Stormy Weekend

Well it's certainly been an interesting weekend weather wise.  Saturday morning was overcast but dry so I completed the last few miles to Denver and caught the train to Kings Lynn.  I spent a pleasant few hours walking around the town and visited the riverside where they have recently installed new visitor moorings - miss these and the next stop is the wash, not that I'll be heading down here.

I returned to the boat and in the late afternoon it suddenly went very dark and within minutes a vicious storm blew in bringing hail, rain and very strong winds (I was beginning to wonder if the UKIP Councillor might be right after all). Thankfully, after 15 minutes it left as quickly as it arrived and dropped to a stiff breeze and light rain. After a quiet night I awoke to a splendid sunrise on Sunday. 

On checking the ropes I noticed that the water level had fallen a good 6 inches overnight, you can see the normal water level on the pilings. This is a result of the EA running water through the sluice into the tidal stretch to make space for all the extra water that will be coming down river over the next few days.

By mid morning the level had dropped another 4" and I decided to move off as it has been known in extreme cases for the EA to drop the level so far that boats become grounded.  I headed down toward Littleport but it soon started raining and the wind strengthened to I moored up by Higay bridge for lunch.  The weather worsened as another front came through and it was soon blowing a gale with horizontal rain.  By 3pm the front had passed and as the sky ahead was much lighter I decided to continue onto Littleport.  Progress against the flow was slower than I hoped and as the sun was setting I headed for the moorings at the junction with the Little Ouse just as the sun was setting over the river in splendid reds and yellows.

And now its time to settle by the fire with a good book.