Wowser what a busy day, I reckon that everyone that was out boating decided to wait until today until to come on to the wharf for something, From first thing this morning until now it has not stopped here all day, Fred started dieseling boats up first thing and that kept him busy until his morning cuppa at 10.30 and we have had a nice steady flow of customers on the wharf all day for diesel and other things, we have also had plenty of boats in for work today.
Mick has been busy all day on two private boats, one fitting a new toilet and the other removing a toilet and replacing the floor, he then went on to a private boat with a wiring problem, Bernard was a bit late this morning as he isn't very well and has a chest infection but to be fair he came in and although he has seemed to be stuck in first gear he has at least completed the tasks in hand, which were re aligning an alternator, sorting out some diesel leaks and has started on another job which entails changing some hoses on an engine, Freddie has not only served hundreds of litres of diesel today he has also blacked a boat, cut the cottage lawn and strimmed the moorings down the arm, Lee has painted some counter bands on a boat in the dock and has carried on with Falcon while our sign writer has made a start on the sign writing, I have to say, it is looking very smart indeed! Angela has also been busy today and has not stopped with boat bookings, and generally looking after customers, me on the other hand, well I have had my feet up on the desk all day and have been dosing.................................................................NOT!!
I would say that after the poor weekend things have got off to a good start now, lets hope it stays like this now for the rest of the season.
Regards
Simon
NORBURY WHARF LIMITED
Shop front in the summer
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Monday, 30 May 2011
Back to the norm!
Well its bank holiday Monday and guess what.............. we have returned back to the normal weather conditions in this country associated with a bank holiday, its raining, and it has rained pretty much all day, until now, Typical! Great if you are a duck but not so much fun if you are standing on the back of a boat, needless to say it has been a quiet day here, we had two day boats go out first thing this morning and we have had two hire boats go out this afternoon but a distinct lack of people around over the course of the day and who can blame them for staying at home on a day like this, but 'sods law' always prevails and in the last hour the sun came out, so did a few people, a bit late in the day now!
It hasn't all been bad today as we have completed on a boat that sold yesterday, a new moorer has arrived today and taken up his new berth down the old Newport arm and we have had another boat come in today to be sold, so not a total wash out!
Graham has turned the two boats around that came back yesterday,fitted some anodes and carried on with the fitting of the new steel cabin, Mick has been removing an old toilet, fitting a new one and finishing off some jobs on other private boats around the yard, Ralph has blacked a boat on the dock, Lee has carried on with the painting of Falcon, I have to say what a fantastic job he is doing and the boat looks fantastic, he has also done the counter bands on the boat in the dock, Pam and Billy dropped in first thing this morning to collect more leaflets for the show, they said it is going OK, shame about the weather there today, they did say that they have struggled with keeping the Marque on the ground though, lets hope that they have had a bit of sun this afternnon.
That's about it from me for today
Simon
It hasn't all been bad today as we have completed on a boat that sold yesterday, a new moorer has arrived today and taken up his new berth down the old Newport arm and we have had another boat come in today to be sold, so not a total wash out!
Graham has turned the two boats around that came back yesterday,fitted some anodes and carried on with the fitting of the new steel cabin, Mick has been removing an old toilet, fitting a new one and finishing off some jobs on other private boats around the yard, Ralph has blacked a boat on the dock, Lee has carried on with the painting of Falcon, I have to say what a fantastic job he is doing and the boat looks fantastic, he has also done the counter bands on the boat in the dock, Pam and Billy dropped in first thing this morning to collect more leaflets for the show, they said it is going OK, shame about the weather there today, they did say that they have struggled with keeping the Marque on the ground though, lets hope that they have had a bit of sun this afternnon.
That's about it from me for today
Simon
Sunday, 29 May 2011
Bank holiday weekend?
I am gob smacked at just how quiet it is given that it is a bank holiday weekend, I wonder if there is a lot going on else where locally which is keeping people away? I decided that as it is a Sunday and a bank holiday that I would come in to work and show willing, well I should have stayed at home, lets hope that tomorrow is busier!
Not much to report on really, We have sold two more boats today, completed on one that sold a week or so ago, David has been doing the promotional details for another boat that has come in for sale, Ralph saw the two day boats out first thing this morning, the one came back with no issues but the other one had booked an extra hour so as I type it is still yet to come home, Mick and David docked a brokerage boat that required a survey, thankfully that went OK and now has a clean bill of health,and One very happy customer so that sale should all be completed in the next week, Ralph then pressure washed the hull and it is now ready for a few coats of International Intertuf paint, Micky then went on to a private job to sort out a seized intermediate bearing on the prop shaft, Jay has seen a few customers but nothing compared to usual and Lorraine has kept us entertained with her usual humor, she is funny!
