My pond on a lovely winters day.
The high tide line looks like it isn't as high as it could be.

I was down at our club yesterday and this picture tell it all.
The pipe is the overflow so the top of the pipe is the water level when it is full.
Behind it is the launching dock, as you can see we cannot use it at the moment, we use the stairs behind it.

UK water supply is split into so many profit making companies (all foreign owned) who refuse to work together. Same street with different companies supplying either side. One has full water, the other on hosepipe ban. Logic???? not a hope. For years everybody has been saying lay a water pipe from Scotland down to southern England, Scotland gets loads of rain, the south is poor. Again no chance as the different water companies refuse to work out a solution and who will pay for it!!!

@EdW

.....I would like to post this on our water companies group.

Be my guest. I have various bees in my bonnet, infrastructure provision being one of them. I recall chasing the issue of reservoir creation around 2000 through my MP, and getting a statement from OFWAT that there were NO agreed standards for water storage volume per head of the population. Without such basic data you could not run a suitable water provision service or measure how well you were doing, so frankly I did not believe them, but there is little you can do against bureaucratic stonewalling - especially if your MP is unwilling to help...

I agree with Dodgy, a good reminder of what we have and what we do with it. It is not so much a shortage, it is the rate at which it is used. The water cycle is constant and has been ever since the earth cooled down. Pollution is the main problem and companies that manage the infra structure. From my perspective I do not understand why the necessities of life like water, power etc have to produce a profit for institutions who just see them as an investment and cash cow!
My water supplies are provided by a good company 90% of the water is from aquifers but owned by an insurance company in Munich? Sorry Doug not personal!
My first job was at an insurance company and insurance companies are basically just up-market Betting shops! If you ever have to claim and I have especially on claims for friends and poor practice then negotiate.

So we currently have a hose pipe ban but I still have to test my model boats. A friend gave me an 'orphan' plastic lid of a box, 5 inches deep a foot wide and 40 odd inches long it fits snugly on 2 garden chairs and is full of water and so I have a clean test tank without going up and down stairs. The local birds are known for aiming crap at cars I think they train for it, so it is also covered up and beyond their crafty bombing.
Roy

All except my yachts can fit in.

@DodgyGeezer Well said, If I may I would like to post this on our water companies group.

My wife just heard from her cousin in Puerto Rico (south-east of Cuba and Dominican Rep) that they are turning water to homes off every other day.

No shortage of water for the model boats in Chichester - the canal basin is just full of weed, so regardless of water level, few boats make it out, unless the wind pushes the weed aside.

(off-topic rant)

I see that there is talk about 'a shortage of water that appears almost world wide.'. While I appreciate that this is a shorthand way of saying that 'water that we expected to be there isn't there', this expression leads people to think of water as some kind of raw material which can be depleted, such as oil or coal. This is NOT the case. On this planet we have a fixed amount of water (give or take slight leakages at the edge of the atmosphere, and additional meteoric arrivals). Over billions of years the volume of water we have has remained essentially fixed, and it passes through many stages in the hydrological cycle without being used up. If everyone watered their lawns with a swimming pool's worth of water a day we would still have the same amount of water at the end of the day as when we started.

What we are wasting (using?) when we pour water down the drain is NOT water. It is the investment in water capture, storage, purification and distribution by the water companies, who are only too happy to pretend that 'water is short' when what they really mean is that they have not provided adequate investment to satisfy demand in extreme conditions. When rivers or canals run dry this is because we have likewise not provided adequate hydraulic management. There are, of course, decisions to be made about the cost-benefit of various levels of investment, but as long as the water companies are able to pretend that this is a 'resource shortage', and that people 'should use less water' those decisions will be inadequately informed...

(rant over)

North West England.

This must be one of the times that I am more than happy to live in an area that is traditionally regarded as being “wetter” than where I had lived previously (in Somerset and Devon).

The north west of England has enjoyed some really nice weather this year - including some days that I have found just a bit too hot to be comfortable in, but we have also had enough rain to enable us to fayre a little better in the water stakes.

Most of the canals in our area are still full of water and working, and our local club lake is also OK too, and we have not has any hose pipe bans.

Most of the grass in our area is more brown than green , but overall I think we have been very lucky with the weather with enough heat and enough rain (just) to cope well enough and enjoy the sunshine too.

I also remember 1976 very well too, as we were living in Exmouth (Devon) at that time when we had some very hot weather and a water shortage.

Vegetables were tiny and expensive and we had a stand pipe at the end of our road to provide water that had to be carried back to the house…….and my wife Sue was pregnant with our first son, so it was especially uncomfortable for her.

Compared to then, this year in the north west of England has been very pleasant with enough water for household and leisure use.

Bob.

For UK it is not the first time. In 1976 , 50 years ago we had very hot weather, our son had a cheap camera that 'melted' on the rear shelf in the car.
About that time we had a holiday on the canals and the water was very low only 2 hours a day allowed for travel. The Grand Union was just the centre 'cut'.
I do not remember the model boating much as the family was taking up most of my time boy 10 daughter 8. School runs etc and I had a good old Morris Minor Traveller car. Lots of wood with doors at the rear and it squeaked as we travelled!

One of the clubs I belong to has a small pond surrounded on 3 sides by trees and that seems to be holding up, but it is topped up by the next door Water company who own the land etc. We have an agreement with them to run a model railway which is open to the public for rides twice a month and the sailing is popular as we have our own sheds and chairs and we park quite close.

Roy

Hi Lew
Our club lake is so low that our launching jetty cannot be used safely and has been cordoned off, we must now launch via a narrow set of stairs. The club is extending our winch launching cradle to make it usable with the low water. Our annual steam day has been cancelled. The same thing happened last year.
A set of locks on our local canal have been closed stopping navigation on the canal, there are further issues caused by a pump pacing up further north on the canal.
Then according to some politicians global warming is false news.


Ed

Albany 10 Ks over the harbour

Ps as I scribe we have a weather warning a large storm on the way. I may take a look at how the harbour looks col.

Hello Lew It's winter in the real Albany I live on the south side of the habour form the town, on this mornings walk I noticed the water line was nice and high. So Down South we have plenty of water Col