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Week 178

Sunday

We'd done most of what was needed on the trip boat on Saturday so we were able to turn our attention to the toilets in the boatyard on Sunday, which were in need of a similar Spring clean to that which we had inflicted on the trip boat.

With the toilets done and herself washed and changed, Mrs. Fitter started preparing food for the trip around 10am and the fitter busied himself with one or two little finalising jobs before going and getting changed for the trip.

The first trip of the day had forty passengers and a crew of four. We were delayed slightly at the first lock by boats heading in opposite directions and were delayed on our return by a pair of boats in the higher of the two locks. Other than that, the trip passed off uneventfully save that the temperature appeared to drop considerably each time the sun hid behind a cloud.

Our second trip was a much more sedate affair with just nine passengers. We lost about five minutes overall, partly caused by inexperienced crew who we were training.

We closed the trip boat quite quickly after the second trip and went back to our own boat to gather up everything that was going home - we were leaving some items as we would be back in just over forty eight hours and be staying for another five days.

We called daughter on the way home and arranged for her to collect a Chinese meal and bring it to our house where, by the time she arrived, we'd more or less unpacked everything brought back from the boat.

Daughter stayed for about an hour before returning home. We sorted ourselves out and the fitter managed to grab a short time on the laptop before we made the bed time drink and, subsequently, went to bed.

Monday

We started Monday with a round of shopping. We took the boat's thinner duvet to the cleaners, called at the shoe shop to buy the fitter another couple of pairs of trainers - he's now got four pair of the same trainers, the two most recent having been bought with a 25% discount voucher. The final port of call was B & Q, where we bought some oil for some of the outdoor furniture at the boatyard and a piece of softwood that the fitter was aiming to convert into quadrant for the diesel trip boat.

We returned home to unload the car and then the fitter took the car to the local hand car wash for a thorough clean.

It was morning tea time by the time he returned home so he stopped for that prior to venturing into the garage to work on the quadrant.

It took a while to fit the correct cutter into the router and also to angle the bed of the bandsaw correctly. The softwood was cut to the desired length and everything double checked for angles, etc. We cut the wood and found to our dismay that what we thought would have been an obtuse angle was in fact an acute angle and not what we wanted. We'd wasted our effort and needed another piece of wood, which would involve another trip to the DIY store, something that we decided to postpone until Tuesday.

The reason for the postponement was a telephone call from the Boss whilst we were at the car wash. He'd got a forty page document that he wanted the fitter's comments on and was to send it by mail for that purpose.

Checking took most of the rest of the day. We did sneak out briefly to collect the duvet and also managed to finish in sufficient time to proof read last week's page on this site and upload it and then make a start on this week's page.

We packed up just after 10pm, dallied over our bed time drink and didn't clamber upstairs to bed until just after 11pm.

Tuesday

A fairly easy morning, or so we thought. Things went reasonably well until after breakfast, by which time we'd packed most things ready to go to the boat later in the day. We'd even been round and altered the clocks as British Summer Time starts before we come home again.

We set off for church to take Mrs. Fitter and for the fitter to run a couple of errands. First, deposit a few cheques in Mrs. Fitter's building society account. It was too early for the branch to be open but the fitter was told he could use the ATM without the need for knowing the PIN number for Mrs. Fitter's card. He got to the machine and inserted the card. The machine wanted the PIN number and there was no apparent means of retrieving the card.

Luckily the time delay, whilst the fitter pondered what to do (with someone now queueing behind him), was enough to prompt the machine to ask whether the fitter needed more time. He replied No and the machine returned the card. One errand down, but not done.

The local market starts to spring to life quite early so we were hopeful of finding a replacement hose for daughter's vacuum cleaner - she'd managed to melt the original by leaving it against the central heating pipework. There had been a fire in the market place a few weeks previous and a large section of the market was missing. We knew that the vacuum cleaner stall was in the part of the market that was now closed off but were hopeful that he'd been relocated elsewhere within the market. He hadn't or, if he had, he'd still not opened up his stall and we couldn't hang around to find out so the fitter returned to his car. Two errands down, neither successful. The fitter returned to church, and gave the cheques back to Mrs. Fitter who was going to try and pop to the building society later in the day.

