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South Oxford Summit - Water Resources!


john6767

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1 hour ago, Dave123 said:

Bizarrely the levels at Pinkhill have dropped significantly as the weirs have been opened. Sitting a foot out from the bank. I don't 'think' it's going up any further from this morning so we shouldn't go over the bank.??.

I suppose now is as good a time as any to start speculating about when red boards will come off? If no more significant rain (as forecast) I hope by middle of next week?


We are in Abingdon, and from the peak which was over the edge and a couple of feet onto the grass bank, it is now below the hard edge, and has been stable at that since late last night, the Abingdon lock downstream gage concurs with that.  Comparing the state on the upstream and downstream gauges on a number of locks, the upstream are in many case below normal level, which I assume is due to opening the weirs up to let more through.  The corresponding downstream being a few feet above normal, and then repeating at the next lock.  I guess when the downstreams start to return to normal at the higher locks that will then work its way downstream.

 

I apparently missed the fun yesterday evening as the big Le Boat cruiser that whet upstream on red yesterday morning came back down, but found they could not get under Abingdon bridge!  They then really struggled to make it back against the flow to moor.  They have now abandoned the boat and told the hire company to come and pick it up.  I guess the experience was not what they were expecting from their staycation, by hardly the hire companies fault.

 

I am assuming it will be at least a couple more days before the flow drops to something the you could consider moving in, right now I would say it is 4 to 5 mph.

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Here in the Northamptonshire uplands where the Nene and Leam  spring from and the Cherwell just over the border it hasn’t stopped raining for 3 days now and is raining again at the moment. The little brook in the village which runs into the Nene is full of water for the first time in weeks and it won’t be long before all this water has an effect on the Warwick Avon and the Thames as well as the Nene itself. 
stay safe.

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43 minutes ago, Dav and Pen said:

Here in the Northamptonshire uplands where the Nene and Leam  spring from and the Cherwell just over the border it hasn’t stopped raining for 3 days now and is raining again at the moment. The little brook in the village which runs into the Nene is full of water for the first time in weeks and it won’t be long before all this water has an effect on the Warwick Avon and the Thames as well as the Nene itself. 
stay safe.

Fortunately I'm above the confluence of the Thames and Cherwell. It isn't meant to rain significantly in the Cotswolds for 2 weeks so I don't expect to be stuck forever, but would be nice to leave sooner than later!

56 minutes ago, john6767 said:


We are in Abingdon, and from the peak which was over the edge and a couple of feet onto the grass bank, it is now below the hard edge, and has been stable at that since late last night, the Abingdon lock downstream gage concurs with that.  Comparing the state on the upstream and downstream gauges on a number of locks, the upstream are in many case below normal level, which I assume is due to opening the weirs up to let more through.  The corresponding downstream being a few feet above normal, and then repeating at the next lock.  I guess when the downstreams start to return to normal at the higher locks that will then work its way downstream.

 

I apparently missed the fun yesterday evening as the big Le Boat cruiser that whet upstream on red yesterday morning came back down, but found they could not get under Abingdon bridge!  They then really struggled to make it back against the flow to moor.  They have now abandoned the boat and told the hire company to come and pick it up.  I guess the experience was not what they were expecting from their staycation, by hardly the hire companies fault.

 

I am assuming it will be at least a couple more days before the flow drops to something the you could consider moving in, right now I would say it is 4 to 5 mph.

I also missed an anglo-welsh narrowboat getting from Northmoor to below Shifford, then having to turn and moor below Tadpole on the towpath (where no one ever moors as its usually so high) as the pub landing was underwater! Not sure if they have abandoned it or not, but I am surprised the hire company let them out ,assuming they had only just left, given the forecast.

 

PS I think you were moored in front of me in Lechlade last month for a few days?

Edited by Dave123
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46 minutes ago, Dav and Pen said:

The little brook in the village which runs into the Nene is full of water for the first time in weeks and it won’t be long before all this water has an effect on the Warwick Avon and the Thames as well as the Nene itself. 
stay safe.

The Warwicks Avon is effectively in flood!!

Last night and now..

Screenshot_20201004-172332_Chrome.jpg

Screenshot_20201005-150903_Chrome.jpg

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5 minutes ago, Dave123 said:

Fortunately I'm above the confluence of the Thames and Cherwell. It isn't meant to rain significantly in the Cotswolds for 2 weeks so I don't expect to be stuck forever, but would be nice to leave sooner than later!

I also missed an anglo-welsh narrowboat getting from Northmoor to below Shifford, then having to turn and moor below Tadpole on the towpath (where no one ever moors as its usually so high) as the pub landing was underwater! Not sure if they have abandoned it or not, but I am surprised the hire company let them out ,assuming they had only just left, given the forecast.

 

PS I think you were moored in front of me in Lechlade last month for a few days?

We had 4 nights in Lechlade, so quite possibly.

 

Given there are no boats moving, the hire companies should really tell people to stay put, which most are anyway.  Surprised they could make any upstream progress in a narrowboat.

 

Oh and it has just started raining heavily again here ?

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Things going the wrong way at Abingdon at the moment, level has gone up substantially this morning, and the flow is crazy fast now.

 

One professional has already got the scaffolding poles off the roof and down the side of the boat.  Amateurs  like me will have to use the boat  pole and luckily it is just the bow that is pushing onto the side so hopefully the one pole near the bow will stop us flowing onto the edge.

 

All suggestions welcome!  Stay safe out there.

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53 minutes ago, john6767 said:

Only has 2, why would he need more!  What a flipping game.

 

Just remember that in extremis your plank can be used vertically to keep the stern off the bank.

 

At least you're getting intense use out of your gold licence, which may or may not make up for the first half of the year.

