When Boating goes wrong...
I've spent most of the sunny weekend sprawled on the Bow deck, soaking up the blue sky and feeling smug - but sometimes this blissful way of living can go wrong and when it does, it goes wrong in the most calamitous way.
As Chris trudged up the towpath from a really hard day at work he did an average job of masking his defeat when I told him that we had run out of water. The answer would normally be to drive the boat to the nearest tap and fill up - which would have been a pain after a long day and a shame to leave such a lovely mooring but actually it was worse than that because over the weekend we also ran out of diesel (again under the illusion that if we don't check the tank then it won't be empty). This time we properly ran out and the engine spluttered to a stop on Saturday when Chris wanted to have a shower before work so he had to stand in the tub whilst I threw a pan of hot water over his head.
The diesel man came round and filled up so we had some of the red stuff in the tank, but of course the engine wouldn't start because we needed to bleed air out of the system. So Chris came home and had to dismantle part of the steps to climb into the engine to bleed the fuel injectors, which resulted in a diesel spill in the engine bay (Hurrah for Nappies by the way).
Whilst all this was happening I assembled my 'romantic dinner' which I had planned through the day and served in a bowl to Chris standing in the engine bay whilst I sat on the step next to him. I managed to use every single Cup, glass, and piece of crockery on the boat to create this & the kitchen was impressively messy and things that you would expect to find in a shed such as muddy boots, and dusty toolboxes had been moved to allow for the step dismantle and placed all over the white bed linen. A small space can very quickly look very messy.
By 8.30 Chris managed to fire up the engine, and put the steps back together, whilst I heated up the last of our drinking water out of desperation on the stove to try and wash up some of the mess - and then had to drive Chris (covered in Diesel) to have a shower at the boaters shower facilities up the road in Brentford). By the time we finished sorting it all out and got back to the boat it was 10pm and Chris had to be at work at 6 the following morning.
We will have to move back to our Brentford mooring tomorrow and fill the boat up with water so we can enjoy the pleasures of washing up again and rinsing toothpaste down the drain! Unfortunately this means that I miss out on a great local deal on a pram I really had my eye on which may have saved me £300!
So there you go, sometimes it goes wrong and when it does it goes spectacularly wrong but if you have a good boat this is often down to USER ERROR - both of these issues were our fault for not keeping on top of our top ups and checking our tanks! Totally avoidable!
As Chris trudged up the towpath from a really hard day at work he did an average job of masking his defeat when I told him that we had run out of water. The answer would normally be to drive the boat to the nearest tap and fill up - which would have been a pain after a long day and a shame to leave such a lovely mooring but actually it was worse than that because over the weekend we also ran out of diesel (again under the illusion that if we don't check the tank then it won't be empty). This time we properly ran out and the engine spluttered to a stop on Saturday when Chris wanted to have a shower before work so he had to stand in the tub whilst I threw a pan of hot water over his head.
The diesel man came round and filled up so we had some of the red stuff in the tank, but of course the engine wouldn't start because we needed to bleed air out of the system. So Chris came home and had to dismantle part of the steps to climb into the engine to bleed the fuel injectors, which resulted in a diesel spill in the engine bay (Hurrah for Nappies by the way).
Whilst all this was happening I assembled my 'romantic dinner' which I had planned through the day and served in a bowl to Chris standing in the engine bay whilst I sat on the step next to him. I managed to use every single Cup, glass, and piece of crockery on the boat to create this & the kitchen was impressively messy and things that you would expect to find in a shed such as muddy boots, and dusty toolboxes had been moved to allow for the step dismantle and placed all over the white bed linen. A small space can very quickly look very messy.
By 8.30 Chris managed to fire up the engine, and put the steps back together, whilst I heated up the last of our drinking water out of desperation on the stove to try and wash up some of the mess - and then had to drive Chris (covered in Diesel) to have a shower at the boaters shower facilities up the road in Brentford). By the time we finished sorting it all out and got back to the boat it was 10pm and Chris had to be at work at 6 the following morning.
We will have to move back to our Brentford mooring tomorrow and fill the boat up with water so we can enjoy the pleasures of washing up again and rinsing toothpaste down the drain! Unfortunately this means that I miss out on a great local deal on a pram I really had my eye on which may have saved me £300!
So there you go, sometimes it goes wrong and when it does it goes spectacularly wrong but if you have a good boat this is often down to USER ERROR - both of these issues were our fault for not keeping on top of our top ups and checking our tanks! Totally avoidable!
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| Thanks be to fluffy goslings for making it all ok... |
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