Dam the Thames to relieve the flood

The answer to yesterday's Thames River Flow Puzzle is that the unusual behaviour was due to the Thames Barrier being raised.

As blogged earlier, there's been enough rain in the last few weeks to give modern day Noahs incentive to finally get building that big boat project, and the Thames valley has gone beyond soggy.

Indeed if you type "River Thames" into the Environment Agencies web site you find there are currently 76 warnings including 14 which are "Severe", meaning there is danger to life.

The map above comes from the BBC web site and shows the most at risk locations.

There is one clear direction the water can flow that would ease the flood risk - down river. But uncontrolled increased river flows could combine with a high tide to drown central London, causing catastrophic damage.

So the Thames Barrier has been raised, to stop the incoming tide and allow as much water as possible to drain out of the Thames valley.

This can be seen in the image below from this brilliant web site (as blogged earlier) grabbed last night:

You can see the levels towards Teddington significantly above predicted as increased flows are released with the barrier closed to hold back the tide.

This is unlike the expected requirement for the Thames Barrier, which was to protect the capital from storm surges coming up the estuary, as happened at Canvey Island in 1953.

So you can indeed relieve a flood by damming a river - by using the Thames Barrier.

But it still looks pretty bad - good luck to all those in the at risk locations.

River Thames Flow Puzzle

The Thames in central London doesn't flow like rivers inland. Under steady state conditions, most inland rivers behave like this:

Inland River:
- flow: down river
- level: constant

The Thames in central London is tidal so it has basically two behaviours with slack water in between:

Ebb:
- flow: down river
- level: falling

Flood:
- flow: up river
- level: rising

Recently I've seen the Thames go from Ebb to Inland River to this:

Unusual behaviour:
- flow: down river, slowing to a near stop
- level: rising

What phenomena is causing this unusual behaviour of the Thames?


Updated: the answer is that the Thames Barrier has been raised, damming the river and causing the water level to increase while the flow continues, though the flow rate slows as the Thames in central London fills up, effectively becoming a long thin lake.

Update 2: as an indicator of how close to a near stop the flow becomes after the barrier has been up for some time, moored boats become aligned with the wind direction rather than river flow. There also seems to be all sorts of minor eddies and secondary flow effects which are quite hard to tie down.

Vote for Natural Navigation

Time for a shameless plug for a friend's blog.

Tristan aka the Natural Navigator's blog is up for the Go Outdoors 2014 blog award and you can vote by heading over to this web page.

To give you a taste of what gems of navigation you can discover, check out this description of how cranes can be wind indicators, as suggested by, er, someone... another blogger maybe ..... look, it's not important who!

Flooded Eel Pie

Back in December I headed upriver to visit the wonderfully named Eel Pie Island, one of the few inhabited islands on the Thames in London.

As well as having a superb location blending green fields with sparkling water it has a stellar history of art and music. In the now closed Eel Pie Hotel you could hear the likes of The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, The Who, Pink Floyd and even Ivor Cutlor.

Since then it has become an artist colony - and also a centre of boat building and repair. At the galleries open day I could admire canvases dotted around proper sized sheds equipped to build and repair ocean going yachts:

It has no roads, just the footbridge (top) connecting it to mainland, and is a quiet oasis where a lucky few live with views like this:

I was pretty envious to be honest - particularly for the mooring rights.

However it sounds like things are not going, er, swimmingly at the moment. As anyone living in blighty right now will know all too well it has been very very wet start to 2014, and Eel Pie Island's position makes it rather vulnerable to rising river levels.

According to the Evening Standard a "police task force had to rescue stranded members of the public from Eel Pie Island".

The water level in Putney sometimes does indeed flood the Embankment but it is controlled. The water level here is directly connected to its height at Westminster and you can guarantee that that location will be the highest priority for those managing the Thames.

Indeed to protect central London the Thames Barrier has been working over-time, rising a record 13 consecutive tides to block the incoming tide which otherwise would combine with river flows to burst banks which should never be breached.

But even that doesn't seem to have been enough to protect Eel Pie Island.

And tomorrow another storm is forecast to blow in.

Better get those wellies ready.

