Part 3

Daybreak. Its still raining and the river is still rising. You can no longer see the riverbank or the 10m nor the 2m wide walkway, but you can see the park bench past the walkway.
The rest of the night was relatively uneventful. More log, trees and pontoons. Sue saw one launch float down our port side along with a pontoon following. Maybe it was too dark to see anything else because we have now seen two more boats float down river, a boat on a pontoon and several other pontoons with jetskis and seats on them. Luckily they are going down the middle of the river. We dont have to play dodgems.
We have another problem caused by the swollen river. The debris in the water is clogging up the toilet pump. Also with now 5 days of rain the solar panels can not make enough power to charge the batteries. We have to run the motor to charge the batteries. With the silt and leaves in the water the impeller pumping river water to cool the engine is not going to last long. After 15 minute of running the motor Andrew has to clean out the intake filters.
Something is happening up river as two tugs and a police boat have struggled to head against the current to head to the CBD. We have heard on the radio that some people have just rescued a man that was in the water. People have been out walking this morning and coming down to the river to have a look. Some of the residents are fairly close to the river so may be concerned about the water levels.
We have just heard that there are more people in the water. Coastguard and 2 marine rescue boats have just headed up river.

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