Narrowboat Tacet

Silent Movement - Our gap year travelling the inland waterways



Sunday 17 March 2013

Lickety-split out of Leighton Buzzard

Waking up this morning after a very wet night, the canal water was churned up and muddy and seemed to be flowing rather faster than you expect on a canal. 
On returning from church our ropes were slack and the level had risen, so we went off for a walk to see just where all the water was coming from.
It was now flowing very fast so we walked 'upstream' towards Grove lock, on the way we splashed through two places where the canal was leaking over the towpath, running into the river alongside.

Just below the lock there is what would normally be a small brook flowing into the canal, and this was where were the problem lie, all the rainwater over the last few days and night was spilling into the canal, raising the level and in places forcing its way over the edges. We also released the ropes on one unattended boat that was leaning rather as the centre rope was pulling it over.

On the way back to Tacet, the overflows or breaches were getting bigger, so we quickly decided that it would be sensible to move off this pound, just in case.
So that is what we did, phoning C&RT first to alert them to the problems. There are a lot of boats moored on this stretch and of course the Wyvern shipping hire fleet too.
C&RT responded gratefully for the alert, obviously the chap I spoke to knew of the problem areas, but whether anyone came out, I don't suppose we shall know til tomorrow.

Oh and Grove lock was our 3,000th!

Tesco, Leighton - Grove lock
2 miles, 1 lock

2 comments:

  1. One wonders how long it would take for a major breach to take hold. The potential seems to be there in the second photo.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh my word! Is it really this long since I have kept up with your travels?

    The water levels in your photos are very much in keeping with the rain outside my window today.

    ReplyDelete