January and February saw storms and floods. ‘Global warming’ seemed such a cuddly term and there I am sure there were people who felt that a little warming wouldn’t be so unwelcome.
I’ve always used ‘climate change’ partly because the warming bit applied to the whole Earth and, in the UK, we might actually end up a good deal colder, particularly if the jetstream insists on slipping south and giving us Scottish weather; and partly because I always expected any change to lead to a less benign climate. This winter has demonstrated that: the warmer seas have given us very deep depressions, very strong winds and flooding.
But business in the Harbour has to continue as usual. The upper part of the Kingsbridge basin was cleared of boats in January and Walcon, the contractor, has started to install the new pontoon. This pontoon has a reinforced middle section so it can be used by the Rivermaid after Peter Moule, who ran the Kingsbridge-Salcombe ferry for 40 years or so, hands over to new owners on 1 April. They intend using the pontoon rather than the old ferry steps because the pontoon allows level access from the car park and is much easier for both passengers and crew.
And now the Board is discussing whether it might be possible to upgrade the Kingsbridge slipway. Slipways should have a gradient of about 1 in 10. Kingsbridge is about half that. Too gentle a slope means that the car may have to enter the water before the boat can float off its trailer: so making Kingsbridge steeper would be welcome. Kingsbridge is also a very wide slipway, so some improvements could be made quite cheaply by concentrating on, say, a third of the slip to start with. Whatever happens, it would be good to maintain a slipway which is now so damaged that it cannot be power-washed without causing damage.
And finally, a bonus: although the Harbour’s income for 2013 was only slightly up on previous years – because the autumn was so dreadful and visitors to the Harbour dropped almost to nothing – there was enough surplus to be able to bring forward the replacement of the Victoria Quay pontoon. This could be done more cheaply because Walcon was already here, and the work dovetails in with the upgrading of the RNLI pontoon which bolts on the end of the Victoria Quay pontoon.
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