What a week!
by: Myron
by: Myron
Part 1. Prologue
The main task for the week was to get Samson up to Bowbridge.
A few chaps often take a tug out on a Sunday, good training and keeps the channel open. This week I said it would be great to take Samson to Dudbridge Bridge, so we could get a good start on getting it through the locks on Monday. Just as and Austin Paul and as arrived they picked up a large object on Margaret’s prop, which turned out to be very big fishermen’s keep net. They had to bow haul Margaret all the way back to base. When I heard I decided to forget about it for the time being, Margaret had its job. The problem I had is that there were only three of for Monday, not enough. A plaintive cry by email produced another three. Six, enough just.
Part 2. An Amazing Crew
So, not major injury, serious illness, nor even a bereavement in the family deterred this crew from turning up on Monday morning. I was humbled. I explained how we were to fill and empty Lower Dudbridge lock, and with a final shove from Goliath, we set about getting Samson into the lock. That bit of dredging the Dredgers managed to do under the bridge seems to have brought results. It was a very tight squeeze but after jiggling it in a very special way that was revealed to me by one of the Piling Gang, Samson slid into the lock without great effort. Phew! In fact without drama but with some effort, we got through both locks before we got stuck on the gas main. We gave it a go in the vain hope that some seismic shift had magically removed the obstruction. No such luck. There we wrapped up for the day, please that we had got further than we thought we would. Great work Team, I was very proud.
Part 3. The Throng
Was it a rock concert, football match maybe. No, it was the hoard of people that turned up to bow haul Samson on Tuesday morning. I counted a total of 14 people. Problem one was when we could not get the crane started. Well I can tell you we didn’t need it. With a lock or so of water from Wallbridge, Samson positively glided over the gas main. It has never done that before, again a bit of dredging that was managed here seems to have made that job just a little easier.
Chestnut Lane Bridge did what it was supposed to do for the first time in my life, another hurdle. Then the huff and puff at Lodgemore Bridge. It seemed no time before we were into new territory for Samson, the SEWER MAIN. This was much more challenging than the piffling gas main, as the angles are all wrong to get a straight pull. Half way over it got stuck. Start the crane the cry went up. No! it will go over says Alan, and with one last mighty heave it did. Well I’ll be...
The rest of the journey was not without excitement. The crew had their eye in now. The turns around Capel’s Mill were taken like a formula 1 car, well maybe not quite, but certainly with style. And then we were there. Eldorado, the source of the Nile, maybe, well Bowbridge anyway. A glance at my watch showed it be just 12 o'clock. Is that some sort of bow hauling record. As the Boat Team members left the Piling Gang, they were already getting stuck in digging the foundations out for the landing stage. They will probably have it finished this week. So long as they don’t ask me to drag it back down again for a good long while.
Part 4. Me time
We had 10 crew turn up on Wednesday and the first job was to get that obstruction off of Margaret’s prop', which meant a trip to Ryeford locks. Goliath towing Margaret is actually a very pleasant combination, with both boats seeming to steady each other, making for a very smooth transit. I think they like each other. Weedie was out as well, for the first time in earnest since its repairs. 3 complete crews again, this is so becoming a habit.
Not so fast. The way forward is now strewn with dredgers, hoppers, Wookie Hole and chopped off limbs of trees. Well it must have been a good half an hour or so, before the dancing stopped and we could progress. But what a great problem to have. Once again, 8 boats in the same piece of water, all with a job to do.
Weedie and Goliath then went home, while Margaret made a real meal of moving as hopper 100 metres up the cut. Our operations are made difficult by the shallow water that we currently have to operate in. How so, when they have just dredged that bit, I hear you say, but I won’t go into the technical details as to why this is necessary. But we will get much more slick at this game by the time this job is finished.
