On Schedule !

Week 148

Sunday

Mrs. Fitter looked at the clock and a short while later announced that it was after 9am, suggesting that we ought to move. The fitter was, as usual, the first to get out of bed and found that his dear wife can't read a clock, for it was only just after 8am!

We dressed and the fitter fired up the boiler and then took the temperature of the hot water from the bathroom tap. This was measured at just under 40° and the water seemed to be just about tolerable for a shower, had we wanted one. We are therefore hopeful that the Pressure Reduction Valve installed on Saturday is having some impact because although the water wasn't hot, we had had two showers and washed up after our meal since we turned the engine off at about 5pm on Saturday. Neither the evening showers or early finish to cruising for the day are normal when we're out so it is an unfair test. A proper test will need to wait until we can get away overnight again.

We had breakfast and headed for the trip boat, which we still had to clean and re-stock after Saturday evening's trip. It also had to be set up for the afternoon's cruise and needed a pump out. The fitter was just about to embark upon the latter when a passing boater stopped for a pump out, which the fitter had to do as the pump is misbehaving.

He'd stopped for his morning tea break as the other boat had arrived, expecting them to head to the office to pay. They took ages to pay and the fitter was able to finish his tea in peace. He then had trouble with the pump and spent best part of half an hour pumping the boat out. He then had to go and get the trip boat, take that to the pump out machine, pump that out and then take the trip boat back. It was lunch time by then so off to his boat he went.

We showered and had lunch in the semi usual mad dash before we returned to the trip boat. We left a little late and then got delayed slightly at the first lock, which we had to turn in our favour, as we did all the remaining locks on the outward leg of the trip. We had the boss's visitor with us again and this allowed us to get through the locks a bit faster on the return journey, when one of the crew has to be inside the boat helping to serve the cream tea that is provided on the trip.

We never did regain the time lost on the outward journey by having to reset locks to use them, so we got back to the boatyard at 5pm, cleaned and secured the boat, said farewell to one and all and headed off to our boat to finish packing - we do most in the morning before we go anywhere near the trip boats, loaded everything into the car and headed for home.

We had our usual light snack for a meal and then the fitter headed off to the laptop, the first time it had been switched on for a couple of days. He checked mail and forum and then made a start in writing up the end of the previous week's notes. He'd not touched them since Wednesday and, if he is honest, couldn't remember what he'd done on that day, so he had a guess and wrote that down. We packed up, had our bed time drink and headed for bed just after 10pm for London beckoned again on Monday morning.

Monday

The fitter spent much of his time at home during the evening rationalising a file of over 1200 pages, trying to extract some useful information from it. He was a good way through before he realised that the file was incomplete and a bit further through the process before he noticed that he'd been a bit over zealous with the reduction and would need to start again.

Having gone as far as he could, the fitter turned his attention to the previous week's jottings on this site where he'd still got some of Friday's and all of Saturday's notes to write up, proof read the whole page and then upload it and the one relevant picture that the fitter managed to take. He also read one of the blogs that he reads and kept a weather eye on the forum where, from time to time, there is some lively banter between regular contributors.

Tuesday

The fitter came home from London by train as usual and was exceedingly lucky to miss a spell of torrential rain as he neared his home station. Once home he dealt with his mails, checked the forum and then started looking for a potential replacement for the Triton, which is taking up too much room in the garage. He also wants something that is a little more accurate as it looks very likely that he is about to be commissioned to make a large number of porthole liners for the boss's new boat and the better accuracy should help with cutting the segments for the liners.

There was a little more work to do on the file the fitter was working with on Monday evening and some pictures to upload on to the forum, showing the pipework around the boiler and calorifier in case someone can see where we might be going wrong and losing the heat overnight. He then made a start on the current week's notes and was having trouble remembering what he had done on Sunday, which is why Monday and Tuesday's entries were written up first!.

