Wednesday 18 October 2017

Brockweir bridge



The first full day we set about securing Wye Invader in her temporary mooring so she could move up or down with the tides. We had to wait for a high tide of about 9 meters at Sharpness and about 3 meters of flood water in the Wye Valley measured on the Water Level Gauge at Redbrook, backed up with 2 meters at Monmouth and 2 meters in Hereford, this would give enough volume and depth of water for long enough to get past and over the rocks and shallows on the corner below Redbrook before we moved up to Monmouth.

We had 2 weirs to pass over before Brockweir and Biggsweir bridge's, each weir lifts the water about 5 to 6 feet, it was is distance of about 2 miles and about as far as a 9 metre tide would take us, the rest of the way would be on the river flood.



High tide was at midday and the rain in Wales had filled the River Wye to over 3 meters above normal at Redbrook and 2 meters most of all the way to Hereford. We left Tintern an hour before the top of tide to be sure of passing under Brockweir Bridge, the floodwater and tide were over the quay, which meant we had plenty of draft and were not concerned about the Weirs, there was now only Biggsweir Bridge and 20 minutes later we cleared it with space to spare. Half a mile ahead, St. Florence Weir has disappeared under the flooded river, we moved from the middle of the weir to Port (left) side to avoid the large rocks sat on top of the Weir just to the right of centre.

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