Boat Team activities for the last week.
by: Myron
It’s getting really difficult to report all the Boat Team activities in one place for the week. We now have so many diverse activities well spread along the canal. Skippers and crews are now more than able to act independently of the Team Leaders. Great!
One good thing. We welcome Dave back to operational fitness after a couple of weeks or so on the bench.
On Monday, I know we had Margaret operating, I hope they had a good day. I think Wookey was out, I’m sure they did a lot. Goliath was out and rumour has it they had a good day. For my part, after sorting a load of things out at Western Depot, I helped Nick and Dave fit a long awaited cover over the mesh on Weedie. This is to protect it from UV degradation which is what happened to the last one. The result is a trial using an old cover donated by Ken Burgin. We shall see how it goes and think about what we want permanently, in the light of experience. I remember a particularly good debrief in the Clothiers. Brexit, world economy and a host of other minor problems all sorted, simples.
Wednesday morning found us tackling the problems that have arisen with the universal joints on Margaret’s propeller shaft. Over the months of steadily increasing service, these have developed the habit of working loose. We seem to gradually be getting on top of the problem with a mixture of new nuts and bolts, thread lock and spring washers.
I then moved on to join the Weedie team, who were just coming up Bowbridge lock. We then spent a few hours dragging blanket weed from the canal. We got a good load out from a stretch we have only done a few weeks ago. We then travelled down to the canal, intending to moor downstream of Chestnut Lane bridge in readiness for passage through Dudbridge next Wednesday. We collected another load of detritus on the way. Wallbridge upper and lower passed without incident. We then thought we would probe around the water main to see for ourselves what the depths were, confirming previous studies that have shown the depth along the whole width of the canal being only about half a metre at this point. Lodgemore bridge was its usual intense work out, which I left entirely to Nick, he doesn’t get much exercise and I was still getting over a cold. The we had the lottery of Chestnut Lane bridge. Will it, won’t it. My experience is that there is at least a 60% chance it will not work. Do you feel lucky punk! – no, nothing, zilch, no cigar. So we moored across Strachans close slipway and called it a day. Can anyone tell me why none of the lift bridges that we seem to have inherited in section 1A are any good. I really hope we do a better on 1B.
Meanwhile I’m sure that Wookey was out and did a lot. I wonder where it is. Must go and see next week.
Also, next week ,we have the handing over of Jaspar to look forward to. I know Dave is itching to get his hands on the new outboard.