[ABBAFAN]

its great fun.i spent 2001 and part of 2002 working on a passenger carrying one and we always had a laugh.we would sit on the barge from about 9am and chat or smoke a cigar listening to music befor the passengers arrive.then we'd help them aboard and set off befor lunch for an afternoon of music drink cigars and peaceful canal barging interspersed with stops at traditional canalside pubs and getting fed and more drink on board followed by a mellow trip back and dump the passengers.in the hight of the summer we'd have another batch on board for the evening which was nice.watching the sunset and the drunk female passengers gettin on top of the boat and displaying themselves.sometimes tying up for the night and listening to aplay on the radio and crickets in the dusk,nipping to a pub and coming back to the boat to sleep and setting off next morning.Sometimes the skipper Frank would gun the barge for a bit and then shut down the engine so we'd come in to our berth silently not even disturbing the geese and ducks.most of the passengers were old infirm or mental but occaisonally we had stag or hen parties or weekend trippers.the crew were amusing characters too.

Now im at sea i occaisionally go back and help out on leave.