Book Review: James Evans's Merchant Adventurers

(Cough) (Cough)

Ok, enough of being sick, time to review a good book to read in these dark months (north of the equator).

I really enjoyed James Evans's Merchant Adventurers. As well as being a well written story of exploration in the age of sail it also describes one of the pivotal moments in English history that laid the foundation for what would become the British Empire.

In the mid 16th Century Spain and Portugal were building colonies around the world and England wanted in. It employed Sebastian Cabot (son of the more famous John) to recruit and train sailors and captains with the skills needed for deep ocean sailing and navigation.

Their mission: to find a short cut to the riches of Cathay and the far east by heading north, what would be called one day the north-east passage.

It's not giving the game away much by saying they failed, but in connecting to the Russia of Ivan the Terrible they discovered something better - trade.

The title "Merchant Adventurers" sums up much about this voyage. It was financed by nobility but also merchants, and to ensure an equitable framework a new concept was brought to London: the "joint stock company". It would revolutionise business practice laying a foundation on which much later the industrial revolution could build.

Led by Sir Hugh Willoughby and the highly able Richard Chancellor, the working practices of the expedition were also different from those of (say) the Spanish and Portuguese fleets. They didn't sail to conquer but to trade, believing that both parties can gain that way, and they also employed empirical methods, with strict instructions to record all they observe so that future missions could learn in what we'd now call a scientific method.

Strongly recommended for anyone interested in the history of sail and the early European voyages of exploration.

Join Bart's Bash on 21st September 2014

I've spent the last three weeks coughing & battling chronic bronchitis but its worth breaking the blogging break for this, the announcement of Bart's Bash.

As you can read here, the aim is to have the world's largest sailing event on 21st September 2014 to honour the memory of Bart Simpson.

Lets go sailing

London Boat Show 2014: the rest

Captions please! I have absolutely no idea what is going on here between the RYA's mascot and the Royal Marines.

Currently I've got a cough like a sea lion with double pneumonia so simply posting a few photos from last weekend's trip to the boat show.

This sub looks particularly James Bond worthy:

This is the boat show as seen through the window of a gin palace:

Finally Buff Staysail was in good form reminiscing about a Boat Show a few years ago when he arranged to meet three different women at three different bars:

But of course who can believe that.

London Boat Show 2014: the boats

You can't have a boat show without boats - I'm pretty sure about that. And even though the London Boat Show seems to be shrinking year by year there are still plenty of good boats to check out.

For starts, out on what once were the London Docks was a couple of classic boats. Above is the fire boat the Massey Shaw all powered up and there was no takers in its water fight challenge. The Massey Shaw was build in 1935 and saw service in WW2 at both Dunkirk and also the blitz in London, most likely around these very docks.

Further down the quay was the motor tug Kent:

There was also a Challenge 72 and the Thames barge Melissa (I so want to sail a Thames barge);

Inside was one of those cross-oceans rowing boats, here the Coxless Crew:

Sounds much too much like hard work for me but good luck to all four rowers

If I had a magic wish to go on any boat at the show then my choice would be this Extreme 40:

To quote Jeremy Clarkson "MORE POWER!!"

And it appears I'm not the only one as none other than Sir Ben Ainslie is including sailing Extreme 40s in his busy schedule.

London Boat Show 2014: the people

The London Boat Show continues to shrink, with ever fewer stands. But still I go as I keep finding reasons to be there.

First up there were the people met, such as Tom Cunliffe (above) giving a talk at the World Cruising Club stand on how you can sail away for less than you might think. We had a very brief chat about Greenland which we both had recently sailed to.

Immediately after him was Will Stirling (below) talking about the expedition to row to the magnetic north pole (among other things). At a previous boat show I met the expedition leader Jock Wishart. Will is currently aiming to sail around the offshore lighthouses of Britain in a dinghy.

Then there was Sam Llewellyn, writer of many a good sailing novel and editor of the Marine Quarterly, a subscription to which I received at Christmas.

And finally there was the chance to catch up with Stokey Woodall who I met last year and who gave a talk on celestial navigation including the star clock. I told him I'd worked out why the answer was 41.5 and promised to email him its derivation (which I did).

Those four chats were an excellent start - but what about the boats....?

