On Schedule !

Week 198

Sunday

We were up at 8am on Sunday morning and having had breakfast soon over at the trip boat getting it ready for the day's cruise. Then with little else to do, we strolled round to the local shop to purchase some milk and a few other culinary items. We were back in plenty of time for a leisurely shower and lunch before the fitter returned to the trip boat for the day's cruise.

We were a few minutes late starting as we waited yet again for some tardy customers and that set the seal on our fate for the rest of the journey. A boat passed the boatyard a few minutes before we were ready to leave and we followed them under the bridge. And then a second boat pulled away from the bank in front of us and we were then followed by two further boats by the time that we got to our first lock.

Despite the electric trip boat's generally slower speed we still arrived at our first lock before the preceding pair of boats had entered the chamber. We helped them work through the lock as this can save us time because their crew can be despatched to set the next lock up. We then followed them up through the two locks, able to work straight through the second and be clear of that lock before the following boats had taken our place in the first lock.

The IWA were once again at our third lock, as they had been when we dropped down through the lock on our own boat on Saturday morning. We allowed them to set and work the lock for us in exchange for agreeing that they could canvas our passengers for donations.

By the time that we reached our fourth lock we could just see the tail of the now single boat ahead, the other having moored before our third lock. The same boat was still in our fifth lock when we got there so that delayed us briefly. Luckily we encountered no further delays either prior to or after turning and we managed to return to the boatyard just twenty minutes late.

As per normal we cleared, cleaned and secured the boat before returning to our own boat for our evening meal, being joined by the Boss both for the meal and an extended chat afterwards. That chat skimmed over our plans for the upcoming cruise in September but also for our plans for our Spring 2011 cruise when we hope to travel almost as far north as is possible via the canal system by visiting the Leeds & Liverpool canal.

The Boss had been at a concert on Saturday evening and hadn't had a very early night so he didn't dally too long after his meal before returning to his own boat. This allowed the fitter to fire up the laptop to check mail and forum and to jot down some notes on this page. We eventually made our late evening drink and retired around 11pm.

Monday

We had a bit of a disturbed night although we're not sure what disturbed us; we just kept waking. We finally gave up just after 7am and got up, showered and had breakfast for we were heading for a busy day. And to start off properly we filled the water tank whilst we ate our breakfast.

We were soon heading for the café to prepare for a large party who were partaking of a two course meal there before joining the electric day boat for a three hour cruise and a cream tea. The fitter was part way through sorting out the café's extra seating when the new man summoned him to top up the diesel on the two day boats before they went out for the day at 9.30am.

Then it was back to the café to complete the arrangement of the seating before the fitter headed to the trip boat to prepare it for a staff meeting that started as soon as the day boats had departed, was to last a little over an hour and terminated when the party having meals in the café arrived.

The fitter was playing second fiddle to one of the newer steerers on Monday so boat preparation took a little longer than usual as we endeavoured to cover a variety of circumstances during the preparation process. Nonetheless the fitter still had time to assist the café staff by lending a hand with their washing up whilst we waited for the group to complete their meals.

The size of the party placed a heavy burden on the café staff with the result that the party weren't ready to start boarding the boat until departure time, the consequence of which was that the boat left some fifteen minutes late on a trip that was already a tight three hour cruise - the accepted normal for the electric trip boat being 3½ hours.

The first lock was against us so we emptied it and the second at the same time. We arrived at our third lock just as two very slow hire boats were entering it and we had to wait for them to clear the lock before we could turn it in our favour and proceed. Luckily these two boats had managed to speed up by our fourth lock and had vacated that lock by the time that we got there.

We allowed two boats to drop down in our final lock before we took our turn in the chamber. One of those boats was the one that we'd worked through the locks with on the previous Friday. Their plans to head for London had been scuppered by a sudden commitment and they'd had to turn and head back to their mooring instead. They kindly offered to start the next few locks filling behind them to aid us on our way.

