Come Hell or High Water

Yesterday evening, I received a text and an email from the Environment Agency saying 'Flood Warning issued for the River Cam from Cambridge to Upware'. The message was somewhat useless however: by this time, we had surprisingly enough already noticed that the water (and hence also the Duck and all the other boats on the Cam) had risen a significant distance, the stream was very fast, and very few rowers (not even James) were venturing out. In the current state we have not been able to go rowing at all. James was supposed to be going to Nottingham on Sunday with the Chesterton men to race the Head of the Trent. But the inclement weather meant that the event was in danger of being cancelled, so they decided not to risk wasting the time and money involved in getting there. We did, however, have a very enjoyable weekend. Emma and James of nb Kestrel arrived back from their honeymoon on Saturday night. (More on the wedding soon -we postponed discussing anything wedding related until they returned, for security reasons) We went for dinner with them and Elisabeth of nb Sirius at the Fort on Saturday night, and then on Sunday, a whole bunch of Chesterton folk headed over to the Clarendon Arms for an extended Sunday lunch!


The flood waters the morning.

We are extremely glad that we invested all of £16 in a couple of flood poles as soon as we arrived. We are also glad of our long ladder and plank boat-access system which is proving most satisfactory. Not everyone has the good fortune to have such a long gang-plank though. Our next-door neighbour Tanja on Bacchus now has to hop over the water to get to hers.

Today dawned sunny, and so we are hoping that once the tide is out downstream, the EA will be able to let the floodwaters out, and the river levels will begin to fall.

At lunchtime I returned to the boat to check on things. I found both Lyra and Fennel sitting on their respective vessels surveying the scene:



As I pottered about the boat, checking the mooring lines, and generally enjoying the sun, Lyra joined me. She sat on the warm sunny roof, briefly curled up in a circle inside the life ring, before following me down the plank. She watched the ducks swimming between the boat and the bank, and then went down to the water's edge to try and solve the flooding problems by drinking the river back to normal levels! :