Hazel's docking has gone well so far. We've had lots of new volunteers and dry, largely sunny weather. Luke was here over the weekend and Iain and Vicki came on Sunday and Monday. Kim and Aaron have been helping pretty much every day. All the new plating is done, one side is tarred.
All that is left to do is odd jobs like filling a few bolt holes, tarring the other side, tidying up a bit of shoeing etc.
She goes back into the water on Sunday - then we start on the cabin! No rest for the wicked. I must have been very bad!
When I arrived at Ashton Packet Boats this morning I was about to open the gates when I heard the distant chugging of a boat engine. Approaching was a modern steel boat towing a butty on a very very long line. The only time I use one that long is when working the paired locks on the Trent & Mersey so that I can easily pick up the butty as the boats leave the lock.
The motor turned out to be Unspoilt by Progress, a boat built for Nick Sanders to take to the Black Sea over 20 years ago. I think it was sponsored by Mitchells & Butler brewery. I recall predicting that he'd sink. He did! On the Danube, but the boat was recovered.
The butty looked like a Josher*, but somehow it looked too pristine to be genuine. Real old boats generally have a few dents and blemishes from a hard working life. It was called Tewkesbury. I've looked at the list of Josher butties and there's none with that name.
*Josher- A boat built by or formerly owned by Fellows, Morton & Clayton Ltd. They were the biggest narrow boat carrying company on the cut until they folded up in 1948 and sold their fleet to the newly formed British Waterways. The name comes from Joshua Fellows who was one of the founders of the company.
