Flood warnings? have to admit that this is new. Am listening to the radio (wireless communicator, with D cell batteries - ancient technology - for those who can't remember) and there are 'Flood Warnings' all over the place - electricity is intermittent (or supplied by a cheap 240Volt generator in the dunny)..
Seems sort of "commonsense" to me but Do.Not. drive. walk. Swim. through floodwaters. Might be fun for some, not fun for the SES. (on the other hand, it might be. Who knows what turns the volunteers on)
can remember sitting out (?), through; two floods of the Mary River in Queensland. Had a 32' ketch, anchored in the river. 3am, anchor still held, was watching the "moored" boats from further upstream drift slowly past. Eventually had to cut anchor rope, current too swift; get boat downstream in reverse.
6 comments:
"in reverse"? that didn't make sense. Um, current faster than boat could travel, so had to keep boat headed upstream, while travelling backwards - if that makes sense.
Gah, must be catching the NSW attitude to communication. Have a friend who comes here and tells me partial stories. "Oh, that was when I worked on drill rigs in the North Sea, and shit like that." ?? say I, please expand.
Being grossly ignorant of all things nautical, why couldn't you stay put if your anchor was holding? Too much danger of things hitting you?
Where were you headed downstream? Safe harbour on a river ;-) Or perhaps out to sea?
Ah, bit difficult to explain, in detail. the current became swifter. Boat could only travel at five knots (nautical miles per hour) forward, so current must have been faster than that. My anchor held until about 3am, but there was so much rubbish (weed, old sheds) coming downstream, it began to put too much pressure on the anchor rope, and yes, boat also began to drift downstream. Couldn't pull anchor up, so had to tie a buoy to the rope, and cut it free. Maryborough Q is about 20 miles from the River mouth, so yes, took boat down to the estuary where the current wasn't so swift. Stayed there for about 5 days. When I returned, the waters had reached the guttering on the Marina shed before subsiding. The locals were used to it though.
we did, however, have plenty of warning from Gympie, upstream. 'Twas only us ignorant travellers who were 'caught unawares' .. heh.
It's a sad irony of Aussie life that lots of the places now declared flood disaster zones have only just had the drought disaster zone label lifted!
Thanx for visiting my blog - hope you enjoyed your visit and come back again real soon!
Happy travels!!
PS I'm with you - WAAAAY too many favourite books to list in the profile ...
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