Stop Press!! Thomas H is up for sale!

Stop Press!!

Thomas H is up for sale!

To see the listing, go to:

http://www.premierhouseboats.co.uk/#!thomas-h/c1q87

The end of an era! A final walk-through of Thomas H before we move out.

With just a couple of days left until we hand Thomas over to her new owners we have now moved most of our belongings out and are trying not to think about it too much. A mourning period will begin after the weekend.

The Trip To Kent; taking Thomas to dry dock in Faversham.

A very rough cut of our 3 day trip to from Chertsey on the Thames, around the coast, to Faversham on the Swale.  

For the full story of our trip, see the earlier post on this blog.

Another boat trip on the Thames.

A quick trip down river past Chertsey bridge.

New flooring for the kitchen

Simon's put a new floor in the kitchen and main living area.  He's a good man!    He was given all these weathered scaffolding boards which had been left unwanted and uncared for under a massive bramble.    They were completely green with algae when found and he's sanded them all back and fitted them on the boat.   It was a lot of work, but he's justifiably proud of himself right now.    Beer o'clock then.

The Marina is frozen over, again.

Simon took these shots today so I thought I'd post them.  The water's been frozen for a while, but it's getting thicker and getting a good layer of snow on it now.   Pretty though.

RIP Mike

We have only just heard and are very sad that Mike Gough was found dead in Faversham Creek just a week after we left dry dock.  By all accounts, Mike seems to have died from a fall from the dock in the early hours of the morning. When we arrived at Faversham in September, Mike was the first person to greet us as we moored up next to Henry, the Thames Sailing Barge on which he lived.  Mike was very welcoming and we will always remember him with fondness.  He was only 55 and it's a terrible waste. Rest in peace Mike.  You were kind and eccentric and memorable.

Archive photos of Thomas working on the rivers

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!

The trip back from dry dock; Home again, home again clickety click!

We're back home in Surrey and, much as we've loved our stay in Faversham, it's so good to be back. We finally floated out of the dry dock and said our goodbyes to new friends and old... as well as maybe to the Faversham dock that we've come to know so well as it looks like the Standard Quay may be closing for good in the near future leaving many people without work and traditional boat owners without a great resource of talented crafts people. To see more about this tragic loss of infrastructure and heritage, see Richard Fleury's film "The Quay" http://vimeo.com/43394451

The wonderful Colin Frake oversees our relaunch.  

Overnight mooring at the mouth of the Thames.

On our way home, we stopped for a couple of days to see some other boaty friends, Steve and Lorna, who live aboard their beautiful barge in an amazing floating community that we've taken to calling "Water-World", just down river from Tower Bridge.  

They have gorgeous garden barges, community events, all mod cons and even have their own little outdoor cinema set-up.

I took this photo of Tower Bridge from the wheel-house when we were moored up.  

Cool huh!

The only down side of water-world is that, when you're moored on the outside of the pack, every passing ship sounds like a turbine right by your head and every stupidly skippered pleasure boat speeding past creates a huge rocking motion.  

It's charms however easily out weigh these minor drawbacks, and seeing seals outside the port holes in the morning makes everything better.

Refloating Thomas - the work is finished, hurray!

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?!).