Archive Photos

Here're some old photos from when Brian Hunt (above) had Thomas working on the Trent and Humber in the 70s & 80s.

Brian and two friends bought Thomas from the company they used to work for and used her to perform repairs and maintenance around Goole docks and further up and down river.

They welded in a frame on which they put a small crane with which to perform many miracles (the main miracle being that they didn't end up badly injured if the tales of daring do are to be believed!).

Thomas rescues a friend in need. Preparing for the ballast going in. The wheel house before it was enclosed.

The tide goes out...

...and out

... and then comes in again really rather suddenly!

Home again, home again clickety click!

We're home, and it's so good to be back. Am including a photo of Tower Bridge taken from the wheel-house when we were moored up for a few days and nights on the way home.  Can't upload any photos at the moment, as have leant the batteries to my camera to the eldest.  Will update properly later...

Just waiting for the water

We're all done, Thomas looks all shiney and new and we're ready to go. The tide is coming in, the valves are open and the dry dock is starting to fill up.  We'll be afloat again by 2pm.  Can't wait, it's felt so strange for Thomas not to be in the water.

No time to post all the photos or cation them so I'll just put up a selection. Ooo, it's all so exciting (how pathetic am I?!).

Da man from Del Monte, he say YES!!!!

The fabulous Chris Holmes has just left us with a glowing survey report for Thomas. Hurrah!

On the whole it seems that the tales were true and she's been really well doubled, with 10mm steel. The anodes were in really good nick and there's just very little damage so we're so happy.

There are a couple of bits to do, but really nothing too unexpected. It's our first time in dry dock, so all those scare stories people like to tell were repeating themselves in our heads but, as ever, Thomas has held herself high.

Simon spent most of the previous day pressure washing the hull down. He and Richard had already had the horrible job of scraping off the weed and mussels that were stuck on (luckily, the slat water had persuaded most of the mussels to fall off on their own).

Your caption here....

Think we might just head off to the pub now to celebrate.

But soon enough it was time to get back to work, so while Simon got to work with the angle grinder cleaning back along the waterline, I set to with the big power washer on the underneath of the boat.

I've never felt more glamerous.

On the plus side, Simon wasn't much better himself.

While Simon fixed a weld on the whisker, I started with the Bitumen, which seems like a much better job once you've done the pressure washing. Suddenly she started to look all shiney and new(ish). Linden is currently burning off some spots on the underside with the OA where they're going to put a plate (it's a spot unbetween two plates that has some pits so it's safer to plate it). Then we're pretty much there. I feel like I know every inch of Thomas inside and out now. It's enough to make a girl proud.

Really should add that Colin Frakes at standard wharf has been a star, as have Linden and Mac. The dry dock is really easy to use, once I calmed my vertigo down anyway, so we're really happy right now (although we're still not sleeping too well, perhaps it's a Feng Shui connection to the water type thing...?). Back to the Bitumen. Will keep posting when I'm clean enough to use the laptop, in the hope that people are interested in our labours...

We're on our way to the sea-side.

Now we've got the engine back in we're on our way to Kent to put Thomas in dry dock and do the wash and brush up thing.    Day 1 It was a lovely day out, with our fabulous helpers Phil and Mark, not to mention the younger clays who it turns out are naturals when it comes to barge steerage. Phil was excited. The kids too, in their own way. Mark spots another lovely lady in need of some Irish charm. Bruno applauds our avoidance technique as yet another Dunkirk boat survives. Don't mess with the boys! The satnav confirms that we're still on course. The sun shone, we breathed in and out of locks, we gallently avoided sinking the Dunkirk boats full of Chelsea Pensioners, we waved and smiled at probably close to a thousand people, we cracked out the port & brandy as the evening crept in... We've only made it as far as Teddington so far and we've had to leave Thomas there under the watchful gaze of the lock-keepers, while we go to work in the West Country for a couple of days. We're off on the Tidal Thames and around to the Medway and the Swale on our return, Faversham here we come. It's all very exciting... tempered with the realisation that we may well have days of freshwater mussell wranging ahead of us...   Wish us luck!

Day 2

...well actually it was nearly a week later, but with new crew members, Mac and Uncle Ted, we were off onto the tidal Thames. Hurrah!

Mac works at the dry dock in Faversham and he knows the water ways well (plus he's been working and sailing barges most of his life) so we were in safe hands and relinquished the wheel happily. With a supply of black coffee and roll ups, Mac stoically piloted us through London, while we buzzed around like small children in a candy store with our cameras.

As Hammersmith bridge loomed, the tide still looked pretty high. We started to wonder if we were going to make it under. Would we have to hold off for a while? Simon uses his handy stick to measure something. Ted suffers a nervous moment...

...but we make it through with a foot to spare.

It was around here that we discovered that our brand new VHF radio was haveing a small flid and was stuck on transmit so everyone on the tidal thames, including the Port of London Authority had been listening to us whitter on for hours.