The novice skipper took a little longer to turn than is normal and this upset one of the day boats who were then trapped behind us. We then crossed two boats at our next lock, saving us the trouble of setting the lock. The known boater ahead of us kept their word and set the third lock for us, again saving us some precious time. They did the same at the fourth lock and we managed to catch them up at the fifth and help them before turning the lock for ourselves.

We eventually got back to the boatyard forty five minutes late and having disembarked the passengers were faced with a pile of washing up. The fitter pitched in to help and didn't get back to his own boat until about 6.30pm by the time the boat was put to bed for the night. This was two hours after the boat should have got back and well over an hour after the time to be expected after a punctual return.

The fitter cooked his evening meal, changed, ate and watched some early evening television before firing up the laptop to check mail and forum and then updating this page and completing the previous week's notes prior to making the final drink of the day and heading for bed.

Tuesday

It rained overnight on Monday/Tuesday. It doesn't seem that many days ago that we were almost praying for rain and now we're beginning to feel like we've had too much and by the end of the day knew that we'd had too much.

We had woken slightly later than recently to the sound of constant use of vehicle horns on either side of the road bridge adjacent to the boatyard. This is normally an indication of recent storms which have a habit of cutting of the power in the immediate area, which includes the boatyard. However, a quick check when we got up at 7.45am revealed that we still had power so the fault must have been local to the lights. That fault was to continue until mid afternoon as was the endless and often unnecessary use of vehicle horns.

The fitter had headed over to the trip boat not long after his breakfast and was busy preparing it when the new man sought his assistance to replace catches on the toilet doors of both day hire boats. One had a new magnetic catch fitted but a similar job on the other boat would have required some major woodworking within the very short time frame before the boat was due to be let out for hire. Luckily it was possible to modify and reposition the strike plate for the existing ball catch and the repairs were left at that.

In addition to preparing the trip boat there were also some further tweaks to the control gear. The more we tweak, experiment and investigate the more we understand how the thing works as well as appreciating that the original installation was very much a prototype that we expect had changed over the years prior to the company that provided the system ceasing to trade.

We'd guessed that one of our gas bottles was either empty or approaching that state. Sure enough when we checked we found it empty so the fitter managed to disconnect it and find a replacement which he placed alongside his boat and then asked the Boss if he could lift the new and much heavier bottle into the gas locker at some time when he was passing. This he did later in the morning but not before the more frequent rain showers had managed to soak the floor of the gas locker.

With boat preparation complete and the weather preventing activity outside, the fitter disappeared into his boat and fired up the laptop to service the boatyard's website, check mail and forum and then proof read part of the previous week's page on this site. He broke off at lunch time, showered, prepared and had lunch and even managed to find time for a bit of reading before heading towards the trip boat and assisting with the preparation of the food for the trip.

The trip itself was not worthy of any special mention save that the rain just seemed to keep falling, something the fitter hadn't experienced for many a year. This doesn't mean that we haven't had weather like it, simply that the fitter had been boating in weather of that nature for quite some while. The amazing thing was that despite the damp weather we seemed to see far more moving boats than we'd been seeing in the preceding days. Perhaps there were the same number but they were all moving around in isolation, usually about fifteen minutes apart from each other.

We returned to the boatyard, cleared, cleaned and secured the trip boat and headed back to our own boat where the fitter cooked his evening meal. However, before we give the wrong impression we hasten to add that the cooking comprises warming the oven and then re-heating a pre-cooked frozen meal purchased from the supermarket where perfectly acceptable meals for one are currently available as part of a 2 for £3 deal. It would be difficult to buy the raw ingredients for that price and they save the fitter bundles of preparation effort and time after a hard day - ah!

The accounts are much simpler now that the business has reduced in size so we were finished with a couple of hours. This allowed the fitter to return to his boat, fire up the laptop to check mail and forum. He also attempted to send a text message to his daughter in Australia but seemingly had no success - he successfully sent the text the following morning whereupon daughter advised him that she'd received two copies of the message, one that had actually left the fitter's telephone the previous evening.