London's top four outdoor ice rinks

So after four years study here are four of London's top outdoor ice rinks for those winter months.

1. Somerset House (above). The original and the best. Lovely size and location, often sold out for a good reason.

2. Hampton Court (below). Another great location and less crowded, plus you can visit Henry VIII's palace or go on the river (except when its flooded)

3. Tower of London (below). This is where I had that horrid prang which sort of put me off it but its an unbeatable location though of course a bit touristy:

4. The Natural History Museum (below). Bit small but handy for those in SW London and there are dinosaurs next door and as we know everything is better with a dinosaur:

Any favourite rinks out there that I've missed?

Twelfth Night at London's Bankside

Wassail!!

Yea, verily it be twelfth night, and old London Town has been visited by the GREEN MAN!

He arrived by boat, the Thames Cutter, Trinity Tide (above), which was rowed by honourable men of great strength for the tide did flow most powerfully.

The ancient and legendary GREEN MAN brings fertility, a promise that SPRING will come again.

And he was welcomed by much crowds and the good and the great of SOUTHWARK:

But some were much afeared, as there were the forces of darkness to be overcome, for BEELZEBUB himself was to be cast out:

Stirred to great words were all present and "Wassail" did cry out not once, not twice, not thrice, but uncountable times, in praise of the RIVER and the GLOBE:

The Globe Wassail

Blowe wind, Globe bear well

Spring well in playing

Every lath and timber

Bear the tongues of poets

Next New Year's summer!

Wassail!

And then with great cheer the good folk of London Town went their separate ways, some by foot and some by the mighty River Thames:

The Boat Wassail

Blowe wind boat bear well

Ride well on the tide

Every beam and every sail

Bear the crew bravely home

Each sailing day!

Wassail!!


More from the Lions part here.

Ice Skating at Hampton Court

London is spoilt for choice when it comes to Christmas ice rinks, many at spectacular locations, and over the last few years I've been trying them out.

I only go once or at most twice a year and each year there's a lot of wobbling before even more wobbling and hesitant steps. Ice skating isn't really my thing.

But back in 2012 when skating at the Tower I had this bad fall and damaged the ligaments around my lung, which I really don't recommend, and I was determined not to let it put me off.

So I went down to the highly impressive Hampton Court which was Henry VIII's pad and you could see why he'd want to invite his many girlfriends back to it:

It's on the non-tidal part of the Thames in London and the recent storms meant the river was high and rushing, flooding the banks:

Even though these three photos show a clear sky it did actually rain during the skating session, but only for a short time.

But I didn't mind that: any skate you don't end up in A&E I'd call a good one.

What makes a good year?

It's the time of the review's of 2013 and usually blogging is no exception - except this year we seem to be lacking posts on that subject.

There is a certain degree of the "what I did with my summer holidays" assignment that might people off, but there can be positives.

Sometimes its just the pleasure of going through a year, remembering the good times and places visited.

Sometimes there is real case for celebration, such as the amazing summer of 2012.

But there are also benefits: to spot trends and to help answer that key question for the New Year: what makes a good year?

I think that 2013 was a good year for me because of the travel. Lots of interesting places visited including Vienna, Australia, China, Iceland, Greenland (above) and Geneva.

There was also a lot of good books read during 2013, from the voyages of Mingming, Vikings, Robin Knox-Johnston and Tristan Jones all about sailing to Greenland and the north.

Another theme during the year was photography, with lessons from Rick Tomlinson and a reviews of three cameras.

Of course there was Buff, Sassi and their adventures in show-biz and the America's Cup.

The plans for 2014 are still foggy, but if last year is a guide I should try to include some good travel, sailing to interesting places, good books and a spot of fiction writing too.

What do you think?

Thought for the New Year

While catching up on the back-log of 2013 photos I realised I hadn't properly organised the stack of pics from Helsinki back in June 2012.

I must have been distracted by a certain major event soon after.

Anyhow I found this image as thought for the New Year.

More humbling than uplifting - and if its the latter you want head over to Windtraveller here.

Christmas at Sea by Robert Louis Stevenson.

The sheets were frozen hard, and they cut the naked hand;
The decks were like a slide, where a seaman scarce could stand;
The wind was a nor'wester, blowing squally off the sea;
And cliffs and spouting breakers were the only things a-lee.