That's it from me for today, I am having an early day so I am off home now to relax until the morning when we all start again.
Simon
Not much to report on really, We have sold two more boats today, completed on one that sold a week or so ago, David has been doing the promotional details for another boat that has come in for sale, Ralph saw the two day boats out first thing this morning, the one came back with no issues but the other one had booked an extra hour so as I type it is still yet to come home, Mick and David docked a brokerage boat that required a survey, thankfully that went OK and now has a clean bill of health,and One very happy customer so that sale should all be completed in the next week, Ralph then pressure washed the hull and it is now ready for a few coats of International Intertuf paint, Micky then went on to a private job to sort out a seized intermediate bearing on the prop shaft, Jay has seen a few customers but nothing compared to usual and Lorraine has kept us entertained with her usual humor, she is funny!
That's it from me for today, I am having an early day so I am off home now to relax until the morning when we all start again.
Simon
Saturday, 28 May 2011
Another Windy day
Well I am back, after having just returned from my weeks holiday down on my boat and the weather down in the south has been just as bad as here at Norbury, the wind will not stop blowing and today is no exception, at least it isn't raining, despite the poor weather I had a lovely time and I could have stayed down there for another week, You soon get back in to the swing of things and it relaxing on the back of my boat is now a dim distant memory! But here is just one picture showing how different my sort of boating is compared to the narrow boating.
Today has been a very busy day we have had a motor home go out,the holiday cottage, 3 shared boats, 7 hire boats and 2 day boats so plenty to keep everyone busy, it has been all hands to the pumps today to get everything sorted and everyone has worked hard to get all the boats ready for the holiday makers, lets just hope that the weather for them is a bit kinder than it has been this last week, Billy has gone to do the Crick show as David mentioned, that has left us a show around person down so David has stepped in and has had to dust off his show around skills and give instruction to some of the new holiday makers on how to safely operate the boats, he has also been in the dry dock and done some painting as well as overseeing all the jobs on the hire fleet, I think he will deserve a pint later, as well as sorting out the hire fleet etc we have also had to attend a breakdown on a private boat in Market Drayton, black a boat, carry on with the new steel cabin, see lots of customers looking at brokerage boats, so all in all a busy day and I think I made the right decision to return to work today and not on Monday as I was originally going to.
That's about it from me today, I might post tomorrow or it might be David, it just depends on who is the quietest, I hope you have a good evening.
Simon
Today has been a very busy day we have had a motor home go out,the holiday cottage, 3 shared boats, 7 hire boats and 2 day boats so plenty to keep everyone busy, it has been all hands to the pumps today to get everything sorted and everyone has worked hard to get all the boats ready for the holiday makers, lets just hope that the weather for them is a bit kinder than it has been this last week, Billy has gone to do the Crick show as David mentioned, that has left us a show around person down so David has stepped in and has had to dust off his show around skills and give instruction to some of the new holiday makers on how to safely operate the boats, he has also been in the dry dock and done some painting as well as overseeing all the jobs on the hire fleet, I think he will deserve a pint later, as well as sorting out the hire fleet etc we have also had to attend a breakdown on a private boat in Market Drayton, black a boat, carry on with the new steel cabin, see lots of customers looking at brokerage boats, so all in all a busy day and I think I made the right decision to return to work today and not on Monday as I was originally going to.
That's about it from me today, I might post tomorrow or it might be David, it just depends on who is the quietest, I hope you have a good evening.
Simon
Friday, 27 May 2011
27/05/2011
I’ve been sent some pictures of Hyperion today, which I thought you may like to see. I owned her from 2006 until 2011 in which time along with help from friends and family I restored her to her former glory along with valued help from friends and family. Here she is loaded with 18 tonnes of domestic fuel at Norbury in September 2008. We had just returned from the festival held annually at Shackerstone on the Ashby Canal. Note the bike for lock wheeling with one of the pedals perched on the top plank.
The days seem to fly by here. I just don’t know where they go. It only seems a few days ago that I took Simon to the station when he was heading off on holiday – he is back tomorrow to check up on us all.
It’s been busy here today. We’ve turned nine boats around which has kept Fred and Bernard quiet whilst Mick has been working on a private boat. Graham has been prepping the boat that we are going to be fitting a new cabin to. There is quite a lot of rust on the inside of the gunnels which is what we will be welding the new plate work to, so that all needs cleaning off first. I’m sure we will see some steel work in place tomorrow, so I will try and get some pictures for you.
