New Hatch

Before Bonnie could be transported by road from Scotland to Essex, we had to cut 18 inches off the coach roof so that she would fit under the motorway bridges. This was okay but left the door just 3ft high, fine for little people, but for most of us it meant bending down into a very unnatural position just to get in. Now Pete has made this lovely, temporary, sliding hatch, making life so much easier. It is also amazing how much extra light there is.

He has also fitted a bilge pump, tyres for fenders, navigation lights and 12 new anodes, all to get her ready for her journey home. The new hatch means that the crew will be able to get to the kettle with ease!

Last Saturday the cadet parents laid on a Carribbean Night, strictly for the grown ups. There were lots of highly coloured shirts and sarongs along with jerk chicken and rum punch. There were also a few pirates and these vodoo men from James Bond. Unfortunately, Johnny Depp was nowhere to be seen. Looking at these photos, we really are going to have to discuss the type of members we let into the club!!!

But doesn't the clubhouse look pretty, especially before all the guests came in and messed it up! The parents all worked really hard to make it a really successful night. Well done all.

Tomorrow night I will be doing the Can Can to an audience. But that will be another post!!!!!!

Getting ready to launch

We have decided not to wait for the shot-blasting compound to be completed, so we are going to launch Bonnie and bring her down to her mooring. The shot blasting will be done in the spring in Maylandsea's dry dock facility. So now we have four weeks to get her ready for the journey.

First job, the holes in the decks.

Now fitted with temporary, hopefully watertight, hatches.

Second job, make sure engine still works (Tim, this is the technical bit for you!)

The engine is a Slanzi, which is Italian and apparently very similar to a Lister. It had less than 100 hours on it when we bought the barge and fired up the first time we tried it.

Of course there was the boat jumble to fit in......

Why is it we seem to have a shed and garage full of boat bits that we take to the boat jumble and sell and then Pete finds a lot more of bits that we apparently absolutely need, so has to buy more. Is this a bloke thing? All the chaps seemed to be in their element searching the stalls, picking up boat bits, fiddling with them discussing the pros and cons and then haggling over the price. We had a club stall, full of donations, which raised £150 for club funds, that was great.