Eventually the fitter made his bed time drink, drank it whilst at the computer and then retired to bed where he sat propped up and read a magazine for a while before eventually turning the lights out and snuggling down to sleep. It took a while for sleep to come as the fitter's feet were quite cold and this kept him from lapsing into an unconscious state.

Wednesday

We were awake quite early on Wednesday morning and not too warm as the temperature outside the boat had dropped to around 10°C. Eventually and unable to get warmer we decided to get up; the time just 6.30am. Once again we could hear the constant sounding of car horns indicating that the traffic light repairs the previous afternoon hadn't been as successful as they should have been.

We put the boiler on to warm the water and as soon as that was achieved we switched the central heating on for the boat's internal temperature was only 14°C. The fitter had his breakfast and with time to kill until others were up and about, the fitter fired up the laptop to check mail and forum and proof read more of the previous week's notes on this site. He headed for the office in due course to prepare the crew list for the following week before returning to his boat to gather up the few things that were to go home with him. He wanted to do some basic woodwork on the infill pieces, collect the few things from home that he'd forgotten when he left and give Mrs. Fitter a lift back to the boatyard. His medication was also devoid of a few tablets that he needed to get on prescription. These had been ordered on Monday morning and should have been collected from the surgery by the pharmacy subsequently and have been dispensed and ready for collection.

He was home by 9.45am and soon had the infill pieces modified and ready to go back to the boat. He even had time to apply a couple of coats of sanding sealer to the bare wood, a process that he hoped would reduce the number of coats of varnish that the infill pieces would require. There was also time to connect the laptop to the Internet for a Windows update, something that the computer had been unsuccessfully attempting at the boat for the past few days.

Mrs. Fitter had contacted the pharmacy to check if the medicines were available for collection and was told that they weren't. She was told that the prescription hadn't been available at the surgery and that the next collection wasn't due until lunch time, by which time we would be back at the boatyard. As a result the fitter headed to the surgery, where there was equally no trace of the prescription. After much searching and a couple of telephone calls the prescription was located at the pharmacy so the fitter headed there. The medicines were in the course of being prepared and after a short wait were passed to the fitter who was then able to return home.

Mrs. Fitter was all but ready so we reloaded the car taking care to make sure that we had all that we thought that we needed, and set off for the boatyard. We had relatively little to unload and had time to check the infill for size. One was now just right, the other required a small adjustment that would be made when the infill pieces were finally fitted on the boat.

We showered and had time for lunch before we headed to the trip boat for the afternoon's trip. We had two experienced steerers and the new man who had now obtained his licence (to steer) and needed to gain experience in the working of the electric trip boat. The fitter worked the locks on the outward leg of the trip whilst his colleague supervised the new man. We swapped roles on the return.

We left our second lock and passed the wide boat that we'd met the previous Saturday when returning from our overnight jaunt. We had to wait whilst a boat dropped down through our third lock, had to turn the fourth lock so that we could use it, crossed a boat between this and our fifth lock where we ascended and then turned, during which time all but the steerer and new man headed inside the boat to serve the food.

We dropped back down through the lock and passed the other trip boat below the next lock. We had to turn the next two locks for ourself and then re-turned our penultimate lock for the other trip boat which, by this time, was close behind us.

We cleared, cleaned and secured the trip boat and agreed with the painter to move our boat into the small poly tunnel at 7.30am the following morning so that he could continue (or should that be restart) painting our boat without being interrupted by the weather. We then returned to our boat and whilst Mrs. Fitter cooked the evening meal the fitter sealed the infill pieces.

We ate as usual and watched some television before the fitter switched on the laptop to set up and test a new email address for the trip boat side of the business. He also checked his own mail, caught up with activity on the forum and concluded the evening by updating the notes on this page. As is oft the case when we are busy, the notes are written in bullet format to be written up more fully when time permits. In this case they'd be fully written up some five days later.

Thursday

We were up and about at 6.30am on Thursday, sceptical that the painter would arrive when he said. We were part way through moving the boat into the poly tunnel when, on the stroke of 7.30am, the painter appeared and helped us complete the task prior to setting to work applying the first of what would become three top coats to the front well deck.

