Bartimaeus

Yesterday morning I had been considering starting on the tricky next stage of my cardigan. I had a feeling it would be troublesome. This cardigan looks simple in the picture but I have found it has a few unfamiliar techniques. I was partly wanting to crack on and partly worried about trying and failing.

Meantime I was sweeping up in the bedroom as a distraction. I could hear banging at the back. Shane had the decking over the engine lifted off. He was troubled by the accumulation of water in there. There is a bilge pump but it wasn’t keeping it dry. He wondered if a drainage channel was blocked and was trying to think what could go through it to clear gunk out. I suggested a wire coathanger. We did have one, but Shane wasn’t convinced. I wondered about a knitting needle with string round it like a pipe cleaner. We wanted something slim with a bit of flex. I knew there was flex in this needle when I used it but when I bent it a little it snapped like spaghetti – well I didn’t use that size often anyway and won’t be any more.

I crouched in the engine space but reaching that low was hard. I cricked my neck twisting down. I tried using an old toothbrush but couldn’t reach. Then I tried the long handled paint roller handle that we had for lifting chains while mooring. It went in and seemed to show there was no major blockage of the channels. I picked up some dead leaves while I was down there. I thought mopping the water up with a towel might work but Shane had tried that some time before and found that was harder and took longer than he had expected. 

He had another idea and asked for a jug of water. He tried priming the pump by pouring water in the exit point. He pushed with our squeegee to direct water towards the pump, which had worked best before and some water did get pumped out by the pilge pump. We rocked the boat and at last Shane felt the situation was improved, for now. He is still searching for a longer handled squeegee and we might take a closer look at mops that might fit down there.

We made a move to get on towards N Yorkshire. Shane was wanting to do some lock or bridge operation since I more often hop off and do them. He had done a lift bridge the day before and as I was driving away from the bank towards it a man on the bank said to me “Don’t crash it!” That didn’t inspire confidence! I hadn’t expected to crash, but now he made me think it was something he thought was likely. I didn’t hit anything but was left wondering if he said that to everyone or was it that I had looked worried? Or did he say it to  women drivers? Or perhaps he has seen crashes here before….

I drove past the junction which required no turning and no crash risk.. We reached a lock and Shane got off to operate it. He seemed to be taking longer studying the control panel than expected. Then I saw him walking away from the panel without operating it – something was up. I had tied the boat and went to see and found this lock also had a swing bridge across it and the bridge had to be opened before the lock would work, so no boats got caught on the bridge. It was going to take longer to work this one. I returned to the boat and let him complete and the lock operated successfully. I drove out and tied up to wait as I knew he might take a while to finish up. I could see him pacing and looking perplexed. I wondered what the trouble was now and went to see. The bridge would not swing back and you can’t get your key back until it is fully closed.

Another boat had arrived so he readied the lock again for them, hoping rerunning might also reset any electrical programming tizz it may have got into. The narrow boater got out and chatted. He understood the concern and in solidarity said he wouldn’t leave till we had got our key back. Another boat was approaching and we waved it in too. I walked on the bridge as giving it a bounce sometimes works, but still once the boats had left the lock, the bridge didn’t shift. Shane and the other guy were discussing the predicament, they could hear a click but it didn’t seem to release the catch holding the bridge open. I went to the bar for swinging the bridge and gave it a small push in each direction, a wee shoogle, then returned to the release handle and lifted and this time it did lift and release and the bridge was free to be swung back in place. Shane and the other chap swung it over and our keys were free at last. The friendly local chap promised to do the next bridge for us, which was in sight. They duly did and called to us as we went through some advice on mooring possibilities in Goole. He wasn’t going there but was a regular. 

When we got there it seemed that there were no free moorings, so we were glad that he had recommended the Spicer moorings so we turned around and I took it in there at one labelled ‘Vacant’. There was weekend dated list of boat names. I recognised the top one We had seen it earlier. It had a worrying name.

There was a number to call to book in and it had started raining so I hoped this would be okay. I had popped my head into Spicer’s (selling antiques not marina services!) but not seen anyone. Phoning the number got a cheery response and a man came out to see us and I went and paid up. It came with electric hook up which was good. The boat behind us had a grey parrot in a cage outside making the odd squawk or whistle.

In the morning we went to see Goole. The route in showed it to be once a busy port. There were a few swing bridges on the way but none we had to operate and no moving boats in sight as the river was very low. One bridge was strangely planted out with flowers in the middle of the area where the bridge would swing across if operated and not with planters just it seemed in a bit of irregular broken concrete.

The cafe at the moorings was not open but Goole had shops and we found a cafe selling a new menu item. Shane went for finding out what “egg in the hole” was by asking me to order it for him, rather than asking what it was. At the counter I enjoyed the array of old kitchen utensils and more manual coffee grinders than I have ever seen. I don’t expect they are using any manual ones here.

I also liked the neat way my milk vessel was balanced inside my tea cup. I brought the tray over and we waited or our lunch as my tea infused.

Our curiosity was soon satisfied as the egg in a hole appeared. In fact there were two eggs and they were in cut out circles in the middle of slices of fried bread. I used to make this for Nye when he was little from a children’s recipe book which called it Ox-Eye Eggs. I have never come across them in a menu before. 

Back at the boat we were considering our options when we heard some beeping. It was an electronic alert noise and I checked the control panel. Was something wrong and giving an alert? There was no washing machine or microwave on to bleep at us. In the end we concluded the parrot next door was mimicking some alarming beeping noises rather accurately.  No new trouble after all.