Dry January? Hardly!

I hear that supermarkets are experiencing a run on non alcoholic gins etc , and putting their prices up, as people have a go at dry January.  The term Dry January must ring a bit hollow for all those people whose houses are flooded right now.  We're keeping a watch on the Huntingdon area on the Ouse where our son Richard lives on his boat.  He's in Hartford Marina, has been for 17 or 18 years.  As luck would have it, he has only recently been asked to move off his long term fixed pontoon  to a floating pontoon on the other side of the marina.  I'm fairly sure his old pontoon must be well submerged at the moment.

A short way down river is St Ives, where Richard used to work.  We like St Ives and sometimes take the guided bus to there from Cambridge where our other son lives.  Boating through St Ives is lovely too.  However I wouldn't want to boat there today

I don't think you'd get under the bridge.

Here's what it was like last time we were there (taken from only a few yards away)

Here's the same spot in happier times, taken as we boated through the bridge.  You can see that the wall which is under the water today is about 7 feet or more above normal water levels.

Of course things are much worse in other places like down the Severn.  Ten years ago when we moored overnight at Worcester we marvelled at the height of the uprights on the floating pontoon at Diglis

I wonder how far up the pole the pontoon is now?  Not far off the top I would guess.

So its a wet dry January for a lot of us, although my dryness is suspended today as it's my birthday and I might have a glass or two of plonk with dinner.  I remember meeting Sue and Vic of No Problem fame years ago and being impressed that Vic was still boating though over 70.  Well I can hardly believe I'm 77 today and although I couldn't manage the four counties ring in a week like we did years ago, I'm still  working through locks now and then without totally collapsing as I hope to be able to report throughout 2024.