Suddenly Ufton started to bounce around on her mooring. She was being dragged fore and aft as the water surged around us. The mooring ropes groaned and strained. The air was full of the noise of adjacent boats grinding together. Then I heard the sound of an heavily reving engine. It’s the off-season and the hireboats are moored four abreast against the wharf. There is plenty of room for a narrowboat to pass but this was a broadbeam, and it sounded large.
Peering out the saloon window I could see it was Nelson, the BW broadbeam workboat, and it was towing a large dredging barge containing a tracked excavator. The canal is shallow on the far side and Nelson was making hard work of attempting to tow the barge which was constantly running aground. As the barge passed us I could see the excavator operator was assisting by pushing with the excavator bucket. BW have been repairing the canal embankment one lock downstream so I assume they have finished that task and are moving on to the next job.
Well that was the daily excitement………..
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