They heard the surf a-roaring before the break of day;
But 'twas only with the peep of light we saw how ill we lay.
We tumbled every hand on deck instanter, with a shout,
And we gave her the maintops'l, and stood by to go about.

All day we tacked and tacked between the South Head and the North;
All day we hauled the frozen sheets, and got no further forth;
All day as cold as charity, in bitter pain and dread,
For very life and nature we tacked from head to head.

We gave the South a wider berth, for there the tide race roared;
But every tack we made we brought the North Head close aboard:
So's we saw the cliffs and houses, and the breakers running high,
And the coastguard in his garden, with his glass against his eye.

The frost was on the village roofs as white as ocean foam;
The good red fires were burning bright in every 'long-shore home;
The windows sparkled clear, and the chimneys volleyed out;
And I vow we sniffed the victuals as the vessel went about.

The bells upon the church were rung with a mighty jovial cheer;
For it's just that I should tell you how (of all days in the year)
This day of our adversity was blessèd Christmas morn,
And the house above the coastguard's was the house where I was born.

O well I saw the pleasant room, the pleasant faces there,
My mother's silver spectacles, my father's silver hair;
And well I saw the firelight, like a flight of homely elves,
Go dancing round the china plates that stand upon the shelves.

And well I knew the talk they had, the talk that was of me,
Of the shadow on the household and the son that went to sea;
And O the wicked fool I seemed, in every kind of way,
To be here and hauling frozen ropes on blessèd Christmas Day.

They lit the high sea-light, and the dark began to fall.
'All hands to loose top gallant sails,' I heard the captain call.
'By the Lord, she'll never stand it,' our first mate, Jackson, cried.
… 'It's the one way or the other, Mr. Jackson,' he replied.

She staggered to her bearings, but the sails were new and good,
And the ship smelt up to windward just as though she understood.
As the winter's day was ending, in the entry of the night,
We cleared the weary headland, and passed below the light.

And they heaved a mighty breath, every soul on board but me,
As they saw her nose again pointing handsome out to sea;
But all that I could think of, in the darkness and the cold,
Was just that I was leaving home and my folks were growing old.


Poem by the author of Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Kayaking on the tidal River Thames

Excellent article on kayaking on the Thames in central London on Canoe London.

Good stuff about not stopping by the MI6 building as they get twitchy (alas I already did that when hunting for rowing pictures) and not going out when its been pouring with rain (like, er, yesterday and overnight) for reasons best left unsaid (search for the bubbler).

The photo above is from earlier this year when the weather was much, much nicer!

What's your background picture?

I, like so many, spend far too long in front of a computer screen.

No longer do we need screen savers to protect our bulky CRT but virtual desktops can easily be customised with a background picture.

Mine is shown above, a golden sunset over the east coast of Greenland. If you look closely you can see icebergs floating down from the north.

So what is your background picture? Is it a favourite view? A beloved boat?

Post and tell!

The Christmas Bear Speaks

An ALARM CLOCK! A frigging ALARM CLOCK!

All I wanted was a bit of time off, some quiet, to catch up on my sleep, but no such luck.

No, that Hare would only go and wake me up. And why? To see a tree with a couple of lights on it.

Seriously? Is that it?

I've spent years travelling the wild forest; endless, countless green trees reaching up to a moonlit sky, with the flames of the aurora flashing across the sky. Now that is a sight worth seeing.

"Well now you're up" said the Hare. "You can help out."

So I wrote what felt like hundreds of cards, wrapped dozens of presents, cleaned and pealed the potatoes, parsnips, carrots, sprouts, put the stuffing in the Turkey (poor bastard), basted the roast, prepared the onion sauce.....

Then there was the moment for the Christmas Spirit to bring in the presents, which I'd imagine I'd do rather well, but the Hare said it was speciest for the Bear to play that part so the Hare did it while I brought in more firewood.

After dinner the Hare went off for a snooze but I had to entertain the smaller animals, which left my fur sticky and smelling funny.

Then the Hare came back refreshed with a new list of tasks to do.