Then is was off to B & Q to buy a replacement for the softwood that we'd messed up on Monday. At least this errand was successful and the fitter was soon heading for home.

The softwood was soon shaped and cut into two pieces using the bandsaw. The rough edge left by the saw was then cleaned up on the sander and the (now) two pieces of quadrant could be wiped down and have their first coat of sanding sealer applied.

There was now time to head for the laptop to catch up on mail and the forum whilst we waited for the sealer to dry so that we could apply a second coat. We even advanced the morning tea break in an effort to conserve available time, drinking our tea whilst at the computer.

The second coat of sealer was applied about thirty minutes later and then the fitter headed back to the market to see if the vac stall was there/open. It wasn't and it wasn't, so it was back home to refit the hose connectors and try a temporary patch until we could manage something more permanent. We first tried using a straight coupler that we'd obtained with the garage vacuum cleaner but try as we may, including using boiling water to stretch the (unstretchable) hose, we couldn't get the hose to slide over the connector. However, we did succeed in distorting the end of the hose with the boiling water! So we gave up and put everything back together with adhesive tape.

We should have played with the hose after we'd applied the varnish to the now dry quadrant in the garage but didn't so we had to be a bit smart in doing so now as we only had a couple of hours before we were due to collect Mrs. Fitter from church and head over to the boat via the Supermarket - so that we had some provisions for the rest of the week.

The varnishing was completed quite quickly so we grabbed a bit more time on the laptop before stopping for lunch and a shower. We ate lunch in front of the laptop and then shut that down, washed up the crocs, showered and headed out to collect Mrs. Fitter.

We stopped off at the supermarket as planned and also visited a friend of Mrs. Fitter's to drop off some stuff for a silent auction. We got to the boatyard just after 4pm and managed to scrounge a cup of tea before we unloaded the car. We did, however, manage to light the fire before tea and the boat was getting nicely warm when we got back to her.

It took us a good hour to unpack and sort everything out - the fitter spending part of the time buying coal and changing a gas bottle over. We ate just before 6pm and weren't quite ready when the Boss came to call for we were heading to Homebase in Aylesbury to look at kitchen units for Rachel.

The visit proved inconclusive because the particular style that the Boss was interested in wasn't on sale. We were quite puzzled to see a couple of demonstration kitchens and bathrooms that had been labeled with notices apologising for inconvenience caused by the fact that the said range was no longer being produced. What a waste of space.

We returned to our boat just after 8pm and the fitter fired up the laptop whilst Mrs. Fitter dozed intermittently in front of the television. We made the bed time drink just before 10pm and were in bed not long after.

Wednesday

We were disturbed overnight by a vegetation control team working on the nearby railway throughout the night. They were using a chainsaw and a wood shredder, both of which are not the quietest things to use. The work reportedly started just after midnight and continued on and off throughout the night, an improvement on the previous night when, we were told, the noise had been more or less continuous.

We were scheduled for a trip boat duty on Wednesday morning but the fitter still had time to fit the quadrant that he'd prepared on Tuesday before the boat left. The trip was delayed because the party were late so we didn't get back until 2pm, thirty minutes later than scheduled. We'd had a good trip in nice warm weather. We had been delayed at the last two locks by a boat that we'd seen just before the previous lock when we were on our outward journey. As we still had a further four locks to negotiate before we got back to where we passed this other boat you may be able to guess how slow that boat must have been, although he may have pulled in for water before dropping down through the last two locks.

We spent some time in the car park during the afternoon trying to establish where a portable building was to be located. The Boss is moving out of the current office and requires a new office. That will be in the portable building along with the chandlery. The portable building was to be delivered on Thursday.