Wednesday

We had visitors from North Wales staying with us for a few days from late Wednesday afternoon. The younger members of the party stayed with our daughter and we accommodated the not so old! In consequence, Mrs. Fitter stayed home for most of the day whilst the fitter headed off to the boatyard. However, before he went we both headed for B & Q where Mrs. Fitter wanted to return something and the fitter wanted to enquire about the cost of a basic kitchen unit for the boatyard's boss and to buy some pipe lagging. He'd looked in the Screwfix catalogue before he set out and nearly had another heart attack when he saw a price of almost £90. In fairness there was probably enough in the bundle to fit the whole boat whereas, now, we only wanted enough to lag the pipes in and around the boiler.

We called at the supermarket briefly whilst we were out and then the fitter returned Mrs. Fitter to home on his way to boat.

Clothes and food were conveyed between car and boat on the next journey and then a few loose tools plus the nail gun and the air hose for the fitter had managed to persuade the boss to let him briefly use the yard's tired compressor to drive the nail gun so that the fitter could refit the various bits of trim that had either become dislodged or needed their fixing strengthening slightly.

We were hoping to take our visitors out for the day on the boat on Friday and the bow area needed tidying up. All the various tins of paint that had languished in the bow area in the hope that the fitter would complete the touching up of the paintwork, were returned to their storage place under the bow deck. The toolbox containing screws and a few plumbing fittings was tucked away in the corner, on deck, until we decide whether to discard it completely when we've finished using the screws.

It was tea time by now, so the fitter adjourned to the office for tea, just as a boat pulled up on the pump out point. He finished his tea and one of his colleagues headed for the pump out point so the fitter decided to get the trip boat ready. In the meantime the fitter's colleague returned from the pump out point, decided that his boat hadn't been pumped out fully and went back for a second attempt.

The fitter had left home without any lunch so went and ate in the cafe before finally, with pump out point clear, or so he thought, starting the engine, untying the boat and reversing slowly off his mooring only to find another boat on the pump out point. This boat had an engine problem and had stopped to see a mechanic.

Luckily, the recent departure of one of the yard's moorers meant that the fitter was able to pull alongside another boat and organise his own pump out. It was quite windy and whilst the fitter secured the back of the boat in the right place to get the pump out hose to the roof mounted extraction fitting, the front of the boat drifted away from the boat the fitter was trying to moor alongside. The owner of boat on the pump out point made a sterling effort to restrain the fitter's boat and, in the process of doing so, managed to cause the somewhat rotten wooden edging of the canal wall to finally fail.

Between us we managed to get both boats tied alongside so that the fitter could pump his own boat out. Pump out complete and the fitter had a quandary. He needed to return his boat to its mooring and, at the same time, make a temporary repair to ensure that the other boat was prevented from floating off down the canal. And all this had to be done in the shortest possible time as it was now well after the time that the trip boat should have started loading.

The fitter hunted around, found a short piece of rope and after several attempts to get the length right, managed to secure the almost wayward boat. He could untie his own boat and carefully return it to its mooring. This process took longer than usual because the water level was slightly low and this made it difficult to get the boat back alongside the bank. Eventually the fitter managed this, secured both ends of the boat, shut and locked the front doors, plugged the land line back in and then secured the rear doors after picking up his bag. He legged it to the trip boat, made light hearted excuses for keeping people waiting and then started loading.

There was no need to rush because a pair of boats had only just gone past and we'd need to wait whilst they worked through the lock. We left a few minutes late, devoid of four passengers who had failed to show up. Surprisingly the first lock was in our favour, as was the second by virtue of the fact that another boat was in the lock heading towards us and, thus, emptying it for us. The same situation was repeated at the next lock whilst the fourth and fifth locks were both against us.

We had one interesting moment as we approached the bridge just beyond the second lock. This bridge is located on a bend in the canal and has restricted visibility from both sides. We'd met a boat heading towards us between the lock and the bridge. He'd pulled over to allow us to pass as there was a moored boat nearby, opposite some exceedingly overgrown vegetation. Then as we neared the bridge another boat came towards us and we let them through the bridge first. We knew there was another boat behind them as they'd signalled between themselves. What we didn't know was that there were in fact three boats the other side of the bridge all heading our way and all forced to pull over to allow us to pass.