I could see outside the sky crisp with stars, one of those magical nights promising shooting stars, and I wished I was out there. Or asleep.

Preferably asleep.

But no.

An ALARM CLOCK! A frigging ALARM CLOCK!!

The Thames, then and now

I'm always fascinated to see how the Thames has changed over the years.

Recently I've been reading about one of Britain's great merchant liner fleets and it was shocking how rapid it declined and then was absorbed by another after the container revolution.

But you can see what it would have been like in Docklands in this lovely little video from the BFI taken back in 1935 - and there are others too, such as this one from 1959 (notice the buildings bombed out between these two videos) and this from 1963 (complete with visit to The Dove pub).

And you can return to the some of the same locations in the comfort of your own easy chair using Google maps which has recently photographed the Thames:

Using a camera on one of the PLA boats it captured the Thames from Richmond down to Woolwich.

Jump aboard by clicking here.

The ice returns

I've been keeping an eye out on the ice charts published by Norway here which show that most of the east coat of Greenland north of Tasiilaq has now been locked in.

Any boats still in Scorsby Sound or the amazing Kangerdulgssuaq Fjord won't be going anywhere for a couple of months.

And maybe longer than they planned - for apparently the northern ice sheets have bounced back with an average 50% more cubic kilometers of ice in October than the low in 2012.

Sounds good news doesn't it? Well it depends which year you compare the ice levels to.

If you use the 1980s as the baseline then ice levels have fallen a whopping 55% to 9,000 cubic km, just 45% of the 20,000 cubic km it used to be.

It will be worth keeping an eye on those ice sheets in 2014 to see whether this year is indeed a good news blip or a pause on a long term bad news trend.

And if you are iced in Scorsby Sound or Kangerdulgssuaq Fjord, hope you are snug and warm because it looks like you're going to have to be patient...

Pippa sails with Sir Ben

Hi Guys,

OMG!! I am like soooooo jealous. Ok Pippa is like my BFF since waaayyy back but life is soooo unfair!

She's only gone out sailing with the winner of the America's Cup (Ed: er, Sassi, you might want to tone that down a notch) and best sailor of all time, Sir Ben Ainslie.

Ok maybe Pippa has sailed the Atlantic or something but duh! was she BBC presenter for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee or on Team JP for the Olympics? I don't think so!!

So Ben how about going off sailing with your's truly? YOLO!!!

Luv yah (Ben that is not Pippa (*))

Sassi xxx


(*) only kidding Pippa - that ski trip is sooo on and you can tell me all about it then.


Updated: Well Ben did pretty well on SPOTY last night. Given its sailing and Brits like their ball games he wasn't going to win but he managed to nearly tie with none other than Mo Farah to come 5th overall.

How to get the Nexus 5 battery to last 3 to 4 days

I month or so ago I upgraded to a Nexus 5. While there is much to like about this phone there is one thing that is really bad - the battery life. Let's be honest, the Nexus 5 battery is too small.

Initially it struggled to survive a single day and it was only after a lot of Apollo 13 style "Shut it all down!" that I managed to get a more reasonable 3 to 4 days until reaching 15% left.

As part of this blog's public service tech support, here's how:

1. Turn the screen brightness down. The screen might be lovely but it eats a lot of juice so set the brightness at a minimum (Settings->Display)

2. Turn off Google Play updates. You don't need the latest app update immediately, and you don't even need to know that an update is available. So save yourself a lot of power and only update when you have both wifi and shore power (Google Play->Settings)

3. Switch off Google Now. I was preparing to leave to meet a friend for lunch when I got an alert saying it was time to go (which I obviously knew already). It was pretty smart and accurate but then I didn't need that message and to generate it there must have been all sorts of processing including requesting travel times off London Transport and location fixes which drains the battery. Clever but not worth risking an empty battery for

4. Switch off location services. GPS really does take a lot of power and you know where you are (its called "here"). If you are really lost (i.e. don't know where "here" is) then at that point switch in on but until then save the battery for when you really need it (Settings->Location)

5. Switch off Auto-Sync. Do you really need to know right now that an email is waiting for you? Surely its better to take control of your inbox and check it at a time that suits you rather than being a slave to the notification flashing light and save battery at the same time (Settings->Data Usage->Settings menu->Auto-Sync data)

6. Switch off various apps sync features such as, for example, Facebook updates. I'm pretty sure that photo of a baby with a cat can wait to be seen (Facebook->App->update)

7. Don't play graphics intensive games or watch videos. Yes I know the Nexus 5 can double up as a games console and video player but the battery simply isn't sized for those applications.