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Having heard that the NBT boats are now waiting a while at Osney due to high water levels, I looked at the EA website earlier today and saw that the whole non-tidal Thames was on red boards. Just checked, still that. I was scheduled to join the boats on Thursday 8th at Reading, but the location for that is now Osney and I guess we might have to alter plans again!

 

Life could be worse; it's sunny in Croydon.

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It seemed the flow at Pinkhill has stabilised. The weir here is still not fully drawn interestingly. I suspect it's because Abingdon is downstream of the Cherwell that it's so bad there? I think we must be at the peak by now? I guess use the plank and pole? And put in spring lines or just a second pin further back (so that banging it in doesn't dislodge the existing pin) with another rope?

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1 hour ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

Just remember that in extremis your plank can be used vertically to keep the stern off the bank.

 

At least you're getting intense use out of your gold licence, which may or may not make up for the first half of the year.

Pole and plank are in the plan if needed.

 

Not the type of use I had in mind.

 

1 hour ago, Dave123 said:

It seemed the flow at Pinkhill has stabilised. The weir here is still not fully drawn interestingly. I suspect it's because Abingdon is downstream of the Cherwell that it's so bad there? I think we must be at the peak by now? I guess use the plank and pole? And put in spring lines or just a second pin further back (so that banging it in doesn't dislodge the existing pin) with another rope?

I have 6 ropes out, 3 very long just tied off on pins and the others 3 coming back to the boat from separate pins.  I don’t like tieing off on pins, but it’s an attempt to get to some more solid ground at it slopes up and the long ones I doubt will go under water.

 

here hoping it start to clam down a bit here, perhaps it jus5 need a bit more time to work the worst down here.  There are pictures on Facebook of the mooring below Goring lock (downstream from here) that look bad.

1 hour ago, Peter X said:

Having heard that the NBT boats are now waiting a while at Osney due to high water levels, I looked at the EA website earlier today and saw that the whole non-tidal Thames was on red boards. Just checked, still that. I was scheduled to join the boats on Thursday 8th at Reading, but the location for that is now Osney and I guess we might have to alter plans again!

 

Life could be worse; it's sunny in Croydon.

I doubt they will be going anywhere in the next few days, the speed of the water flow is insane, and levels very high.

Edited by john6767
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Its incredible to think we left the Thames on 16th August having had a brilliant 5+ weeks on there. Also a heatwave. Now just six or so weeks ago. 
 

I’ve seen pictures of Abingdon flooded over the adjacent fields. Hard to believe at the time. John6767 is having a difficult time, I’m sure it’ll be okay, seems to know what he’s doing.

 

 

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I'm amazed it has got this bad from just 3 days of rain. It was hardly moving at the end of Sept! I pushed some twigs out that had caught on the stern and they still hadn't floated past the bow by the time I had gone inside to get a drink and come back out again?

So long as the forecasted dry 2nd half of October happens we will all escape so I'm not worried yet. 

Edited by Dave123
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1 hour ago, Nightwatch said:

Its incredible to think we left the Thames on 16th August having had a brilliant 5+ weeks on there. Also a heatwave. Now just six or so weeks ago. 
 

I’ve seen pictures of Abingdon flooded over the adjacent fields. Hard to believe at the time. John6767 is having a difficult time, I’m sure it’ll be okay, seems to know what he’s doing.

 

 

It can get quite deep there.  Picture from Abingdon Lock, Dec 2000.  You can judge where the bank was by the location of the life buoy on a post, with the water half way up the post. 

PC140541.JPG.d3d70b1bec20557e4420d7bea41856fa.JPG

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22 minutes ago, alias said:

It can get quite deep there.  Picture from Abingdon Lock, Dec 2000.  You can judge where the bank was by the location of the life buoy on a post, with the water half way up the post. 

PC140541.JPG.d3d70b1bec20557e4420d7bea41856fa.JPG

I didn’t need to see this. Right now it is at the level of the lock lower landing stage (those are the posts in the foreground), so it is probably 4 feet below the picture.

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2 minutes ago, john6767 said:

I didn’t need to see this. Right now it is at the level of the lock lower landing stage (those are the posts in the foreground), so it is probably 4 feet below the picture.

It was winter, and a very wet one, so probably an extreme that won't be approached at the moment.

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1 hour ago, john6767 said:

I didn’t need to see this. Right now it is at the level of the lock lower landing stage (those are the posts in the foreground), so it is probably 4 feet below the picture.

When we were there there were boats going aground Justin the right hand side.

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3 minutes ago, Nightwatch said:

When we were there there were boats going aground Justin the right hand side.

It was like that when we came downstream a month ago.  There are still the red buoys about 30 feet out from the bank, although there is one less now as one came floating past us a couple of days ago.  There are 2 boats moored up there at the moment..

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Still in Abingdon, but this morning brings a flicker of hope.  The water level has dropped 6 inches here, and looking at the gauges upstream that seems to be the case everywhere.  I had been fearing that there was still a high to work it’s way downstream, which on top of where we were last night was going to be tricky.  At lest is there is another serge it may come on top of a lower level.  Another 2 reaches at the top have come off red, making 3 in total on decreasing stream.

 

Got fed up with lugging cassettes up to the services, so yesterday did a route marchto Screwfix and bought a folding trolly.  Will christen it with a trip to the Elsan in a bit ?.

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Yep things are looking up. The rain last night wasn't much and forecast is dry. I'm rethinking my cancelled trip down to Henley before heading back to the South Oxford....?

Weir at Pinkhill has (as of this morning) only 2 of 4 radial gates fully up, 1 fully closed and 1 half closed. That's a change from 3 fully up and the 4th on top flow at the peak ?

Edited by Dave123
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