We packed up early on Wednesday afternoon as we were set to return to the (existing) office later to carry out a stock check. The fitter managed to fire up the laptop and check mail before we ate and then both the fitter and Mrs. Fitter headed back to the office to join the Boss undertaking the stock check, a task that took us until just after 11pm. Needless to say we didn't hang around when we'd finished as the outside temperature had dropped. We went back to the boat and went to bed straightaway.

Thursday

We should have written a fairly complicated mail on Wednesday but had not gotten round to doing so. As a result, this was the first task on Thursday morning. It was followed by the fitter overlaying part of a wall panel on the electric trip boat where the rain had damaged the original panel - the rain gets in when the door is open when cruising as it is where the steps for boarding are located.

We'd just finished this when the portable building arrived so we stopped and watched whilst it was off loaded. We emptied and cleaned the bow of our boat whilst we had the opportunity and then had lunch, after which we took the electric trip boat out for a battery usage journey - the batteries won't hold their charge if they're not exercised.

The rain decided to enhance the trip thereby spoiling what had been some reasonable weather in recent days. We took the opportunity to pump the toilet retention tank out whilst we were moving the boat as this provided a new skipper with the opportunity to familiarise himself with the boat without passengers around to watch.

We managed another early finish on Thursday, providing us with the opportunity to prepare for guests for a meal before we made our way to the pub for the quiz. The pub was all but deserted and we only managed three teams. Once again the fitter's team managed to disgrace itself by coming third, let down by not knowing which of twelve towns provided the home for ten prisons and also failing miserably on the table round.

Even with efforts to stretch things out, the quiz was over by 10.45pm and we sauntered back to our boat soon after and fell into bed within minutes of arriving back.

Friday

Another early wake up after a late night on Thursday saw us making a cup of tea at 5am. We stayed in bed until 7am but didn't go back to sleep. We had breakfast and then dismantled most of the engine room floor because we were due to have the engine serviced by the grease monkey. The engine was overdue a service and we'd put it off until the fitter was around to be shown what needed to be done so that he can do his own servicing if it falls due whilst we're cruising. He also took the opportunity of adjusting the stern gland (although he didn't tighten it enough and the grease monkey adjusted it further later on).

The water trap in the fuel line was also checked whilst we had the floor up and the weed hatch didn't escape attention either.

With the boat ready for the grease monkey's attention we could move on to other tasks. Mrs. Fitter continued the Spring cleaning and the fitter applied some sanding sealer to the exposed ends of the plywood and cut skirting board that he'd fitted to the trip boat on Thursday. He escaped between coats to help Mrs. Fitter transfer some stores from one part of the building to another so that we didn't have to show new staff the location now and then show them somewhere else in a few weeks time.

The Boss finally backed his boat out of the small poly tunnel and we took his place so that we could clean both sides of our boat without the need to turn the boat around so that we could access the side that is normally away from our mooring.

We moved the boat just before morning tea break and the grease monkey attended to our boat once he'd had his break - he'd been slipping a boat earlier which is why he couldn't get to our boat until late morning.

The lesson on engine servicing went well and the fitter feels confident that he can now tackle the task. It waits to be seen whether he'll remember all he needs to when the next service is due.

We had lunch as soon as the service was finished. There were several short but sharp showers whilst we were eating so we were glad that we were undercover. With lunch over we set about cleaning the outside of the boat, a task that took us until about 3pm. Then, with the Boss ready to move, we honoured a commitment to vacuum the carpet in the electric trip boat, during which time the Boss decided to take off on his boat, leaving us to follow as soon as we could.

We eventually backed off our moorings a few minutes after 3.30pm and set off in pursuit of the Boss. The wind had increased in strength and made it feel quite bitter as we cruised to the first lock, where we found the Boss and OCM supping tea, waiting for us to arrive.

