Back in Plymouth

Returned to Plymouth last night and decided to go for a walk locally this afternoon. Not very much to see but we did manage to find a lovely little harbour and slipway. It looked as though it had not changed for centuries and probably hadn't – although the boats had. It was great to see people messing about in boats in the sunshine after such a lot of rain lately.

Mayflower Marina

Most of my days have been spent at the marina servicing the engines and carrying out repairs. Most of the service work is now done with oil and diesel filters all changed. Yesterday I managed to get both heads (toilets) working – after totally replacing one pump. Unfortunately, I still have a problem with the instruments not working for one engine. All of the fuses seem alright so I have sent for a new ignition key and, when it arrives, I will see if that cures the problem.

Tomorrow we return home for a couple of weeks.

Twice an hour a little ferry pops backwards and forwards to Cornwall from just acoss the water. There is a slight wake from it but not unpleasant. Long may boats like this continue to ply these waters.

Unloading in Plymouth

Wide loads are not allowed to travel in the centre of Plymouth between 4:00 pm and 6:30 pm. It was therefore after 7:00 pm that we arrived so we had to wait until today to be unloaded. Unfortunately, another job was being given priority today – dismantling an extremely large 130 ton crane. This involved using a fairly large mobile crane to dismantle it and then placing the parts: tracks, weights, cab, jib sections etc on a series of lorries. The delay caused by this process was easily occupied by watching this skilled and fascinating process.

At 8:30 am the travel hoist had lifted Jomima off the lorry so that he could proceed to his next appointment. We were then left in the slings, with Jomima’s keel gently resting on some wooden blocks, to await the area around the launching bay to be clear of crane parts. At 3:30 pm Jomima was lowered into Plymouth harbour and held there while I checked for leaks after her six months out of the water. All was well so, with the help of the friendly Mayflower Marina staff I navigated Jomima to her new home.

On The Move

At last the day has arrived for me to move Jomima, with the help of a large truck, to her new home at Mayflower Marina in Plymouth. The truck arrived at 8:00 am at Newark, where I had stayed overnight on Jomima to avoid an early start and the heavy commuter traffic. I gave that sort of thing up two years ago when I took early retirement.

There was already a boat on the truck when it arrived and that was quickly unloaded and put in the water. Jomima was then lifted out from her home of the last six months and placed carefully on the lorry. While all of the straps were being fitted I took the opportunity to anti-foul the six places where supports had been placed to support Jomima during the winter. I had carefully kept the remains of a tin of paint for this purpose because, if I did not complete this work, we would have been trailing six clumps of weed within a fairly short period of time.

The journey to Plymouth, at a steady 55 mph, was uneventful. However it did rain quite heavily half way down which liberally coated Jomima in dirt and traffic film, some of which remained in the usually covered helm area. After a short wait, outside Plymouth, we met the escort vehicle for our wide load. We then proceeded into the unloading area at the marina to park overnight for unloading tomorrow.

Waiting for a Truck to Plymouth

Jomima is at present out of the water so that I can do some jobs on her hull. So far, she is anti-fouled and the hull is polished. I have also replaced the anodes and cleaned the propellers and rudders - she has two of each. She is scheduled to be moved by truck to Plymouth, Devon on 6 April 2009. If the weather is suitable then I may start the long job of polishing her top sides before she goes. Otherwise that will have to wait until she is in the water.

Once she is in the water I will service the engines. This is quite a big job because they are big engines. I have 25 liters of oil ready along with various impellers and filters. Let's hope that the sun shines this summer and we can enjoy our cruising in 2009.

Trucking Back to Newark on Trent

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.

Inverness

This was our last port of call and we arrived a couple of days ago. Ann is now back in Nottingham, having caught the train back to Inverkip, Glasgow (where the car was) and then driven back home.

I am in Cayle Marina cleaning Jomima and waiting for the truck to arrive to take us back to Newark. This should happen on Wednesday but these things sometimes change.

Today dawned sunny but the weather forecast was for rain. I therefore decided to make best use of the sun, while it lasted, and take some photographs. I wanted to visit the end of the Caledonian Canal so that I will have seen all of it. The best way to do this was by bike, so I assembled my faithful stead and pedalled along the towpath. It was a lovely ride and, like all tow paths, apart from near the locks, it was relatively flat. The route took me past the Muirtown Flight of three locks and then over the swing bridge to Seaport Marina. This is a British Waterways marina and it looked well organised and a pleasant place to stay. Next I made my way past the Clachnaharry Works Lock and swing bridge. Then finally I reached the end of the canal at the Clachnaharry Sea Lock. Sadly, the tide was out so I was unable to see any boats passing through the lock although two yachts were moored near by waiting to pass through. I hope that you like the resulting photographs.