Whilst this was going on the fitter removed the rear hatch cover, inverted it and laid it over the hatchway so that he could rub the inner face down to remove the small amount of surface rust and spray foam that adorned the cover. The plywood lining panels that we'd prepared a few days earlier were then checked for size and found to be too big. It took several attempts to amend the size of one sheet that was then used as a template for the remaining sheets. We then applied a coat of slightly (over) thinned primer to the inside of the hatch cover and left this to dry.

With nothing else to do on the hatch until the primer had dried, the fitter headed for the office and attempted to set up the new woman with access to the new mail account. Despite a couple of attempts, in the time available, the fitter was unsuccessful and a lack of free time prevented the fitter from successfully doing so for a couple of days.

The fitter headed for the trip boat after a shower, a change of clothes and lunch on his boat. Despite ensuring that the crew were aware of the variations to the normal menu, we found that they'd completely overlooked the information when actually preparing the meals and it was only by dint of the fact that we served the meals before we set off that we realised the error and were able to correct it.

Tuesday's rain had given way to a much drier day on Wednesday but the rain had returned with vengeance on Thursday to the extent that we limited the number of crew working the locks to save one of them from getting unnecessarily wet.

It was only a short trip and this time the rain seemed to keep other boats securely tied up for we saw none. We returned to the boatyard, cleared, cleaned and secured the boat. The fitter, who should have been working an evening trip and managed to persuade the new man to work instead, emptied the toilet tank on the diesel boat noting that the rain stopped just as this task was complete.

The fitter returned to his own boat, gambled that the primer would be dry enough and glued the first lining sheet to the underside of the rear hatch cover after his evening meal. The first sheet was fixed using an all purpose adhesive suitable for metal and wood. The lining sheet was then clamped into position using three pieces of 38mm square softwood held in place by spreader clamps and packed out with offcuts of plywood to counteract the slight curve in the hatch cover.

There was little more that we could do until this first sheet had stuck so we changed and strolled over to the pub for the quiz. Once again we teamed up with the other depleted regular team and thought that we'd obtained a respectable and wining score until the results were read out. We'd lost to a group of teachers who were not regulars by just half a point.

The quiz had finished quite early and we were able to return to our boat quite sharply as we wanted to watch a programme about Princess Anne on the television. This went on until 11.15pm when we took our tablets and headed for bed, still smarting from our minimal defeat in the quiz.

Friday

We were awake at 6.30am on Friday and decided that we'd better get up at 7am in case the painter appeared. We needn't have rushed! The boat needed a few repairs to the paintwork. We had planned to do them ourselves (although we're not too sure when we would have found the time). However, one of the boat crew is an otherwise out of work student and as he'd done some boat painting before we decided to offer him the work to boost his cash flow. Unfortunately, although his intentions are good, he's also an athlete in training and that seems to be taking up a lot of his time. Add that to a reasonable amount of boat work and he's short of time (when he's awake!).

Anyway, he never put in the appearance on Friday morning so we had time to check our mail on the computer and to make a small update to the trip boat's website before checking current stocks of provisions, writing out a shopping list and heading to the local supermarket to stock up for the fitter's remaining six days on the boat.

Back at the boat we unpacked the shopping, fired up the boatyard's ancient compressor, connected the air hose and the nail gun and fitted the infill pieces. Plans to use the odd screw for fixing soon disappeared as we've only used relatively short pins and have proved that they can be remove quite easily if the need arises. Pins also avoid the need to plug screw holes as well.

There was one unexpected down side to only using the nail gun. The bottom of the vertical infill was fixed to the plywood panel covering the ledge that leads to the rear of the boat. The nail gun was angled to ensure that the pin was fired through both the infill and the plywood but the force of the gun's impact pushed the infill piece hard against the plywood panel behind (rather than beneath) the infill piece and left a slightly wider than intended gap between the infill piece and the edge of the door. We've yet to decide whether we'll fit narrow strips to the infill pieces to disguise and cover the gaps between the infill pieces and the door.