We had two familiar faces back today. Bill and Pam. Bill comes in on a Saturday when we are busy with turnrounds and Pam helps out in the shop/tearoom on days that we are short. They both worked here for a number of years (I won’t say how many Pam!) be it with Shropshire Union Canal Cruises, Anglo Welsh or Norbury Wharf Limited. Bill was our engineer and Pam looked after all of the holiday bookings, shop and worked in the kitchen (to name but a few things!). Today they have taken our advertisement boat and our stand down to the Crick Boat Show and will be manning it over the weekend. So if you are going to Crick, please head over to stand Q35 and say hello to them. They will give you a warm welcome and are more than capable of answering any questions you may have.
That’s it from me today.
Regards,
David.
The days seem to fly by here. I just don’t know where they go. It only seems a few days ago that I took Simon to the station when he was heading off on holiday – he is back tomorrow to check up on us all.
It’s been busy here today. We’ve turned nine boats around which has kept Fred and Bernard quiet whilst Mick has been working on a private boat. Graham has been prepping the boat that we are going to be fitting a new cabin to. There is quite a lot of rust on the inside of the gunnels which is what we will be welding the new plate work to, so that all needs cleaning off first. I’m sure we will see some steel work in place tomorrow, so I will try and get some pictures for you.
We had two familiar faces back today. Bill and Pam. Bill comes in on a Saturday when we are busy with turnrounds and Pam helps out in the shop/tearoom on days that we are short. They both worked here for a number of years (I won’t say how many Pam!) be it with Shropshire Union Canal Cruises, Anglo Welsh or Norbury Wharf Limited. Bill was our engineer and Pam looked after all of the holiday bookings, shop and worked in the kitchen (to name but a few things!). Today they have taken our advertisement boat and our stand down to the Crick Boat Show and will be manning it over the weekend. So if you are going to Crick, please head over to stand Q35 and say hello to them. They will give you a warm welcome and are more than capable of answering any questions you may have.
That’s it from me today.
Regards,
David.
Thursday, 26 May 2011
26/05/2011
I am sorry that there wasn’t a blog for you to read yesterday, but I started to type the one below and then I had a breakdown on one of our hire boats at about 5.15pm which I had to attend. I tried to type one from my phone last night, but the signal kept dropping out – so I do apologise. Technology hey?
Anyway, yesterday was my birthday. I still feel like I’m 21, although I have started to think twice before hopping down onto the cabin top when I’m boating and how close the boat has to be in to the side before I step off. Go back six or more years and I would have taken a flying leap on to the counter as the motor was leaving the lock after pulling the top gate shut. In hind site it is amazing that I never hurt myself, but I didn’t ever think twice about doing it. I do now though, and one occasion last year the boat went off on her own due to the fact that I hesitated about taking a long stride as the boat was leaving the lock and decided that I couldn’t step that far! It was then a matter of sods law – she went up the outside of the pound and I had to scramble through brambles and nettles to get to her!!! So, I am not ageing, I’m just getting wiser! I had a great day at work and an enjoyable evening followed. I’m going to Birmingham on Saturday night to celebrate in style with some friends…
Yesterday morning started early for me. I took Annie out for a walk across the field at Norbury and then ensured that everything was removed from the dock floor, lowered the paddle and lifted the top plank. The dock takes about 40 minutes therefore when Fred turned up the boat would be floating and ready to be taken out.
After getting to work and opening up, Graham and Fred went down and lifted the remainder of the planks out and brought the boat off the dock. Fred was then called to pumpout duties on the wharf so Graham and I docked Python and Silver Haze. The former is on for her skeg to be straighten; as we couldn’t get it to sit correctly in the water, and the latter is on for some more major work. She was over plated by another yard a few years ago and hasn’t really moved very far since. Whilst on route to us the engine kept over heating which is a good sign that the head gasket needed replacing. Graham removed the head, we had it skimmed, pressure tested and put it back together. Although vastly improved she did creep up towards boiling point again. So once on the dock we discovered that the over plating ran across the skin tank, hence there was an air gap between the outside of the tank and the canal which should cool the water. So Graham has been kept busy with removing the over plating across the skin tank which will solve her problem.
We had a steel delivery yesterday. Graham is going to be fitting a new cabin to a boat that previously had a wooden top, so you will no doubt hear quite a bit about that over the next couple of weeks. Fred has got rid of all the rubbish that has built up whilst he was on holiday and we have got all the scrap together which now just needs to be taken to the scrap yard. Bernard did a service on a private and was checking the hire boats over that we have in and Lee has been painting Falcon.
