First charter!

The weather men said that today was going to be the hottest day so far this year and they hit the nail on the head, it has been amazing here today, by 10.30 this morning the heat and humidity was nearly unbearable, I am not moaning, far from it!

Very busy day here today also, four day boats out this morning, an undocking, a docking and as well as the constant stream of boats on the wharf for services we also had 26 children and the teachers turn up at ten o'clock from Newstead primary school to go out on the first charter trip on Shropshire Star today, as you know we have been promoting the trip boat as a charter boat as well and although the bookings have not been flying through the door we are getting enquiries weekly now, so today was our very first charter, and all of the little folk boarded safely, Will (big Will not little Will) was captain and Mike was crew, they set off with lots of smiley faces heading for Shebdon which is the two hour cruise, they all returned (thankfully) with even bigger smiling faces, our first charter and a sucess!!

Works are progressing well on the boat that Richard is painting in the newly constructed inner painting booth, which has left Simon to crack on with fitting a cylinder head to one of our moorers boats and Lee has been pressure washing yet another boat that is on the dry dock for blacking, new stern tube and shaft and a long list of other jobs!

That's it from me for the next week or so as I am off on holiday for a few days and also doing lots of jobs around home, I will leave you in the very capable hands of David who will no doubt entertain you with tales of his boating holiday!

Regards
Simon

started off very quiet

we had 2 day boats out this morning which was a bit surprising as it was fathers day and the fact that we have no space left in june at all, however they both returned without issues and had a very enjoyable day.
we had a very quiet start to the day today that obviously doesn't go down very well with simon, he doesn't work weekends very often but when he does we are never as busy as normal, he says you keep telling me you are busy and i can quite clearly see that you are not, we need to look at the situation and send some of the girls home. well denise had 1/2 days holiday and tash went home at 2pm. this just left lyn, sylvia and myself....then the flood gates opened.
simon popped out for an hour, i had a phone at each ear, the day boats returned and moored in the trip boats space, both day boats needed checking and cleaning, a customer wanted to book a day boat and lots of customers wanting to pay for ice creams. when i eventually got round to helping sylvia in the kitchen it took lyn, sylvia and myself until 5.30 to get all washed up and everything put away before mrs tupp gets back in the morning otherwise we will be in trouble, well that's all for today, short blog sorry, until next time byeeee ange.

Friday 14th

Just your average sort of day here at the Wharf, its been turnaround day,  we had three boats returned to us this morning all with happy holiday makers aboard, of which none wanted to go home, all had a very enjoyable time. We had three day boats out this morning, thankfully without incident and three returned again without incident, and the one that had a bit of water in yesterday all seemed fine, so i can only guess that the people on board yesterday had done something to cause the problem! other than that its been a relatively quiet day here, so on that note I will go home, early for a change this week!

Simon

Hot n cold

Sometimes I wish this weather would make its mind up, one minute the sun is shining and the next its cold and wet, I could even see my breath at one point when it was throwing it down!

Anyway its been a busy few days here, so I apologise for the lack of blogs again, David is away and when you are a man down do you feel it at the busy times, he is off boating with friends on the Grand Union canal, no doubt he will have a tale or two to write about upon his return, as I said its been a busy few days, the lads have been extremely busy, Richard with the preparation of a boat that is having a 'Norbury makeover' Simon has been making side doors all week, they are like buses you don't see any for ages and then they all come at once, he has had three sets to fabricate, as well as seeing the day boats in and out, Bernard has been finishing off lots of niggling jobs on boats that are being collected this weekend, o9nes we have sold and have been worked on or private boats that have been in for some work.

The day boats returned with only one small incident, they broke a boat pole, now under normal circumstances I would have charged them but seeing as the steerer of the one boat had proposed marriage whilst cruising down the canal I didn't have the heart to upset their day (I must be going soft), when they came back they were both beaming with smiles, we shook hands and I wished them a happy time, good luck to them!

So its been a nice day, no real issues apart from the odd blocked toilet, a dodgy water pump on  hire boat, oh a sinking day boat (nothing serious) a couple of day boats colliding with other boats (we really try hard to make the steerers get the hang of it before we jump off) Big apology to anyone today that came in to contact with one of the boats!

Until tomorrow
Simon

Very lacks

I do apologise for the lack of postings over the last week, and weekend, It has been very busy indeed and there has not been enough time to do much, thanks to Ange for posting something last night to show that we are still here and haven't forgotten! I suspect the reason for being sooooooooo busy is down to this incredible weather, it has been fantastic and as I type the blog it still very sunny indeed, the sort of night a cool beer would go down well!

Today has been a busy day, No Angela or David today, just me and Joyce in the office and Denise in the Tearoom so we have been kept on our toes, the usual stuff has been going on today, with a couple of day boats out, a boat being prepared in the wet dock by Richard, Steve has been erecting an inner dock to make the paint jobs even better, Mick has done all sorts of stuff, seeing day boats out, turning hire boats around and doing jobs on several private boats dotted about here and there, Archie has been cracking on with a small revamp job and Lee has been cleaning out an engine room and doing pump outs and diesel.

That's it from me I might have a beer on my way home.
Simon

it's been an ice cream day today

it has been a really busy day here at norbury today. we had 3 day boats go out first thing this morning, all returned with happy peeps aboard who have had a really good day. we have 3 day boats out every day now for the rest of june :-)
i have done a couple of holiday bookings today and also a couple of day boat bookings and a booking on the trip boat for november.......yay. the trip boat has also been successful today. a lot of our customers today got fed up with waiting in the queue for the air show at cosford so decided to come to norbury instead.
david and mike have been sorting out the microphone on the trip boat so that we can do our hi de hi talk along the way, lee has been busy strimming the lawn and very busy on the wharf with diesel, gas and pump outs.
well the tea room has been something else............mega busy. normally we don't get busy in the tea room until about 11 o'clock on a sunday, the day boaters all wanted tea and coffee before they left and that seemed to set the trend for the rest of the day, the smell of bacon cooking bought everyone in which left denise, lynn, tash, mrs handbag and me flat out for the rest of the day.
as the title suggests it has been an ice cream day, we have sold tons of it, i must have filled the freezers up 10 times today but thankfully we haven't sold out, i'll never live that down.
that's it from me for now, i didn't realise the lads hadn't posted in a while, don't worry i'll keep you up to date, until next time...........byeeeeeeeeeeeee ange.

WOW

I Can hardly believe the difference in the weather, only last week it was horrible and now look at it, the weekend saw lovely weather and I honestly thought that it wouldn't last but today its been even hotter, no wind, a superb day for boating or just idling away time by the water with a cool beer, perfect, well you can do all of that down here at Norbury, just like so many people have been doing today!

It hasn't been a very busy day today, but we have seen a few folks taking advantage of this fantastic weather, Only one day boat out today and needless to say that they had a fantastic time, we have a couple of boats out tomorrow and then the three boats are out solid back to back until some time in July, so if you are thinking of having a day boat get in quick as July is now booking up; saying that it hasn't been busy doesn't mean we sit around with nothing to do, in fact I have sold one boat, had some serious interest in two more boats, so not too bad a day! Mick has been stripping the next boat in the paint dock that Richard will weave his magic over, talking of Richard he has been preparing the boat prior to painting it, Steve has been erecting a new inner dock in the paint dock, this is going to be Richards new home so to speak, we are making a sterile painting booth for doing the boats so that we can heat the area a lot better and keep it dust free(hopefully) and young Lee has been blacking, turning boats around and tidying up the boats in the basin after they had all been returned on Saturday and sort of dumped!

I'm off home now to enjoy the rest of this wonderful weather in the garden.
Simon