Surviving the flood on the non-tidal Thames

Normally I winter above Penton Hook Lock where I have options for a safe haven if conditions look as if they are going to be challenging. However, October 2023 found me caught further downstream due to the long-term failure of Chertsey Lock. Initially I was on the Weybridge Point moorings, reasonably happy as I was in easy walking distance of a range of shops. Most important was I knew I could get freshwater courtesy of the Weybridge Ladies Amateur Rowing Club who have an outside tap exactly two hose lengths from my tank!

14th October saw most of the non-tidal Thames on Red Boards, that indicates strong stream conditions and the Environment Agency advise all boaters to seek a safe haven and stay put until conditions improve. Conditions started to improve in the last week of November.

On the 1st December I went to Shepperton Marina to top up diesel and water tanks to pump out and empty Thetford cassettes, I have two loos. Confident conditions were at last improving I went to Manor Park Moorings, known to most boaters as Lady Lyndsey’s Lawn, which is in Shepperton. This is a 24 hour visitor mooring but in any case I intended to move on the following day because it is not an ideal mooring in flood season as there aren’t any bollards and only a few rings, so pins are almost certainly going to be needed. Not ideal in strong stream conditions, especially when any pins are likely to be submerged for weeks!

I was lucky when I arrived at the mooring there was a space behind another boat where I could secure my bow line through a ring holding the stern line of the other vessel. Knowing I was only staying overnight and believing the river levels were falling I secured the stern with two interlinked pins.

Overnight the river level increased, the flow was noticeably fiercer. I had no option but to make the best of the situation and stay put. At least the river was within bank with a margin of at least 6 inches before it over topped. All was secure, the river was well within bank, Shepperton High Street a 10-minute walk away with a good range of shops; being here for a few weeks would be fine!

The issue became fresh water. I rationed water as strictly as I could and started buying bottled water for drinking, using water from my tank for washing and flushing the loo. Water is heavy to carry back to the boat and by the end of December doing so was feeling a real chore! Inevitably, my tank was close to being empty, so on the 23rd December I ordered a water purification system so in future I would be independent of water taps!

In the meantime, the river went out of bank on the 20th December and I knew relying on pins that might be submerged was not a good idea. Fortunately, in 2022 I bought a “ground anchor” which is basically a giant corkscrew 900mm long and circa 130mm diameter which I used, for the first time to take my stern line. As you will hear that might literally have been a life saver.

I fitted the water purification system on 4th January which worked exactly as hoped albeit that the turbulence in the river meant there was a lot of very fine sand in the water so the primary filter was clogged after only 250 litres, in normal conditions it will last for a 1000. But I had potable water when I needed it.

By the 4th January the river was over the bank and was way beyond the end of my gangplank and flowing so quickly that attempting to wade would be dangerous if not impossible. I was now seriously considering my options. Leaving the boat, which was suggested, I was determined would not happen.

When I awoke on the morning of the 5th my bow was at least a foot over the bank, a sudden drop in river level would have spelt disaster. With the help of another boater I manged to force my barge pole between the bank and boat, but this was clearly only a temporary fix, the water pressure was such that the pole snapping was a very real possibility.

I rang 4All, a boatyard based at Laleham a few miles upstream, who I know well and explained my predicament. Within a couple of hours they arrived, by road, with two very long steel scaffold poles and a very long scaffold board so I could again reach the shore dry shod.

The current was forcing my bow into the bank but pulling the stern out. The same was true for the boat in front of me whose stern line was on the same ring as my bow line. So, we decided one scaffold pole per boat would be adequate and located one near the front of each vessel. To help keep the pole secure and upright I lashed it to the pole rack on the front of my roof.

My gangplank I lashed vertically against the side of my boat near the stern in case as the river got higher the current started to push her towards the bank, rather than pull her out, which in fact is what happened. The pressure of the current was such that the stern lines were permanently vibrating with a very distinct “thrumming”.

Morning of the 6th dawned to reveal the river had come up even further and the long gang plank was no longer reaching anything close to dry land. I was marooned again. There were unoccupied boats astern of me however, at the downstream end of “the Lawn” where the bank is higher, there was another narrowboat. The owner, Derek, who helped with the pole, had by dint of a spectacularly innovative use of pallets, found in the woods which surround Lady Lyndsey’s Lawn, created a bridge whereby he, his wife and their dog could safely go ashore. This lovely boater shouted to me “hi can I do your shopping for you?” Then added, with a frown, “but I can’t get it to you”.

I replied that his first purchase on my behalf should be 40 metres of load bearing line and a ball of string. Fortunately, Shepperton boasts an excellent, old fashioned, hardware store which sells an astonishing range of goods.

On his return Derek threw me the end of the line which I made fast to the scaffold pole holding the boat off the bank and he secured his end around a tree. Then he threw me the end of the string. Using a shackle I attached a large IKEA bag (you know the big blue ones they have in the stores) to the load bearing line and returned the other end of the string to him. And, bingo, we had created a sort of breeches buoy which became my lifeline.

The river continued to rise, and I was adjusting lines almost constantly day and night, the power of the river was awesome. On the morning of 8th January, I woke to see the boat in front of me at right angles to mine, two thirds of its length was over the bank.

Trying to work out what had happened we realised that his bow lines had pulled the four pins securing them out of the ground. In addition his stern and my bow mooring lines were at a completely different angle to the norm and our boats were much closer together. I then realised we were at least 3 metres further downstream. When the river returned to normal, we discovered the ring securing my bow line and the stern line of the other boat had pulled the block of concrete into which it was fixed out of the bank and was now hanging between our boats.

To my horror I realised the whole of the weight of my boat was hanging off the ground anchor at the stern and the only thing stopping my bow and the other boats stern from swinging across the river was the line of the breeches buoy which was not intended to bear more than the weight of a bag of groceries!

Another phone call to 4All and two hours later I had 42 metres of new mooring line which was passed around a very large tree and back to my boat and I was secure again, and very, very lucky. I ordered another ground anchor online which a friend collected from MBE Weybridge  where I have my post delivered and dropped it off to me on 12th January. That was immediately put into service to secure the bow.

The river went on to yellow boards on 3rd February and I went, again, to Shepperton Marina to empty all that needed emptying and filled everything that needed filling and then went to Weybridge Point mooring but not opposite the Ladies Rowing Club as before.

Two days later the river was back to Red Boards and once again the levels went up and up and up. The Sunbury reach remained on Red Boards until the 19th April, if I hadn’t fitted the water treatment equipment it would have been a very uncomfortable couple of months, in the event it was bearable. Again, I was in a situation where the current was pulling the stern off the bank and pushing the bow in. The lie of the land here is very different to Shepperton with a concrete quay less than a metre wide with a bank rising behind it to the towpath. So I decided to use a different strategy to avoided being stranded.

I screwed two blocks of timber to the long gangplank. The blocks were far enough apart to fit snuggly over the gunwale the out board one about two feet from the end of the plank. The landward end of the plank was held in place on the bank using a pin. When I put it in place the plank was level and the boat about 6 inches clear of the quay. As the level of the river went up the angle of the plank got stepper and eventually the boat was over sailing the quay by about a foot. This little piece of “engineering” very successfully ensured that as the water level went down again the boat was pushed clear of the quay!

All in all, an “interesting” experience and I was undeniably lucky. Yes, experience played a part, but if it hadn’t been for the ground anchor and the line for the breeches buoy it could have a very different story. One I might not have been able to tell!