We worked through the two locks together, during which time we were treated to a cup of tea by the crew of the other boat. We left the two locks with the fitter as the lead boat. Luckily we found space to moor just beyond the junction at Marsworth and were secured with the engine stopped an hour after setting out. We had a chat for a short while and then decided to chill out for a couple of hours before heading to our favourite local pub for a meal around 7pm.

We hadn't been moored up too long when the skies opened. Boy did it chuck it down for a while, mixing sleet with rain and the odd crack of thunder. It had all stopped by the time we headed to the pub but the towpath was dotted with puddles that were only just visible in the almost total blackness.

We enjoyed our meal and were the last to leave the pub even though it was only just 10pm. We returned to our respective boats and we sat and chatted for a short while before heading to bed. It was just possible to hear the dull roar of the nearby bypass outside the boat but nothing could be heard inside the boat. What we could hear and what was still ongoing when we drifted off to sleep was the running engine of a nearby boat, moored opposite the local BW office - it should be noted that a condition of your boat's licence (issued by BW) is that engines and generators aren't run between 8pm and 8am. Luckily for the boater concerned the office was closed.

Saturday

We were up and about early enough on Saturday to be ready at the drop of the proverbial hat to set off. However, the OCM had other ideas. They had had a cup of tea delivered around 8.15am but only popped their head above the parapet about an hour later, having been woken for the second time!

We set off just after 9.30am with the fitter reversing to the junction and the heading down the Aylesbury Arm. The first two locks, a staircase, were against us but the next few were with us, with water running over the top gate and, often, over the bottom gate as well. The weather had started fine but the cloud levels increased as the day wore on.

We were blessed with two or three showery periods, two of which were slightly prolonged. However, we had none before we stopped at Wilstone for brunch, an event that saw us lacking any boat movement for about ninety minutes.

Even the quite and seldom used Aylesbury Arm is not devoid of the proverbial liveaboards, boats which seem to have no official mooring and frequent a few location on a repeated basis often at the expense of hogging all the good moorings at places that casual boaters would welcome the opportunity to stop at. This was the case on Saturday and we only just managed to find sufficient space for our two boats at Wilstone.

We eventually arrived at the basin in Aylesbury at 3.30pm. We winded and reversed to the end of the Arm to moor in the only vacant mooring spot - the rest apparently occupied by winter moorers - people who would normally moor on the towpath during the summer months but who take advantage of the general lack of boat movements during the winter months to stay moored in one place for six months.

We had a cup of tea on our own boats and then collectively wandered around the town looking for somewhere to eat later on. We didn't settle on anywhere in the town centre and wandered back to our boats a different way to the way we had left them. We agreed to eat around 7.30pm and returned to our boats for an hour or so to rest after the toil of working sixteen locks in a little over six miles.

Any thoughts we had about more delicate cuisine soon disappeared as we set out for our evening meal. Instead we settled on a town centre pub where beer was £1.50 per pint and two meals could be had for five pence short of £6. The four of us ate and drank for under twenty pounds.

The venue was noisy and full of youngsters, some of whom were wearing (or nearly not, as the case may be) fancy dress. We ate our meals and finally decided to have sweets as well. However, by the time that we'd managed to fight our way to the bar and got someone to serve us, we'd missed the ability to order food by about two minutes. We were not amused.

We wandered out of the pub around 10pm and sauntered back to our boat. It was a clear night, gradually getting colder. We partook of (tea and) coffee on our boat and sat chatting until 11pm. Our guests returned to their boat - which isn't laid out to easily accommodate four people - just after 11pm, to face an hour's less sleep because the clocks changed during the night. We'd get under way at 9am on Sunday, we said as we parted.

We stoked the fire, took our tablets and got ready for bed. Despite the fact that we were only a few hundred yards from the town centre we weren't disturbed by the traffic on the nearby road or by the few foot soldiers that use the towpath as a short cut from town presumably to their own houses.

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