The bank holiday weekend was quite a busy one, as Misterton needed to come out of the dry dock on the tuesday morning. Most of the welding had been done, bar attaching the anodes to the hull. Here is a repair the guys were working on earlier to one of the bulwarks.
The wheelhouse roof got its cover fitted on saturday, which will be great as it was getting quite annoying having a wheelhouse, but it being wet inside.
Mary and I were joined on sunday by her brother Steve and his girlfriend Lisa. Steve did graphic design in the past, so was just the man to do the lettering on the front of the boat. There was a faint outline of the lettering etched into the steel, probably by some apprentice in 1923.
Lisa helped with the other side.....
On the bank holiday monday, Nicky, Ryan and Nobby came and applied another coat of blacking and did the final welding.
Finally, at the end of monday, we had all the work done (bar another coat on the lettering that we did the next morning). Mary and I had a drink at the boatclub and admired the name that had been missing for so long.
On tuesday morning the staff at the dry dock very efficiently got us out. There was only about 6 inches to spare when turning Misterton around to face back towards Goole.
I'd be looking forward to the trip back to Goole, as it would really be the first time we'd steered Misterton. Alan's son, John came along to help us and provided useful instruction. I was a little concerned as she's so much bigger than my narrowboat, but apart from comming close to sideswiping some boats on the way out from the dry dock and bumping a few lock walls, it wasn't too bad. You need to start slowing down a lot sooner than you might think as all that weight will drift for a quite some way.
Misterton is now back in Goole, getting the final few things done before coming down to London - that'll be the next adventure.