We often leave the top gates of our fourth lock open because we turn above the fifth and if there aren't many boats about we risk that nobody will be inconvenienced. We did this on Wednesday, went ahead and turned and then returned to the lock to find that another boat had closed the top gates, emptied the lock and was just entering it when we got back. This boat had earlier been moored below the previous lock when we passed and must have been very slow working through the lock because our sister trip boat had worked through that lock and, within a few minutes, hove into view and had to wait for us to drop down through the lock before they could proceed.

The next lock was in our favour and there weren't any boats in the vicinity of the bridge. In fact we didn't see any more moving boats before we returned to base, which we reached about ten minutes later than planned having dodged all but the last rain shower.

We cleaned and secured the trip boat, the fitter took his bag back to his boat - he'd loaded the tools back in the car when he'd finished with them, before lunch - and left his waterproofs draped over the table to dry. With boat secure the fitter headed for the car and diverting slightly to take one of the crew members home because of the rain, set off for home.

The visitors had started on the journey later than planned and had been delayed slightly on route with the result that they'd only arrived a little while before the fitter phoned home to say that he was on his way.

Unloading the car at home didn't take too long as there wasn't a lot to move. One thing the fitter realised was that he'd forgotten to remove and bring home a couple of the bed legs that he intended to drill enlarged holes in to accommodate the bolts that he now planned to finally fit to replace the screws that had been wrenched out the previous weekend.

We had a pleasant meal and then sat and talked with the visitors and being entertained by the antics of the wee one. The youngsters left about 7.30pm and the fitter headed for the laptop to catch up on his mails, leaving the women folk talking downstairs. He returned downstairs himself about 9pm, joined in the conversation and then around 9.30pm made the evening drink and eventually headed for bed just after 10pm.

Thursday

The visitors had a day in London, by train and the fitter met up with them at lunch time for a meal. He then continued his day as normal whilst they went to see the sights.

The fitter headed for home at the normal time and was able to spend a reasonable while on the laptop, catching up first with his mails, then arranging a meeting and finally, writing up a document before turning his attention to the forum and then writing up the notes on this page.

The family and visitors eventually returned home around 8.30pm, just in time to watch a programme that we all like on television. We made our bedtime drink towards the end of the program and were heading to bed shortly after 10pm.

Friday

The fitter had woken early again on Friday morning but had managed to lay in bed, apart from the customary visit to the smallest room in the house. He was fairly certain that he hadn't been back to sleep so was surprised when Mrs. Fitter started moving around to find that it was almost 7.30am.

We planned to be out of the house just after 9am as we had to deliver some cakes that Mrs. Fitter had been making. Indeed, Mrs. Fitter still had to finish decorating one of the cakes when she got up on Friday morning. Anyway, we achieved both targets and were on the road with cakes, food for lunch and our visitor just after 9am.

We were delayed at the place where the cakes had to be dropped off and were surprised to find that the rest of the family, travelling in a separate car, were almost at the boatyard when we called to ascertain their whereabouts.

We managed to transfer everything between car and boat in one journey - each of the car's three occupants being well loaded as a result. The rest of the family were already in the bow of the boat, sheltering from the strong wind and the cooler than recently temperature.

It didn't take too long to transfer everything into the boat nor much longer before we were in a position to move off. We pottered around to the first lock, which we found to be favouring us and the lock above was being emptied by another boat at the same time.

We had a few spots of rain just after the second lock and a much heavier shower after the third, which was also in our favour. The fitter grabbed his waterproof jacket and that stayed on until we stopped for lunch. The visitors had, by this time, taken up windlasses and were happily helping work the locks. We only encountered one other boat in the flight of seven locks and they were just leaving the top lock and had seen us approach the lock below with the lock in our favour and had opened the bottom gate for us. Other less considerate boaters might have pleaded that they hadn't seen us and turned the lock in our face.

