On the 6 August at 0800 prompt, the crane arrived. It was an enormous 60-ton capacity machine that they had hired for lifting a large steel boat. It was easily big enough to lift 10 tons of Jomima. Normally, she is lifted by a specialist boatlift, which straddles the boat and lifts her on two adjustable straps. When they came to lift Jomima with a crane with straps that were a fixed distance apart, they realised that they would have to lift her nose down. I am not usually nervous when they do this but today, with an ‘ordinary’ crane, I was. I actually had difficulty watching as they made the lift and raised her comparatively high in the air before putting her on the back of the truck. I should not have worried, they certainly knew what they were doing and the process went relatively smoothly.
By 10:15 am, we were on our way south and into the heavy rain. Jomima was clean when we set off but she was covered with a traffic film very soon afterwards. The route south down the A9 was magnificent – or it would have been if it had stopped raining. Still, from my position high up in the passenger (second man) position it was possible to see a good deal more than you normally can from the seat of a car. The rain continued all of the way to where we stopped for the night at Penrith. This is a secure trucking stop where we were able to get a good meal, and limitless tea, for a very reasonable price.
I slept in my usual bed on Jomima but was woken at 05:30 by the roar of trucks leaving for their next destination. We left at 07:00 and were in Newark for midday where she was safely unloaded and returned to the water.
Posts
