Do you ever talk to your boat…?

Or worse, can you stand accused of giving it a good telling off…? Maybe I’m admitting to being a total fruitcake but I’m guilty as charged when it comes to this kind of offense, if that’s what it is. What made me stop & ponder on this subject was the other night when I was tucked up in bed & just on the verge of falling asleep the water pump farted loudly. It’s started doing this a lot recently, there’s usually about 3 loud farts every night before it finally settles down & shuts itself up. But that night it waited so long before letting the first one pop I thought we’d got away with having to listen to it at all. So I shouted something like “For gods sake TT learn some self control will ya?” Then I started laughing cos I sort of said it without thinking first & it still came out perfect, I mean the sentence not a fart… Yes we’re aware that this probably means the water pump is about to pop its clogs, next time I think we’ll go for an upgrade…

Then there’s the time when we were out on the canal, I’ll never forget this one, it was blowing a gale & I was trying to hold the boat in with the centre rope while Dave was messing about with something or other. She started pulling away & I shouted “Do as you’re told & get back in here you big bugger,” then I heard Dave chirp up with “oh don’t talk to her like that you’ll upset her.” Answer: “Well if she has to learn the hard way, then so be it…” If anyone had heard the conversation without observing the situation, I’m sure the assumption would be that we were talking to a rather large rebellious teenager, hmm…

There’s other things too, I broke a really nice wine glass the other day & blamed TT for it cos the tap was in the wrong place. There’s many more where that came from & they all begin with:

Well it’s your own fault for…

Well that’s what you get when…

How many times have I told you?

Why did you make that happen?

Is this unfair or is it a conspiracy theory? After careful thought it’s BOTH…! And yet somehow this boat seems to get more praise & attention than a luxury yacht - yes ok, from me too...

Just humour me & pretend today’s September 30th…

…Then all will become perfectly clear (?) I hope…

September 30th this year was our 2nd anniversary of owning the boat & I (we) forgot all about it till yesterday when I suddenly realised it was 6 weeks ago...! When I mentioned it to Dave, it was obvious neither of us had given it a second thought. (Sudden guilt washes over me). It was Dave’s birthday the next day (1st October) & various celebrations this year meant every weekend was booked up for a full month of socialising -- we must’ve just got too carried away with all… So is it normal to remember & celebrate the first year of boat ownership (which we did) & thereafter forget all about it…? I mean it’s not like remembering a wedding anniversary, or is it…?

If a boat anniversary is like a wedding anniversary then this year’s present would be COTTON, which is appropriate when I’ve just had new curtains made & fitted throughout the place…

After doing some research about what present goes with each year – the first one is PAPER, which is also appropriate cos it would’ve been around this time last year we found out that “Triple Velvet” blocks the filter on a pumpout loo. Hence Dave spent a full day taking “the throne” to pieces, locating the filter, removing the “Paper Mache” & putting the whole thing back together again. The name “Dave the Bogmaster” followed him round for some time after that particular experience, I won’t say like a bad smell, but I just did, oops…

So having dealt with boat anniversaries for now, according to the list, for our wedding anniversary this year I should’ve received something “copper,” I mean good grief we celebrated 22 years together in August, are we still only worth coppers…? And it says “silver plate” for 23 years which isn’t any better at all - they both go green after a while… (So stick with the 12 red roses hun, can’t go wrong there). Altho it looks like I missed out on “Chrystal” for the 15th & “China” for the 20th, I mean either of those would’ve been acceptable…

So I’m going to go all nostalgic now & share with you:

30th September 2007: Boat handover day… A short & sweet post that wasn’t it? Considering the enormity of the day…

1st October 2007: First full day of ownership & Dave’s birthday…

Eeeeeeee, takes me back, altho I’ve noticed my writing skills at that time were a bit “blocky” on the obvious & err, somewhat short on content…

And here he is sporting the “windswept look” & steering the boat for the first time, before it was ours & with a guiding hand on standby…

So this was Dave’s “test drive” & he passed with flying colours, took me a bit longer to master, yet just a few months later I was steering us across the Ribble Estuary…!

The Stoppage, Waterscape & a field…

Well at last the work on Rufford Branch lock 7 has been published on Waterscape it's the 7th one down in the Leeds Liverpool canal list, (lucky 7?) The info only appeared on the website after work had started on the lock & after I’d had a moan about it, but better late than never eh…?

This canal obviously isn’t deemed important enough to be listed in the “Hall of Fame,” when doing a search on Waterscape we have to click on the “Leeds Liverpool,” even tho the Rufford Canal is the only route to crossing the Ribble Link & the only way to get to the Lancaster canal beyond, it doesn’t seem to matter where importance is concerned… Maybe it’s cos we’re “up north” or cos it’s a relatively short stretch of canal, maybe I’ve got it all wrong & it just isn’t important at all… If it were a “dead end” it would be easier to understand what with all the cutbacks, but it isn’t…

Then again perhaps we should be eternally grateful that BW are (at last) carrying out such major work on lock 7, trouble is there’s another 6 need a dam good seeing to as well before we & anyone from the Lancaster canal can get onto the Leeds Liverpool… So lets hope they do a better job on this one than they did on locks 1 & 2 last year, ie; finish it off properly, nuff said… Umm, was this a rant…?

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On a lighter note the totally out of date Google Earth map of this marina I posted on Monday err, still being dug out according to them…(?) Well I found another one… This is what MS Bing maps thinks St Mary’s marina looks like… It’s even older than Google Earth’s last visit…

So according to this we’re all moored up in the field on the left, ooo & look you can see Lock 7…

I think I’ll stick to photos, makes you wonder why these 2 huge companies ever bothered mapping the world if they don’t do updates…!