The fitter took the chance at one of the locks to open the valve that had hitherto stopped the flow of cold water into the mixer valve at the top of the calorifier. When the engine is running the hot water from the cylinder sits at around 70° C; a little too hot to be safe. So by opening the valve and then adjusting the mixer we hoped to both prevent any accidents and to conserve hot water. There's no point in drawing off too much hot water, that then has to be cooled by cold when we can draw of less because the cooler water is added at the mixer.

We need a few more journeys out to get the mixer control set correctly but first we need to see what effect the recently added Pressure Reduction Valve is having and we can only do that after a day's cruising.

We turned onto the shallow Wendover Arm and slowly made our way along the channel fighting the low depth of water, a head wind and the flow of water that was being run from Tringford pumping station. It took about 45 minutes to make our way from the junction to the new winding hole, wind and then moor up just a short way back from the current end of navigation.

Lunch was a leisurely affair which we dragged out a bit when the skies darkened but ultimately failed to deposit their content. We took the opportunity of reading the notice about further extensions to the Arm and also walking to the current end of the Arm to see if we could see signs of progress which, unfortunately, are not visible.

We'd spied several good crops of blackberries on our way along the Arm and decided to stop and liberate some on the way back. We found the spot, cut the power and turned into the bushes and were able to pick a good bowl full by dint of the fitter standing on the roof of the boat with the boat pole and either keeping the boat's bow in the hedge or using the pole to move the boat forward.

We left the Arm at about 4pm and turned northward. We filled the first lock and were about to start emptying it when the fitter noticed a boat heading towards the lock so we waited for then to join us. We worked down all but the last of the seven locks in the flight alongside this other boat, which was temporarily moored nearby and was heading back to their normal Hertford mooring in a week's time.

We left the flight and one of the visitors took control of the boat with the fitter standing close by to give guidance. We arrived at our penultimate lock to find a boat rising in the lock and another waiting to descend. We eventually joined this boat in the lock and worked through this and the next lock with them.

We returned to our mooring and just managed to tie up when the skies opened. Unfortunately the fitter hadn't quite finished outside for he still had to plug the land line in and got slightly damp in the process as did the engine room floor.

The rest fo the crew had not been idle and had completed the washing up before we stopped the engine and had also done most fo the packing so there was very little to do before we could vacate the boat and head for home. The fitter would be back at the boat on Saturday morning and would be able to test the heat of the hot water then.

We left the electric on to keep the fridge cool but took the precaution of turning the water pump off. We drove home in showery rain and collected a Chinese takeaway from close to home which we all ate at the fitter's house. The younger members of the group adjourned to our daughter's house and left the rest of us to have a post meal cup of tea.

The fitter made his excuses to leave the ladies to watch their recorded soaps on the television whilst he headed for the laptop to check mail and forum and to write up the day's notes for this page.

Saturday

The fitter had his own plans for Saturday, Mrs. Fitter and the visitors had theirs. The elders were going to sneak off shopping before rejoining the youngsters for a meal and then the journey home. The youngsters got wind of this and decided that they'd like to join the shopping expedition as well, possibly taking advantage of some charitable purchases by the elders!

The fitter's plans, on the other hand, centred largely around a couple of trip boat duties over the next two days. He'd head off to the boat (and as far from the shopping expedition as he could get) and spend the morning cleaning the roof of his own boat, work the Saturday afternoon trip and then spend the evening lagging the pipework. He was also keen to see how the temperature of the hot water had held up.

He delayed leaving home slightly when there was a promise of half of daughter's freshly made blackberry crumble if he called round to collect it. This meant that he could also take the visitor and Mrs. Fitter to daughter's so that their outing could start from there.

Just after 9am the party set forth and were soon at daughter's house, unloading the visitor and her belongings and loading the crumble. However, there was far from half of it left. This may have been because daughter over estimated what was left or it may have been that one of the visitors decided on some dessert after breakfast. The fitter would never know.