Today has been quite busy too, although it has rained most of the day and we even had hail at one point. The wind is building up again now, the weather forecast is for thunderstorms during the night, so Jay is stacking the chairs as I write.
We have all been busy again today. Ralph and I have had a mass move round of boats, which always seemed to be at the times the rain came. I have been soaked to the skin most of the day… Fred and Graham have been in the depths of the dry dock whilst Ange and Jay have been manning the shop and tearoom. Lorraine has gone through the boats that are in and cleaned them, ready for their depature over the weekend.
The shared boats are filtering back in now, ready to be turned around tomorrow and their new crews arriving to experience another week aboard their floating homes.
Our new dryer has arrived and it will be installed tomorrow – just intime for the weekend.
That’s it for today, I’m off over to Weston-on-Trent to pick some friends up who have moved a boat and then I will run them home.
Have a good evening,
Until tomorrow.
Regards,
David
Anyway, yesterday was my birthday. I still feel like I’m 21, although I have started to think twice before hopping down onto the cabin top when I’m boating and how close the boat has to be in to the side before I step off. Go back six or more years and I would have taken a flying leap on to the counter as the motor was leaving the lock after pulling the top gate shut. In hind site it is amazing that I never hurt myself, but I didn’t ever think twice about doing it. I do now though, and one occasion last year the boat went off on her own due to the fact that I hesitated about taking a long stride as the boat was leaving the lock and decided that I couldn’t step that far! It was then a matter of sods law – she went up the outside of the pound and I had to scramble through brambles and nettles to get to her!!! So, I am not ageing, I’m just getting wiser! I had a great day at work and an enjoyable evening followed. I’m going to Birmingham on Saturday night to celebrate in style with some friends…
Yesterday morning started early for me. I took Annie out for a walk across the field at Norbury and then ensured that everything was removed from the dock floor, lowered the paddle and lifted the top plank. The dock takes about 40 minutes therefore when Fred turned up the boat would be floating and ready to be taken out.
After getting to work and opening up, Graham and Fred went down and lifted the remainder of the planks out and brought the boat off the dock. Fred was then called to pumpout duties on the wharf so Graham and I docked Python and Silver Haze. The former is on for her skeg to be straighten; as we couldn’t get it to sit correctly in the water, and the latter is on for some more major work. She was over plated by another yard a few years ago and hasn’t really moved very far since. Whilst on route to us the engine kept over heating which is a good sign that the head gasket needed replacing. Graham removed the head, we had it skimmed, pressure tested and put it back together. Although vastly improved she did creep up towards boiling point again. So once on the dock we discovered that the over plating ran across the skin tank, hence there was an air gap between the outside of the tank and the canal which should cool the water. So Graham has been kept busy with removing the over plating across the skin tank which will solve her problem.
We had a steel delivery yesterday. Graham is going to be fitting a new cabin to a boat that previously had a wooden top, so you will no doubt hear quite a bit about that over the next couple of weeks. Fred has got rid of all the rubbish that has built up whilst he was on holiday and we have got all the scrap together which now just needs to be taken to the scrap yard. Bernard did a service on a private and was checking the hire boats over that we have in and Lee has been painting Falcon.
Today has been quite busy too, although it has rained most of the day and we even had hail at one point. The wind is building up again now, the weather forecast is for thunderstorms during the night, so Jay is stacking the chairs as I write.
We have all been busy again today. Ralph and I have had a mass move round of boats, which always seemed to be at the times the rain came. I have been soaked to the skin most of the day… Fred and Graham have been in the depths of the dry dock whilst Ange and Jay have been manning the shop and tearoom. Lorraine has gone through the boats that are in and cleaned them, ready for their depature over the weekend.
The shared boats are filtering back in now, ready to be turned around tomorrow and their new crews arriving to experience another week aboard their floating homes.
Our new dryer has arrived and it will be installed tomorrow – just intime for the weekend.
That’s it for today, I’m off over to Weston-on-Trent to pick some friends up who have moved a boat and then I will run them home.
Have a good evening,
Until tomorrow.
Regards,
David
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
24/05/2011
Not much to report really today. We have all been getting on with our day to day jobs, so not that exciting really and I don’t want to bore you with waffle.
Ange has been catching up with the paperwork that has accumulated over the last couple of days and she has made a good start at washing everything in the laundry.
It’s nice to have Fred back, he certainly makes coming to work more interesting!
That’s it for today.
Regards,
David
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