What a week! This boat owning thing sure is time consuming not to mention downright hairy!
My entire house is falling apart while I dash up to paint the outside of the narrowbaot every spare minute I have. On Tues, to my horror, the boat was listing horribly to the left, so much so that the drawers in the kitchen area kept falling out. A quick phone call to the guy we bought it off indicated that I needed to check that the engine was not full of water, and if it was, I needed to get the bilge pump going to remove it.
As I only had to turn the engine on, and flick a switch to get the pump going, I thought it would be easy. The bilge pump did it's stuff and got rid of the water, then I turned the engine off, but to my horror, the engine kept running.
In desperation, as I couldn't go home leaving the engine still running on the boat, I screamed across the canal to an elderly man, asking him how to turn the thing off. He told me to pull every lever up. I did this with great trepidation, terrified of the boat jumping into the canal. [we hadn't driven it at this point]To my great relief, the black lever did the trick. I was extremely proud of myself, and looked up to see a gathering of long timers on the mooring across the towpath gazing at me with undisguised scorn.
The next visit to the boat was much much worse. While John was playing with the bilge pump, I sat myself on the towpath and carried on painting the outside of the boat. After a while, I noticed a truly horrible smell. I thought it was the water being pumped out of the engine. For about an hour or so I painted away and chatted to all passers by. When it was time to go home, I boarded the boat only to hear John shriek, 'WHAT have you got on your bottom?' I squinted my head and saw that my entire ass was coated with dog dirt. That accounted for the smell then!
I ripped my trousers off, and then realised it was also all over my shoes as well.....and so I had to walk down the towpath, up the steps and across the bridge in my Tshirt, knickers and socks in a very heavily populated area! That was bad enough, what was worse was the thought of all those people I was taliking to while I was painting the boat with my ass covered in poo.....because of course I had stood up and showed off my handiwork. Oh well.......
Sunday was an ordeal too! With the help of a friend, John and I drove the boat for the first time.J ohn was okay. He panicked a bit when passing boats came towards him and hit the bank once but other than that, seemed to get the hang of it pretty quickly.
My turn came. I COULD not get the hang of it. When you turn the teller left, the boat goes right! What kind of sense does that make. Of course I crashed it. Not gently either. I rammed the bugger into the side of the canal. I put a rotten dent in it, all over my newly painted bit too! At least it didn't sink!I think I'll leave the driving to John for a while and just sit on the front with the stick in case he hits anything else. [ I was using it to push us off the bank, the people in passing boats probably thought I was going to hit them with it!]
