Out the Water

The original plan had been that we would come out of the water on Saturday morning, but on Friday afternoon we had a phone call asking if we were down on the River Weaver and if we wouldn't mind coming out of the water that evening.  So we cruised into the center of Northwich, ready to have "Domino" taken out of the water.

In the past when we've had her taken out of the water a crane and a sling have been used, or a tractor and trailer, but at Northwich Marina, we came out sidewards on large wooden sledges.  Sadly at the end of this month the existing marina is to be done away with as part of the regeneration plans for Northwich.  Already the Marina's former neighbor - the Floating Hotel has been demolished.  The plans are for a new 40 berth marina, plus a Waitrose (for a town with Tesco, Sainsburys, M&S food, a large Co-op, and Aldi and a Lidl - so drastically in need of yet another supermarket) and other retail shops, in a town, like many others with empty existing shops.  Unfortunately these plans are set in stone now and the end of the existing marina and its unique (so I'm told) method of taking narrowboats out of the water is to come to an end.

The first task is to steer the boat so that she is parallel to the yard, and close enough so that G & I could jump off.  Using the front and rear ropes to pull Domino against the wooden sledges, the sledges are then mechanically pushed into the water and go under the boat.

With the skis fully under Domino, the wire cables are then are pulled back, bringing Domino up into the yard on top of the sledges.

The boat was then supported by further wooden wedges.  On Saturday we power washed the sides of the boats, and G ground the sides to remove rust and peeling paint.  Next I painted on some rust treatment, and then did the undercoat this morning.  Whilst I was doing the undercoat, G started grinding the section immediately below the gunnel (the section immediately above the water).  After about half and hour, he had to stop as his ancient Black & Decker drill finally died and began to smoke.  So we trekked off to B&Q, to fine that being Easter Sunday, they were closed.  But someone must have been looking after us, as on leaving the B&Q car park we saw a hand painted notice giving directions to a nearby local little DIY store - who were open and we were able to replace the drill.

Upon return we put the first coat of "black" on the sides of the boat.  For anyone who has never experienced blacking a boat, imagine using a masonry paint brush to paint thick black treacle onto art-ex - about 60 foot long and about 3 foot high - and 2 sides.  Yes we are very tired and we will be doing another coat on Tuesday, and maybe a third coat on Thursday.  So we decided to eat out.  We found by chance a recently renovated pub near Frodsham, called the Travelers Rest and had an excellent Sunday "Lunch" at 5pm.

And how does Tonni feel about having the boat out of the water?

     Where's the water?