Nearly 12 months after buying the boat, it had been stripped down, painted, essential work carried out and the engine had proved to be capable. But could we relax? could we hell!! Of course not, nothing is ever easy when you buy an old boat. Alan moored the boat in Ramsgate overnight, so far so good, but when he and the crew tried to depart the next day, he realised he was dragging a spud pole along the bottom. No one knew how it had dropped or how to raise it and there appeared to be no hydrolic oil in the the place where hydrolic oil should be. Checking and overhauling the spud poles was the very last thing on the list of jobs that the boatyard said that they had completed. I was not in the least surprised to find that they did not work. But it was a gloomy time to know that 3 paid crew were ready and waiting to move and the was a great big metal tube that was lodged in the seabed!
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| Our mooring still awaits us, an empty space in front of this other large barge. |
Thankfully, Alan is experienced in every kind of boat related problem and he managed to get the spud poles up and tie them up.
About mid day, having sorted the spud pole problem, Alan took a road trip to Dover to look at the sea conditions. The swell was too great. But around mid-day the following day, we looked at Marine Traffic website and saw that Xavier had taken to the seas and was approaching Deal.
The plan was to reach Eastbourne tonight and Swanage tomorrow night.
Update, they reached Eastboure the first night and Portland tonight Saturday 28th May 2022.
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