Quite a serious matter when you've been jamming the frequencies for hours, but especially mortifying when you realise the rubbish that people must have been forced to listen to us spouting! As night fell, we found a boey to tie up to mid stream near a place that I think was called Erris. (That was hillarious and terrifying at the same time. Simon and I hanging off the side of the ship, Ted holding my feet... next time we're going to get some kind of grappling hook set up in advance!)

Then Mac and Simon were off, litterally. They dropped into the tender, rowed in the pitch black to a nearby jetty and went to the pub to consume ale and sing sea shanties.

Ted and I bravely opted to stay on board to look after Thomas (mostly because we just didn't fancy all the climbing when there was a pasta dinner and a couple of bottles of wine with our names on them on board).

Simon and Mac appeared later, gamely climbing up the side of the ship and slurring nicely. Much port was then drunk.

Day 3 - the final push.

Up at dawn and we caste off (which is alot easier than tying on).

The view got distinctly less interesti8nbg for a while, so I decided to make the most of my time.

I was woken by Simon calling out distances to Mac and, when I looked up through the skylights, by the sight of a very low bridge passing overhead.

If we thought that Hammersmith was low, the bridge over to the Isle of Sheppy left us with only 4 inches to spare due the very high tide. As the waterway became narrower and the land flatter, we crept and wiggled our way into the Swale and toward Faversham. Despite the very high tide, the waterway was quickly becoming very shallow and we passed various floundering pleasure boaters on our way in (feeling very guilty, but knowing that we couldn't help them without ending up aground ourselves). Coming into Faversham, everyone seemed to be on the Thames barges and we quickly felt very outclassed by these great 19th century ships. We tied up beside a Thames Barge called Henry, and Mac was in the pub within moments. Very quickly the water was gone and we could see below the waterline, which was looking pretty good actually. Getting over to Thomas proved to be more of a problem as she shifted on the mud and tipped away from us, but a strategically placed plank from Mike on Henry gave us a route onto the deck.

Our friends Richard and Marina came down to see us and their little boy Louis was eager to come aboard, but it just wasn't safe so he was pretty disappointed, but it's tricky enough with big legs. That night, Richard and Marina made us chilli, gave us wine and let us use their shower. How great is it to have good friends! Now we just have to wait for the dry dock to be vacated and we're in. Hurray!

The return of the engine. Hurray!

At last, the engine came home on Tuesday.

Our day started early as Simon and I moved Thomas into place on the ropes, which is a strangely peaceful operation.

We'd been looking forward to this happening for ages but, as you can see by the look on Si's face, it didn't stop us feeling pensive.

Then around the corner came Steve with our engine on the front of the JCB.

In case you're wondering by the way, the engine's at an angle to make it easier to drop through the hole.

As you can see, Simon's wheelhouse design includes a removeable section of roof so we can get the engine in and out (also makes a nice sun roof we've descovered).

Ready for the engine being removed, Si cut a hatch behind the wheel in the original footprint of the wheelhouse. Once the engine was out (so we knew that the hole was big enough), Si welded some angle iron to the edges and voila... a nice hatch.

Now Rob just has to connect it all back up again and we shoud be back on our mooring in just a few days.

We're so happy!

We've taken out the crew cabin (what a filthy job that was) and refurbished the engine.

I wanted to do something nice for Simon, so while he was away in the States I got busy and started to knock out the crew cabin.

Romantic, huh.

It was a really horrible job, years of dust and spiders web and, as it was 39 degrees outside and the cabin is the only room without insulation, it was REALLY hot in there despite the industrial sized fan I had going.

The cabin's woodwork was really well constructed. It took ages to get it apart.

I found a joiner's mark from 1984 and we noticed that there is some older woodwork that shows scorch marks so we think that there must have been a fire that damaged the original cabin and they had to replace it.

By the time Si got back I'd knocked out the top half, leaving the benches and the struts under the floor, which he knocked out himself using a crowbar (that I could really have done with having while he was away!).

Once all the woodwork was gone, it was amazing to see how much space had been wasted by the construction. It's actually really big in there.

Simon then spent the next few days wire brushing, treating and priming the metal.

I thought the kids would be sad to see it all emptied out, especially Simon's youngest who always loved sleeping in the cabin, but they're all enthused by how big the room is now.

Meanwhile, have I mentioned that we've had the engine pulled?

It's been completely overhauled, has lots of new parts, the crank has been reground, polished and given new shells, every single part has been removed, cleaned and replaced... basically everything that could be done has been done. It's like a whole new engine and should be good to go for years without any problems.

It's taken ages, but now it's back together and is currently in ProRig's workshop being bench tested before being craned back into Thomas. It's very exciting, not least because we've not been able to take her out for ages and we miss pottering around on the river!

Having an empty engine room has given Simon the chance to do lots of work down there though, so he's cleaned it out thoroughly and repainted in there. It's looking very smart, and he's made a nice new hatch too. Clever old stick!

Did you notice the new fresh water tanks in the corner there? Simon's bought a black water tank too which is currently waiting for us at Tek Tanks.

Si's busy at the moment making a new frame for the floor in the bathroom (crew cabin). Let me tell you, to us this is VERY exciting!