The journey to the boatyard was via a hardware shop to try to find a better price for a basic kitchen unit carcass for the boss and then the car shop next door to buy a couple of decent sponges for cleaning the boat's roof. Arrival at the boatyard was just before 10am and the car soon unloaded of the few clothes and small amount of frozen items that the fitter had brought with him. The car was, as planned. devoid of any tools.

The fitter's journey was a tad too late for the sun was already beating down upon the boat's roof making the cleaning an unwise move - we'd clean the roof in these conditions last time and the washed off dirt had then baked itself onto the roof somewhere else as the heat evaporated the water. Instead the fitter decided to check the gearbox oil, empty the pot that catches the drips from the stern gland and also refill the stern greaser with grease, all ready for our planned trip on Monday. He then planned to get the trip boat ready, have some time to himself, do the trip and then re-think the evening, possibly cleaning the roof then and leaving the pipe lagging until Sunday morning.

The trip boat got a good clean but the down side was that it took a couple of hours. Throw in the usual pause for the mid morning hot drink and it was soon time to adjourn to the fitter's boat for a somewhat and unusually leisurely lunch, a shower and change of clothes.

The afternoon trip was nicely full with the last two passengers dallying slightly in boarding and, thus, delaying departure by a couple of what would turn out to be crucial minutes. The first lock was in our favour and the crew were able to turn the second whilst the boat was in the first.

We'd just vacated the second lock and closed all the gates behind us when a boat appeared heading towards us. They enquired if we turned and came back again and decided to stop for a bite to eat whilst we did so, leaving the lock ready for us on our return.

Our immediate plans were soon shattered when, just the other side of the next bridge we encountered a boat heading to the lock. Oh well, we'd lost the lock, but the boat would be clear of the locks by the time we returned.

We were but a few hundred yards from our turning point when a further boat decided to pull away from the local watering point and head towards the lock. We turned and followed this boat but were too far behind to have an impact on them. They'd even been lucky enough to find two boats just about to vacate the lock so they were able to move smartly in, except they didn't!

That is perhaps slightly unfair because they did get in the lock quite smartly but then the steerer decided to step off with a rope, loosely tie the boat and then work the paddle gear and, subsequently, open the gate on one side of the lock, the other crew member simply working the paddle gear. For much of this time there was a boat waiting in the lower lock to swap places with the boat heading downhill.

The two boats duly crossed between the two locks and the steerer of this second boat then emulated his counterpart and hopped off his boat with a rope as it entered the lock. Didn't the boat have reverse? For those that don't know, a boat doesn't have brakes, the engine is used in reverse to stop the boat.

The boat was then held in the lock, on the rope, whilst the paddles were opened, slowly and gradually. In the meantime the trip boat was hovering outside the lock and had, by now, been joined by a further boat that would be unable to share the lock with the trip boat and would have to wait for said trip boat to work through the locks.

After what seemed like an age, and now some twenty minutes late, the trip boat eventually entered the lock and was soon through it, but then had to wait for a further boat that had by now, claimed the bottom lock and was ascending in it.

The rest of the journey was routine and we arrived back twenty minutes late. We disembarked the passengers, cleared the worst of the rubbish and then secured the boat and, at this stage, the fitter planned to head back to his own boat. No chance!

Instead, the next ninety minutes were spent discussing business matters with a fellow boater. And when the fitter did return to his boat, the oven refused to stay alight, which meant that the ready meal that he was about to eat took a lot longer to cook than planned.

The knock on effect of this was that the fitter was late heading towards the office for an evening's accountancy work with the boss. That work was brought to a close just after 10.30pm with the fitter returning to his boat in the quite chilly evening air. He rejoined his (cold) boat and immediately put the heating and the kettle on. He sat and read whilst both did their respective work and finally turned the heating off and headed for bed around 11.30pm. And not a bean had been done to his own boat.

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