If you want the phone to still be working after a few days then "only" do the standard email / web / news / camera / photos / travel / weather / facebook / twitter / texts / phone calls / evernotes / ebooks (limited) / wikipedia / music player (downloaded not streaming) / alarm clock / solitaire / calculator / contacts / calendar etc.

You could also reboot to make sure all those settings are fixed and clear out any unwanted processes.

It probably helped that I live & work in areas with good LTE signal as the battery dropped a lot when I took the tube a couple of times. If you do that a lot it could be worth considering:

8. Switch airplane mode on when you go on the tube to stop it using a lot of power trying to keep the connection even when deep underground.

I don't think the answer is replaceable batteries as who wants to spent their time carrying spare batteries? The answer must for handset manufacturers to install larger batteries - at least 50% bigger than the one in the Nexus 5 and preferably twice the size.

Foggy Thames, misty Mars

The last few mornings London has been covered with a thick blanket of fog, causing the Thames Clipper to sound its horn as it felt its way carefully up or down the river.

And it appears that the Earth is not the only planet to suffer from the seasonal vapours as can be seen by this photo from Mars which show the canyons covered in mist:

So you want to be a pirate?

More from the Pirate Captain, aaarrrrrhhhh!!!

London's Flood Risk

Last week a storm together with high tides drove seas up the funnel of the Thames Estury to threaten London with devastating floods.

Fortunately London was ready, and the Thames Barrier was raised in time to protect the capital.

But what if it hadn't been there? How bad could it have been?

Well the answer is pretty bad as can be seen by the image above released by the Environment Agency which shows how most of Docklands and huge swathes of East London would have been under water.

The headlines could have been so different, with less talk about Christmas Dolphins, and more about disasters and devastation.



Updated: Google thinks that this picture needs snowflakes:

Err.....Mr Google.... are you sure that's a good idea?

Porpoises spotted in the Thames

Hi Guys,

OMG!! Don't you just lurrrve dolphins! They are the cutest and have this great smile and just muck around all day with none of that boring work!!

I mean take JP: he was at this meeting in central London and there were these five dolphins (Ed: Sassi, I think you'll find they were porpoises) swimming up the Thames just outside and he didn't even look!!! (Ed: unfair - I looked all the time!).

Now they've reportedly gone further upriver to Battersea!! They could be going to Putney!! What are you doing in the office!! (Ed: actually Sassi I think you might have a point).

What's your porpoise in life?? Geddit???

Luv ya

Sassi xxx


Updated: yesterday those tough guys at the Marine Policing Unit showed they had a soft spot for our five friends from the sea with this tweet: "another day shift to news that the #christmasdolphins were spotted in the Putney area overnight". Alas no news since then...

Shipwrecks 1, Dimbleby 0

I was planning on blogging Dimbleby's Britain and the Sea earlier but something more interesting came up.

I can't remember exactly what it was - maybe washing, or was it cooking? - for the problem is there isn't really enough meat in Dimbleby's show to keep one's attention focussed on whatever it is meant to be about.

I remember reading a review of the show asking what was the point? Or, to be a bit more accurate, "where is it going?", as the key thing about a TV documentary is to identify what it was meant to achieve.

Keep the focus must be a good message, as can be seen in another BBC documentary which is also about Britain and the sea though with a tighter remit.

In a program with a title like Shipwrecked: Britain's Sunken History you won't head off on tangents (such as Dimbleby's tours of an old castle's surprisingly boutique bathroom) but can expect some good stuff about the Spanish Armada, Shakespeare's Tempest, the castaway Selkirk and how a staggering one in five ships in the great age of explorers never came back.

A definite high spot was "Navigator and maritime adventurer" (what a great intro) Tristan Gooley showing how to measure your speed with knots and the latitude with a backstaff:

Definitely worth coming back for more in the weeks to come: