboard.

What are we looking forward to? Well, in October, there is a great festival here called Banbury Canal Day . Sonflower will be there. We hope to have a great deal of fun and invite people aboard to show them that the inside of a boat isn't all that different to the homes they live in! A little cosier perhaps but most of the necessities are there! One of the main sponsors is Hook Norton Brewery so the ale will be good as well.

The other thing coming up is the Canalside Folk Festival At this wonderful few days of music, dancing and fun we will be doing a craft workshop on the Saturday. In the past we have made mainly little model canal craft but this year the weather has been so wet we are centreing on the most endangered species group on the planet- the frog. The TV mega series, Planet Earth highlighted that hundreds of species of amphibian are endangered. We will celibrate this wonderful little creature in paper and card. There will be origami frogs, dancing frogs, frog mobiles, frog games and a large green talking (croaking/belching) frog may turn up as well. Our motto is 'Frogs are Friends not Food'.

So there you are. We are looking forward to it. I hope you are too.

Now we're stuck!

I have no pictures of the floods of the 20th. I was too busy to get any. If you want to see why the Oxford Canal is closed south of Banbury and is under a severe flood warning north of Banbury go to Banbury Guardian . The local paper has done a wonderful job collecting photographs and updating the galleries.

British Waterways have given advice not to move any boat unless it is absolutely necessary. Our summer cruise, which has been in the planning for months is obviously in jeopardy. More rain is expected in the next few days and with the ground absolutely waterlogged more flooding is very probable. I might have been overheard at lunchtime today suggesting booking into a high rise Hilton Hotel somewhere a long way away for a few days! At least we could swim in the spa pool. Our local Spiceball baths are flooded out and there is talk that they will never reopen.

Our favorite watering hole, the GF Club is also flood damaged as is Tooley's boatyard. The water coming down the canal, instead of the River Cherwell, did a lot of the damage this time. The river rose later to flood the railway station and the canal below the lock. The river and the canal mingled as one at Cropredy and the boats had to be retrained from floating over the towpath.

So there we are. Stuck in the middle. Unable to go south and advised not to go north. Maybe it's time to do some more work on the boat. It better be inside work though with the rain forcast to catch us on Thursday or Friday.