With less than an hour to go before the start of tonight's session the rain was still absolutely hammering it down, but the clouds parted and the sun shone on the 21 GG Yorkies who ignored the threat of rain and turned up to help support their local community. Phenomenal stuff!

We started tonight's session by giving a big round of applause to Steve who was attending his frist session since completing the Race to the Stones 100km ultra-marathon. What an incredible achievement. Make sure you give him some big cheers. We then numbered off by naming our favourite junk food courtesy of National Junk Food Day (only in the US, obviously!). As expected our group of runners like their sweet treats including toblerone, cake and chocolates. Amy then led our a walking group making the short journey to the task, whilst Ed led the running group, backmarked by Vicky

Tonight's task was at the Arts Barge. A floating venue and exhibition space which has been a big part of the York arts scene for a fair few years now, but only something that we've recently got involved in having completed a couple of community missions there earlier in the year. At the task we were greeted by Hannah from the Arts Barge team who explained gave us the various nautical names of the parts of the barge that we would be sanding. One was definitely the Gunwale/Gunnel =, but i've completely forgotten the rest! Then we got to work armed with wire brushes, scrapers and sanding blocks and got rid of as much of the flaky paint and dust we could

Whilst the majority of the crew cracked on with the sanding, a few people stayed on dry land and tackled some of the weeds that had re-emerged on the moorings since we last visited. Unfortunately we didn't quite have the array of tools that we had last time, so the guys made do with a broom, a hoe and their hands in order to dig out as many weeds as possible

Despite a few dicey moments, everyone did a remarkable job of not falling into the water and the only distractions were a few cygnets who wondered what all the fuss was, and Cara's half-joking threat of doing a balancing act along the mooring line

After packing our tools away and getting a cracking group photo on the deck, it was then over to Amy for tonight's nautical themed fitness session! We headed round the corner to St George's Field car park and boarded our imaginary boat across 3 vacant coach parking spaces. Amy then proceeded to call out boating terms such as 'Port', 'Stern' and 'Climb the rigging' with each having an appropriate exercise attached. After a few trial rounds it soon became an elimination event with the last person to perform each exercise dropping out each time. Micheal and Issy proving to be tonight's Sea Dogs being the last 2 standing!

We then headed back to port (CVS) with the walking group growing considerably after Ed mentioned taking a slightly longer route back for the run!

After such a fab session last weekend, we headed back to the Arts Barge to carry on with the spruce up. Most of the activity was focused around removing weeds from the landing.

GoodGymmers were armed with hoes, shovels and brushes as we gathered the unwanted growth and got it bagged up, ready to be taken away

Meanwhile, Michael was busy on fire duty, getting rid of the wooden debris we'd gathered last week and burning it on top of a bonfire worthy of any scout leader

Other notable activity included Nick being well chuffed with his saw, and Fergie falling out with the Art's Barge's dog, Frieda

After the task was completed we sat in front of the bonfire for a few beers as the night drew in

It was all hands on deck as we teamed up with the lovely guys from the Arts Barge for the first time, but certainly not the last.

We arrived to a very comprehensive task list and soon began getting stuck in. The majority of the team began clearing debris from the landing and shifting the gangplank (not entirely sure if these are the correct nautical terms but they sound legit). Meanwhile the rest of the crew got on board with clearing the barge's deck and giving it a good sweep.

The most interesting task was snapped up by first mates Hannah and Leanne who were clearing rubbish (mostly loaves of bread) out of the water around the barge, using a basket attached to a rope and basically playing a life-size game of the claw-grabby things you get in seaside arcades. The basket wasn't going to cut the mustard with the floating sleeper and door which required a more novel approach involving floating it further down to some steps where we could just about reach into the water and rescue them

We managed to get a great deal of work done, much to the delight of the task owners, but there's still plenty more that needs to be done before the barge is ready to figuratively set sail again. So keep an eye on the listings for the arts barge mk.2