Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Job Done!!!

"Who is this motley crew waving paint brushes?" you enquire. "Is that the Old Boater in the middle?" You are not wrong. There he is with Herself (on the left) and Vicki; the stalwarts of the BW Bath Monthly (4th Thursday) Working Party. Our BW Leader, Rob Labus, being behind the camera (his phone actually). In the winter, when the weather is bad, what better place to work than inside a tunnel. So here we are at Sidney Tunnel on the K&A in Bath having just completed the repainting of the handrails, and lovely they look.

BW (British Waterways) becomes the "Canal and Rivers Trust" in April and, with this change to a charitable trust, it is looking to recruit more volunteers to help with maintaining and running the waterways, modelling itself on the National Trust. Himself will be out on the Bath locks at the beginning of April, when the cruising season starts in earnest, performing his duties as a Volunteer Lock Keeper. In the meantime it's been a couple of trips to BW's Devizes office to complete the mandatory health and safety courses. But before then we have our week's cruise on the Lancaster Canal to look forward to.

Monday, January 2, 2012

New Year, New ?????

"What you doing now?" You guessed it. Herself is getting ratty because his head is bowed over the keyboard again instead of doing something "useful". What something useful is, he has not yet determined. "So what has the old boater been doing in the last six months" you enquire. Enjoying the delights of the beautiful city of Bath is the truth of it. Previously we have always been here in the winter months, so it has been a delight to enjoy the summer and all that goes on in the height of the tourist season. Also time and energy has been spent on making a new printed edition of "The Meanderings of Avon Rose" based on these blogs but with footnotes and appendices explaining the technicalites of boating and bell ringing for the general reader. It's a great read they tell me. See a preview here and, go on, spoil yourself and buy one.
Waterway life has not been neglected either. Theirselves continue as volunteers with British Waterways in Bath. On the monthly working party we have cleared vegetation, painted and even learnt the skills of repointing stonework with lime mortar. During the autumnal showers, painting the railings inside Sidney Tunnel has kept us occupied.
Himself has been sharing duties with two others as volunteer lock keepers on the Bath flight; working alongside Nigel, the full-time lock keeper, by providing assisting boaters in working the locks and providing local information.

"So; what plans for a new boat?" you enquire. "Well," Himself replies, "as our noble Towermaster at the Abbey is fond of saying,'Any Plan is a Basis for Change'." Herself has pointed out that the canals we have yet to explore lie on the fringes of the network. If we buy into a new shared boat, we are going to be moored at one of the more popular cruising centers. Solution, let's hire on the waterways we want to explore and put the new boat plan on hold. Enter stage left friends Steve and Lesley (our biker boating buddies) with the expected question, "When are we going boating then?"
"We haven't done the Lancaster," Herself pipes up and .....

Himself has been in contact with the lovely Karen from Canal Boat Escapes and we have secured the use of trad narrowboat Green Man for the last week of March from its base at Pendle Marine. Keep a lookout. We'll let you know how it goes.