First day on the dock

We ate the Adderley sausages last night; they were very good, though a bit on the skinny side. They would make excellent breakfast bangers, or the heart of a hot dog, but came out just a touch dry for our taste as a main course.

Nonetheless, they were vastly better than supermarket stuff.

We got ourselves organized this morning in good time; we’d been told that the guys would be moving the boat between half nine and ten, and, used to the ways of boatyards, expected it to be more like the latter than the former. But it was not to be. Just before 9.30, they rolled up along the towpath, and soon had Sanity Again on the move.

In order to reverse down onto the dry dock that lies at the end of the arm, it was necessary to half wind her in the basin. The basin being very full, this was only just achieved, but at last we backed down between the rows of boats and into the dock.

It’s a good sized building; most of the water gets pumped back into the cut, with just the last bit allowed to drain through a culvert into what was the rest of the arm. The dock is constructed out of the first of the 17 locks that used to take the Newport Branch down the hill.

There are proposals to restore the arm, perhaps with a fancy boat lift at the start, but we’ve seen signs of local unease at the prospect, in the shape of notices about an initial meeting to co-ordinate objections.

Sanity Again’s hull has been steam cleaned, and nothing alarming emerged as a result. I’ve taken some photos, but won’t be putting them up until we’re back on a proper connection. At the moment, I’m composing this blog post on Sheila’s MacBook, and will pop over to the cafe to put it up when I’ve finished.

Life on the dock is very odd; the boat doesn’t move at all, of course, and you don’t realize how used you are to that gentle rocking until it’s not there. Similarly, we don’t want to allow waste water to run down the hull side, so the sea cocks on the outlets from the sink and washbasin are closed, and the shower pump has been turned off.

Washing water gets tipped from the bowl into a bucket for subsequent disposal, and we’re using the showers in the services block rather than on board. It’s only for a few days, so I’m sure that we will cope.

Tonight, we’re going to the Junction Inn for a meal, but after that I’ll be cooking on board as usual. We’ve got a Waitrose delivery booked for the morning, the first time we’ve used them. One thing less good than either Ocado or Sainsbury’s; they give two hour rather than one hour booking slots, so we’ll be hanging about looking out for them for half the morning, probably.