We’ve had an interesting couple of weeks at Shoregate, shoehorning all the ships into our little dock.
The fleet now numbers 4 barges, 1 smack, a dry dock, 8 dinghies and a little yacht, which should be enough for now…
There’s a hell of a lot to achieve over the next few months – Edith May has developed a leak on her port bow and needs two deck planks replaced, in addition to the usual painting and rigging overhaul.
Lady Daphne has a list of things to sort as long as your arm, but we’ll be focusing on the most urgent things for this winter before starting the internal beautification process.
She currently has a little water feature in the bow, which kept the pumps busy over the summer. Fountains aren’t generally welcome on boats, so we’re looking forward to fixing that one. She also needs her chines looked at – this is where the bottom meets the side. They were doubled with plywood a few years ago, but we’re going to be stripping this all off and replacing with a more suitable timber and fixings – not an easy task, but nothing ever is with barges!
Every couple of years, the barges have to pass an in depth survey to renew their passenger certificates, with both up for renewal this year, so it will be a full on winter for us to get the barges through. We’re already a month behind schedule as we were hoping to have Edith May in and out of the dry dock by now, but we have to wait until the next set of big tides now.
It’s not all muck and bullets though, as we have a series of events coming up to ensure we can have some fun during the winter months!
We’ve just added a new date for the Christmas Carol concerts – Friday 12th December
Saturday 17th January – Ethel Ada fundraiser – pub night at Shoregate
Saturday 25th April – Crazy Water Common – return of our Americana music friends
Thursday 7th May – Track Dogs – our hottest ticket!
Tickets can be bought here – https://tillerandwheel.com/our-events/
We’re down at Shoregate every Monday for our volunteer work party days – if you’re interested in joining us, get in touch and we’ll send you details and our volunteer sign up form. More the merrier!