Android Espresso will not recognise child view

I am having a lot of trouble with Espresso It just will not find the descendant that has the certain string and it won't recognise any child views by id either So this is my simple test

    ViewInteraction viewInteraction =     onView(withRecyclerView(R.id.sail_boat_recycler_view).atPosition(2));

.

 viewInteraction.check(matches(hasDescendant(withText(BOAT_NAME))));

Could it be that the item is nested too deeply? here is the xml for the card view

`<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
`<android.support.v7.widget.CardView
`xmlns:android="http://ift.tt/nIICcg"
`android:layout_width="match_parent"
`android:layout_height="wrap_content"
`android:id="@+id/card_view_line">
`<TableLayout android:layout_width="wrap_content"
         `android:layout_height="wrap_content">
    `<TableRow>
    `<LinearLayout
        `android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        `android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        `android:orientation="horizontal"
        `android:layout_weight="1"
        `android:id="@+id/line_buttons_linear_layout"
        `android:padding="16dp"
        `android:paddingLeft="5dp">
        <Button android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:id="@+id/btn_add_line_to_shopping_list"
                android:text="@string/button_add_to_shopping_list"/>

        <Button android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:id="@+id/btn_edit_line"
                android:text="@string/button_edit"/>

        <Button android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:id="@+id/btn_delete_line"
                android:text="@string/button_delete"/>

    </LinearLayout>
</TableRow>
<TableRow>
    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:orientation="horizontal"
        android:id="@+id/line_picture_linear_layout"
        android:padding="16dp"
        android:paddingRight="5dp">
        <LinearLayout
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:orientation="vertical"
            android:layout_weight="0.25"
            android:id="@+id/line_linear_layout"
            android:padding="16dp">
            <TextView
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
                android:id="@+id/txt_line_type"
                android:layout_gravity="start"/>

            <TextView
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
                android:id="@+id/txt_line_diameter"
                android:layout_gravity="start"/>

            <TextView
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
                android:id="@+id/txt_line_length"
                android:layout_gravity="start"/>

            <TextView
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
                android:id="@+id/txt_line_needs_replacing"
                android:layout_gravity="start"/>

            <TextView
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
                android:id="@+id/txt_line_function_description"
                android:width="200dip"
                android:layout_gravity="start"/>

            <TextView
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
                android:id="@+id/txt_date_replaced"
                android:layout_gravity="start"/>

            <TextView
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
                android:id="@+id/txt_line_id"
                android:layout_gravity="start"/>

            <TextView
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:maxLength="20"
                android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
                android:id="@+id/txt_line_colour"
                android:visibility="visible"/>
        </LinearLayout>
        <ImageView
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_weight="0.20"
            android:layout_gravity="left"
            android:contentDescription="@string/line_photo_text"
            android:src="@drawable/can"
            android:id="@+id/img_line_photo"/>
    </LinearLayout>
</TableRow>