Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Education, education education

Over the weekend I attended a course on boat maintenance organised by RCR and delivered by the well known Tony Brooks of TB Training. If, dear reader, you have a narrowboat and don't yet consider yourself expert on diesel engine maintenance, boat electrics etc, then I can't recommend the course highly enough. Tony is a great teacher and you get to get your hands on all the bits and pieces of machinery and to have a go at things like bleeding the fuel system, setting the valve clearances etc. There were seven of us on the course and I think we were unanimous in saying it exceeded our expectations. The ground covered in two days is huge, but it is so clear and practical that you can't fail to learn loads. I'm even beginning to understand the electrics.

Do it!

Yesterday I took daughter Claire and boyfriend Joe for a spin in Herbie in preparation for them borrowing the boat sometime. Claire is pretty good on the tiller, but there is so much to explain about the fridge, the loo, the inverter, the water heater etc. I'm having to write a manual and a huge checklist for what you need to do when you leave the boat at the end of the trip.

The canal was lovely and weedy so Joe had good practice at clearing the weedhatch!

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