The rain has continued for days now. More rain days than not. We had hoped to get away and travel up river, possibly even to Oxford and back down to Reading before the end of October. We plan to winterise Deux Poissons at Reading Marine Services; the engineers and owner have been really helpful and winterising is a service they provide.
So we waited and waited (and waited) for the rain to stop, even for a while. But it didn’t and even when there was a break in the rain and the sun did come out, the river continued to rise and the force of the flow became stronger and stronger. It was quite astounding how quickly the river did rise – only a few weeks ago when we arrived the moorings, on a steel beam, across the river were high out the water and easy to see. Now they were under water.
We woke one morning and resigned ourselves to the fact that our travel for 2024 had come to an end. Firstly, the sunken boat across the river was an indicator of the amount of rain over the past days and the forecast didn’t look good. And the river was now on “red boards”.
The non-tidal River Thames is managed by the Environmental Agency, a government agency. They monitor and report on the river conditions, particularly any warnings. The warnings are displayed at the locks on boards and also can be found on-line at government websites as well as navigation apps and websites. The warnings/indicators will either be yellow or red. Yellow is a sign that the “stream is increasing” and red is “strong stream”. Red boards are an indication that the strong flow makes navigating difficult and possibly dangerous. The flow of water close to weirs and sluices are particularly risky. In effect, the river is now under flood.
While locks won’t be closed as such, there is unlikely to be a lock-keeper who will operate the locks for you. The bollards used outside of the locks, to tie up to while “working the locks” will most likely be underwater and inaccessible. There was a lot of debris coming down the river – we saw whole trees, fenders, logs, some identifiable objects and a chair, never mind what was underwater. All of this is either going to smash into the boat or get caught up in the prop and make the boat dangerous to manoeuvre, especially in a strong current and boats tied up alongside the banks. And your insurance will not cover you if you travel on red boards and possibly not yellow boards either.
So Patrick and I spent the less wet days exploring the parts of Reading that we hadn’t seen yet and on the really wet days (95% of the time) googling Cape Town, South Africa – our destination at the end of October and reminded ourselves that we will soon experience dry, hot weather.
As that time approached, we packed up / winterised the boat ….. if it can be moved, it gets vacuum-packed. It is an exhausting exercise but worth it; ten-fold. All the curtains get taken down, all the cushion and seating covers are removed, all linen and towels are laundered, all clothing except holiday clothes, even books and magazines – basically everything - is shoved into plastic vacuum bags. We have done this every winter and on our return months later, everything is dry and mould free – yes!!
We have a full cover for the boat which also keeps her dry and protected. Reading Marine services will lift her and keep her on the hard while we are away. They drain the water tanks and the calorifier. They fill these with propylene glycol-based solution which prevents any water freezing, it also prevents bacteria growth and is safe. They keep the batteries charged and will run a dehumidifier periodically to keep the boat dry. And just before our return, they drain the tanks, refill them with clean drinkable water, put the boat back in the water. As an extra they will check and change filters and impellers, They guarantee that she is “key-start-ready” on our return. What a treat.
So we packed up, said good-bye to Deux Poissons and the full river and look forward to sunshine and coming back to start out travels in 2025.
She quickly went from our comfy home to a bare boat … ready for winter storage.