When we decided to live on a boat one of my biggest concerns was the river flooding.
Before we had the Big Blue Boat, we lived in a house in St Neots within walking distance of the river- but too far away to flood. In the winter (and autumn, spring, even occasionally summer) the river would flood! When we first moved to St Neots the flood water would travel quite a distance, flooding shops, pubs and homes in the High Street. A few years ago the town received a revamp of its flood defences and I don’t think the High Street has flooded since, but the main park in the town still floods most years. So I was well aware that the river around this area floods!
When we travelled to St Neots recently, I was considering the flooding issues. I thought about how we would moor (on a floating pontoon that goes up and down with the river level or tying the ropes more loosely, so the boat can move) to be safe if the water level rises.
As we were travelling along the river Mr BBB and I were congratulating ourselves on a successful journey. We hadn’t lost any lock keys or windlasses. No one had fallen in. The boat hadn’t crashed into any trees (or anything else)! It was beautifully uneventful.
We spotted herons, cormorants, kestrels and plenty of ducks and geese. As we navigated a narrow bend in the river, the boat stopped. The engine was still going, but the boat wasn’t moving. I looked over the edge and the water was only a few inches deep. Narrow (and wide beam) boats have a very small water draught (not much keel- under the water) so we are usually okay in shallower water, but this was so shallow we could have paddled if it were warmer!
Mr BBB tried using the engine in reverse to free the boat, but it didn’t work. He tried using reverse along with the bow thruster. Nothing. Mr BBB used all of his physics knowledge to try and wiggle the boat free, but she was not budging. I tried pushing off the ground using the barge pole, Mr BBB tried the things he hadn’t tried earlier because he didn’t think they would work. And they didn’t.
We discussed waiting until it either rained or someone passed and could tow us out of the shallow area. But we hadn’t seen another boat all day. At least we were in our home- we had heating, food and water.
Mr BBB had another go at using the engine in reverse to free us, and I noticed the stern was moving, slowly and not much, but it was moving! With more complicated revving, we were free! We continued the journey and celebrated when we got to St Neots!
As Bob Marley sang ‘Don’t Worry About a Thing’. The things you worry about don’t happen, the problems that arise are always things you haven’t considered. Like running aground when you are worried about floods!