We then headed for the trip boat and got that ready for the afternoon's trip that was nothing out of the ordinary and almost devoid of any conflicting boat movements.

We returned from the trip and once again cleared, cleaned and secured the boat before returning to our own boat where with the aid of the grease monkey who just happened along, we fitted the remaining three layers of the 6mm plywood lining to the underside of the rear hatch cover. We spread the glue as liberally as we could, not an easy job when you're hurrying to get three layers glued and clamped together before the glue on the first layer goes off. We also found it quicker after the grease monkey suggested taking the cap off the glue bottle to allow a greater flow.

We cleaned up afterwards and managed to deposit the glue bottle in the canal whilst we were doing so. Luckily it floated so we retrieved it, cleaned it up and put it away. Then we returned inside the boat, changed and headed out for a meal with the Boss. We all returned to our boat afterwards for a cup of tea and an extended chat before eventually closing up and heading for bed.

Saturday

We were up early again on Saturday morning just in case the painter called although we doubted that he would as he had said that he'd be training first thing - he'd also said on several occasions that he'd do some of our painting and then not arrived so we never really knew where we were.

As we were up early we had time to remove the clamps from the hatch cover, rub the plywood down and then apply the first coat of varnish before the fitter had to take Mrs. Fitter to the station for the 9.5am train. She'd not be back at the boat again until the fitter's next visit after a spell at home.

Once back from the station the fitter prepared the trip boat for the first of two trips, a task that included pumping out the toilet tank as the boat was expected to be quite busy on the evening cruise. With that job out of the way there was time to return to his own boat and apply the second coat of varnish on the hatch lining and now that there would be a gap in movement within the boat, the first coat of varnish on the recently installed infills and the modified trim.

Then it was time for a shower and lunch before the first trip of the day. There was nothing remarkable about it other than, for a summer Saturday, there didn't seem to be too many boats about and we returned a few minutes earlier than scheduled, managing to retain the advantage gained by a slightly early departure. We even managed to get back to the boatyard in front of the other trip boat that should have arrived thirty minutes before us and had been badly delayed on the outward leg of their journey.

It took some time to clear and clean the boat and to prepare it for the evening's trip. The organiser arrived earlier than planned, complicating things slightly especially when they kept changing their mind about how they wanted the boat laid out. Finally, just after 6pm the fitter managed to escape back to his own boat with time to put his dinner in the oven and whilst it was cooking apply a further coat of varnish on everything varnished earlier.

The fitter returned to the trip boat shortly before the coach carrying the party arrived. We left a few minutes late but with plenty of time for the trip. We'd specifically asked if stops were required en route for the smokers and were told that they weren't. This got changed when we were well into the return leg of the journey and having skillfully managed to waste most of what the fitter thought was the excess journey time, we restarted slightly late after the pause. Luckily, at 10pm there is unlikely to be other boats moving so we were able to recoup the lost time by the time we returned to the boatyard almost precisely at 11pm.

After a slow start the group suddenly decided to vacate the vessel and head for their coach leaving the fitter and crew to complete the most basic cleaning and securing of the boat, including attempting to soak up from the carpet (with paper towels) what seemed to be the entire content of a bottle of wine but was probably only the partial content of a glass,

The fitter was back on his own boat within thirty minutes of the return of the trip boat knowing that he'd have to spend a lot of time on Sunday morning clearing up what he should have cleared on Saturday night. Amongst the things that would need clearing were vast quantities of alcohol that we had specifically been asked to provide and were ensured would be consumed by the party. The nearest we apparently got to that was one customer who reportedly devoured most of the content of a bottle of vodka! Well over sixty percent of the specially order drink was not touched and will now need to be returned from whence it came although this may be more difficult than it sounds as it wasn't purchased on a sale or return basis. A cup of tea whilst the fitter jotted the day's notes down on paper preceded going to bed, a few minutes after midnight.

Introduction | Previous | Top | Next

© 2010 On Schedule !
All Rights Reserved