High and dry, but not forgotten

Friday, 29 October 2010 14:48

How we hate being off our narrowboat home

Still, Epiphany is in good hands and we have not said goodbye completely.

Tooley's Boatyard, "buried" under Banbury's Museum and information centre

However, we have been our separate ways - me to London for a few days with my sister and John to stay with our friends John and Carolyn.

Consequently our blog is suffering - but then I only write it to meet my need to be an author(!) and to report to those interested in our "doings", not for fame and glory!

But back to Epiphany and her doings, safe in Tooley's Boatyard. Here is her story so far ....

Bright and early Monday morning (too early for me, but then it was all in a good cause) the previous occupant of the dry, then wet dock was floated and moved out. The dam across the dock has to be dismantled to let the water in ......

Then it was our turn - John reversed and drove Epiphany into the dock, avoiding the low door! She decided she was not too happy to be going in, out of her natural environment and stuck, grounded on the ledge. However a bit of welly and weight at the front end and in she went! John remembered to duck in time to avoid the roll up door!

I am not sure if this is Matt's speciality, but hauling on the beam certainly helped! He certainly knows what he is doing when it comes to "roping up"!

The two Matts, Bob and Paul all helped settle her down, rope her up and take all our roof furniture off, as she was to have a new paint job on top as well as on her bottom.

So once she was in, the dam was repaired ready to empty the dock to reveal what was under the water. After our encounters with very shallow canals, Titford Canal blockages, supermarket trolleys, a traumatic climb up the Aston Locks in Birmingham and 10 days in the briny Liverpool Docks, we wondered what the state of her  hull would be!

I left her at this stage to catch my train, but John stayed for a while and left her, sad to be a landlubber for a while. I am too, but I enjoyed my short trip to "the smoke". However, it is good to be back in Oxfordshire!