Chainsaws at the ready....Doris coming

[junior]

I had fun yesterday boating through the middle of Doris. I set off from Tattenhall about 7am and all was calm. It didn't take long for the rain to arrive, followed closely by the wind. My friend & forum member Jay442 turned up to lockwheel.

Locking down into Chester from Christleton the 5 wide locks were done in the worst weather i had boated in. Having a decent load on and no cloths up meant that actually the boat behaved itself well, but anything not screwed down was not hanging around, and the rain was horrendous. And the wind, have i mentioned the wind?

I managed to carry out a few deliveries in town much to the surprise of the customers! On to Northgate Staircase where it was game over for the day. The wind had blown open the bottom 2 locks draining the water and lots of debris had blown into the bottom lock. CRT were on site and informed us it was all from a nearby building site that was getting destroyed by Doris. At this point with the boat in the top lock we started getting peppered by falling slate tiles from the roof of the lock cottage. It was decision time and we bailed out and reversed out of the lock and tied up on the bollards calling it a day. 

We transferred some stock into Jasons van and did the rest of the days deliveries up to Ellesmere Port by van. Even this was not without incident as every road seemed to be blocked with a fallen tree.

A few hours later we returned to the boat and faced the reality of reversing all the way back around the city walls back to a winding ole'. By now another friend had arrived so with 2 armed with long shafts we started our backward journey in high winds. Once winded we decided to make the most of the day and head back out of Chester back up the locks. At Christleton top lock it was a shock to see a massive tree down having just missed the lock, coming to rest in the lock mouth. This must have come down just behind me, and if it had come down while i was in the lock i thing i would have cacked my pants.

 

I'll try and add a couple of photos and videos.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10158506687115495&id=665480494

Edited February 24, 2017 by junior

[junior]

Facebook link is to a 'live' video i did whilst locking down into Chester at the height of the storm.

[Andy Healey]

We had to get back to Weltonfield from Braunston on Thursday to get the daughter back home from a week out on the Southern Oxford, so we came up Braunston Locks during storm Doris on NB Centurion, wind was behind us up the locks, very strong though, but boat controllable, only difficulty was keeping bottom gates closed before filling, quite a few branches down but no major trees, tunnel was a blessing for once. Only problem was when we turned onto the Leicester section, just past the tree cover we where pinned to the bank so game over and a short walk to Weltonfield and the car.

No relation to Storm Doris but we had 2 empty pounds on the way up Knapton Locks, 1 long and 1 short pound below the engine arm, 4 hours for CaRT to refill.