On The Canal - Continued
Pubs are an important component of the narrowboat experience. Most of the pubs were fairly large establishments. Some were right adjacent to the canal. They usually had an outside dining area (which we never took advantage of because of the damp weather). Most of them had signs that said “Dogs and Children Allowed”. Note the order of priority! The ones along the canal seemed to be pretty family oriented. The parochial Yank that I am I was able to get ice cold lager. My wife acquired a taste for the draft hard cider. The food was always good and seemed to have been prepared on the spot. Most of the pubs had good high speed Wi-Fi. Our contact with the internet was achieved at the pubs. On our return journey along the canal we planned each day to end near a pub for dinner.
In our boat I was always the first to get up. I am the morning person in the family. My wife can get up early when necessary but prefers not to. The boat was equipped with a double bed. But this was 48-inch-wide double bed. The dinette could also be converted into a “double bed”. As we did not want to have climb over each other to get to the head during the night we used both beds. I got the double bed and my wife got the dinette. Converting the dinette into a bed is a bit of a pain, but with practice it went pretty quickly. So I would get up and go to the head and then amuse myself playing with a camera or reading my iPad. About 5:30 I would go aft to the cockpit and start the diesel. I did this to make sure that we had hot water for showers and dishwashing. The engine was water cooled and well muffled, this was not a noisy operation. I would let it run about 20 minutes. Karen would get up about 6:00. We would shower and dress. The shower drain was below water level so there was an electric pump to empty the shower. Marcia and Schuyler missed that part of the briefing and had a shower filling with water until I explained how it worked. The “grey” water from the shower and sinks went right overboard. We were a little surprised about that.
Karen would stow the bedding from the dinette and I would make my bed. No unmade bed for people to see as they peeked in our boat as we passed! She would fix breakfast. The stove was four burners powered by propane. It also had a full oven and broiler. It took practice to make sure that the oven started properly. Breakfast was Spartan (remember the quick unplanned trip to the grocery store) but good. She made sure that I had a banger or two, hot bread with butter, and orange juice. She made sure that my orange juiced was served well chilled in a glass with all of the itty bitty ice cubes that that came out of the itty bitty ice tray in the fridge. I was able to have a mug of coffee because Schuyler gave me some their instant. Enough for one mug each morning. Karen usually had fruit and bread.
After breakfast I would do the dishes. In the Tipton family the rule is that the cook does not do the dishes! If there was cellular data available, I would check the weather report on the iPhone 4. And I would perform “PMCS” (check the oil level and take a turn or two on the device that seal on the prop shaft was full of grease) on the engine. At this point we were pretty much ready to go. Just pull up the steel mooring stakes and shove off.
Lunch would usually on the order of crackers and cheese while tied up along the tow path. One day we had lunch at a pub. Very good! But we spent two hours or so at lunch. Not a good plan for making time. On the return journey we planned our days to end in the early afternoon near a pub. So we would have a late lunch or early dinner with no time constraints. And sometimes come back later for dessert!
See the pictures at: https://goo.gl/photos/UzXb1e3GEhhNGMaTA