That’s a pretty high brow blog title for you Beasty, how the fuck do you know the lines from a Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem?
In short, it’s because I am quite the intellectual. Or just maybe a fan of Iron Maiden who wrote a song about the poem? You can choose which. It’s a pretty accurate description for this post.
A couple of weeks ago we had some heavy rain round these parts, and after reading about how Bedfordshire in particular got absolutely smashed I started worrying about my boat. That’s where it’s moored. Knowing my luck, after finally owning a boat that actually floated, there was a high chance the fucking thing will have sunk. Don’t get me wrong, that’d have been fucking hilarious but I was still worried nonetheless.
After fretting way too much I decided I’d go up to the boat yard and assess the damage. I dragged the oldest crotch fruit with me, so he could see what I’m getting myself into. Not only had the river burst its banks, it had flooded the local area. Here’s a short video.
The boat was completely inaccessible, and quite frankly it was frightning to see how high the level of the river had risen. Take a look at these two photos for comparison:
In this picture, take note of the green fence type thing in front of the boat and see how low the boat is in the water.
Now try to find the green fence in this picture:
I might name the boat “The Ark” only I won’t be putting two of everything on it, perhaps a six pack, but that’s about it. According to the boat yard staff, I was one of the lucky ones. A fair few boats had sunk in the deluge.
Can you see how the boat is tied to the tree? Apparently the way I had moored my boat to the jetty with a bow line and a spring line, both of which were too short, resulted in the boat being pulled down on one side and the staff had had to cut the lines and secure it to the tree. God love ’em.
That wasn’t the end of the boat’s adventure though, it eventually broke free from the tree and went on a little adventure of its own. Again the staff managed to resecure it to the tree, and as a result my boat was safe.
Just a note here, I’d tied the lines to the jetty based on a YouTube video I’d watched once. At least I know the knots worked. Hallelujah!