MAY-JUNE 2006
						FLOODS ON THE RIVER WEY
			We cruised up the River Thames to Shepperton and onto the River Wey. Being in the South of England, many friends and relatives visited us for drinks, meals or short trips on board. Unfortunately the weather was against us on the Wey so we did not see this beautiful river at its best. We cruised, only stopping for the night, to Godalming being the end of the navigation. We arrived in pouring rain, having negotiated a very low bridge after Guildford which caught us unawares and we only just stopped in time. We treaded water mid-stream whilst Alan removed all plants etc from the roof of the boat. He then stood at the front of the boat as we slowly ventured under the bridge so his weight took us lower in the water and walked through the boat to the rear and we just got under by an inch! We only stopped that night and next morning in Godalming and set off again and under the bridge before it started raining again. As it poured day after day we later heard that the river was closed due to flooding! We turned off and up the Basingstoke Canal ready for the flight the following morning with about 8 other boats all on our way to the Rally at Brookwood Park. We had Paul on board to help us which was great, particularly as it rained non stop.The 3 day Rally over the Bank Holiday Weekend was great and very well organized, the purpose being to get the canal permanently open for cruising the whole length and to make East Surrey and Hampshire Councils (who jointly own the canal) aware of the necessity of spending money in order to obtain this goal. In particular the Deep Cut flight of locks requires back pumping otherwise there is a consistent shortage of water. Indeed a working boat came up for the Rally and as the water level was so low, it had to be towed by a truck in addition to using its engine and many other boats ran aground, including Jemima. After the Rally we were among the first to leave as we had a deadline to get to Aynhow Boat Yard on the Oxford Canal by Sunday. We did four 10 hour days down the Basingstoke and Wey and up the Thames to Oxford into Dukes Cut where we stopped for a breather and to do washing. By now the sun was out every day and boiling hot. We met up with Paul and Jill on their new boat and spent some time with them before reaching Aynhow at 5pm Sunday. We had booked Jemima in on Monday for a new paint job but unfortunately the yard was 5-6 weeks behind schedule and we had not received the letter purported to have been sent out at the beginning of May. We had no choice but to leave Jemima there as we were being taken home and had a full month of engagements booked. We we have now got to wait until Monday 14th August to resume our cruise and in the meantime are forced to be at home - but at least we are in our own home as we have not rented it out again.
					WATER SHORTAGE ON THE BASINGSTOKE CANAL