General Witterings -
Bits 'n' bobs on Rosy

It's been quite a busy week on Rosy.

On Monday 5 May the World Championship Snooker finished, so no more late nights for a while.

On Tuesday, I got stuck into cleaning the engine room - I've ignored it for most of the winter, so it needed tidying and cleaning.  In the afternoon the Laird of Strathnaver re-appeared, bearing gifts of oatmeal and shortbread.  He took Jess back to his boat with him.  I've quite enjoyed looking after the two dogs, and they certainly cause much comment when people see them together.  I ate the shortbread.  All of it.

On Wednesday I awoke at about 2am feeling decidedly sick and queasy, and dosed up on Andrews Liver Salts.  I felt woozy all day, but managed to fulfil a dinner date with Tom and Natalie on Aloha.  And "Yes", they have been boating here in Europe for the last 30 years.  Fortunately, although they are more than happy to respond to questions and enquiries, they don't force their experience upon one.  Indeed, they seem to take more delight in listening to others' experiences - they work on the assumption that there is always more to learn.  Natalie produced a lovely meal.  Dippy things, including one of my favourites, taramasalata, followed by a grilled pork chop accompanied by grilled, sliced aubergine topped with a tomato and cheese sauce.  Scrummy!!!

Aloha left on Thursday.  I spent most of the day changing the engine and gearbox oil, and finally getting the engine room into good order, ready for cruising.

Friday was a twiddly day, until mid-afternoon when I met John Douglas (owner of a Freeman 23 Mk 2 boat called Trillium) off the train from Paris.  He had kindly brought over a CD/DVD etc. etc. player from UK, so I spent most of the evening connecting it into my audio-visual system.

The weekend has been the Fête de Nautisme in Briare.  The afternoon was a bit tricky as Fanny disappeared!!!  I was extremely concerned, and was considerably annoyed to discover that she had been hijacked by a pissed Laird of Strathnaver.  The Briare boat club had its spring dinner in a tent by the waterside, and it was most enjoyable.  There was plenty of wine flowing, and there was much making of music.  One of the French boaters brought his group along.  He (Jean) plays a hurdy-gurdy.  The rest of the line-up is guitar, violin and Pipe de Berry.  This latter will be of particular interest to any bag-pipe players who might read this (and there is at least one), as the Pipe de Berry is the local species of doodle-sac.  The bag is filled by blowing into it, as with the Scottish pipes.  Only one drone flops over the shoulder, but another mini-drone hangs next to the chanter.  The group played really good French folky music.

John Douglas soon joined in, as he is a whizz, mainly jazz-style, guitar player.  He accompanies himself with a small black box (sequencer, synthesiser, or some such clever stuff).  He even talked me into accompanying him with vocals - the chorus bits of "Mad Dogs and Englishmen".

The Laird of Strathnaver was still pretty pissed, and Véronique (she who runs the local bar) marched in with Jess the Woof on a lead - she (Véronique) and found her (Jess) wandering around Briare.  Two hours later the Laird was getting a bit frantic, as Jess had disappeared again.  So at least knew how I had felt when I'd discovered Fanny missing earlier in the day.

On Sunday there was a procession of boats.  I had the Laird and John Douglas on Rosy, and we cruised up the old canal to the Pont Canal (aqueduct) and back.  All very pleasant - John playing jazz guitar up front, moi and a hooter, kazoo and whistle at the stern.

Next week CAN'T be better than that.  Can it?

A RANT:  Why don't they ...  put a bleeper into each and every TV/CD player etc remote control, so that one can phone them up when they go adrift, and locate them by their ring-tone?  Seems such a sensible idea, that would reduce the general level of stress and frustration in the world.

Memories of the Sixties:  There was an article in one of the UK canally magazines, recounting the story of a boating family.  They worked a pair of boats and, sadly, the father died.  British Waterways wouldn't consider recognising the mother as the captain of the pair (despite the fact that she had been working the boats all of her life) for the sole reason that she was female, and they only recognised male captains.  Instead, the son (aged, I seem to recall, 14 or 15) became the registered captain.  This is even more remarkable when one recalls the Idle Women ...  women who worked narrow boats during WW2.  (They wore a badge inscribed IW which officially was an abbreviation for Inland Waterways, but British humour being what it is ...)

Safety Issues:  Here's a handy hint that will help to create a safer environment on any two person crewed boat - provided each of the two people has a shoe size of between 6 and 11.  One of the two crew members buys a pair of red socks to fit feet sized 6 to 11.  The 2nd crew member buys a pair of green socks to fit feet sized 6 to 11.  Each crew member then gives the other crew member one of their newly bought socks.  Hence each crew member will now have one green and one red sock - or, if you view the world in a different way, one red sock and one green sock.  On board, each crew member puts the red sock on the left foot, and the green one on the right foot.  This gives each crew member a helping hand (or, rather, foot) in distinguishing between port and starboard, so long as each can remember that PORT wine is RED.

This doesn't ONLY work well on boats with a crew of two.  It also works to perfection with other crews, provided that there is an even number of crew members.

Toodle pip!!

Bill