Thursday, March 10, 2016

Heeling in a Narrowboat

During the night we were awakened by the slam of my bedside book hitting the floor.

I vaguely remember wondering why it had decided to jump at that particular time but my addled brain pushed the question aside as I drifted back to sleep.

At seven this morning the answer to the question was completely obvious: our boat was heeling at a ten degree angle!

While sailboats are meant to do this, narrowboats are most decidedly not.

The river had dropped about a foot in the night leaving us at our precarious angle of list.

Mike and I stood on the shore, mouths open, surveying the scene.  What now?

If we loosened the ropes, all that seemed to be keeping her from toppling on her side, wouldn't we be making matters worse, much worse?

But how did we correct the heel without loosening the very taught ropes?

Twas a puzzlement.

So we did the only logical thing, we send out a distress call via our phone to Canal and River Trust.

A young man quickly appeared, took in the situation, mentally scratched his head and called someone with more experience.

The verdict, loosen a rope and see what happens.

I was down in the boat securing possible breakables when said ropes were loosened and the boat floated off the ridge and righted herself.  Good thing she didn't topple onto her side.

Quickly the nice man went on his way and our morning returned to normal. Coffee anyone?


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