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.

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!

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?!).

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!