Weedy Witham

Each summer the River Witham grows a certain amount of weed which causes some hindrance to the navigation of vessels on the river. This year it seems that the problem is worse than ever. Despite the best efforts of British Waterways to keep the river clear of weed it keeps coming back and is causing some severe problems for boats in the area.

This coming weekend we have little choice but to face the weed and head for Boston. Naughty-Cal is booked in for her four yearly safety test on Saturday at Boston Marina so we will make it there.

The weed doesn’t cause us as many problems as some lesser powered vessels as Naughty-Cal’s engine produces enough torque to keep powering on even with weed wrapped around the propellers. Smaller engine boats have to stop frequently to unwrap their props. Our problems begin if the weed blocks the raw water intakes. Being such a large capacity engine means it needs a lot of water to keep it cool, keel cooling as found on narrowboats wouldn’t keep the engine cool enough, so Cal relies on a constant supply of water from the river to keep her engines running at the right temperature. The weed can restrict this flow causing overheating. Luckily we have an alarm to alert us to potential problems.

Come what may we will make it to Boston, we have yet to be stopped by weed and won’t be planning to make this time the first. It may take longer than usual but we will make it.