(Another..) Dry Dock

When we had Misterton surveyed in July, it was found that the bottom plates of the hull were very thin. Pressure washing the slime off blew a number of small holes in the bottom. So despite having a pre-purchase survey, we discovered our little ship was rotten.

This was not what we were expecting to find, but after the initial shock, Mary and I agreed that we really want to keep living on a boat, and Misterton in particular.

So, after weeks of investigations and phone calls, we decided to go with MSO Marine in Brentford for the repairs. We emptied Misterton of our belongings, and with friends Hannah and Ed (and Harry, another boat baby) we set off on saturday for Teddington, and then on to Brentford on sunday when the tide was favourable.

 

 Since fitting the new rudder, we'd only done the trip home from Sunbury dry dock, but the steering was very light in comparison with before. I'd made some changes to the steering to gear it up, using off the shelf components.

It worked very well and we all took turns at steering on the way down to Teddington.

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 Although Misterton turns much better now, she does seem to wander a lot more when trying to hold a straight course. I have heard this can happen when 'fishtail' type rudders are used. In hindsight, I think a lot of the benefits can be obtained with a rudder with a balance area, top and bottom plates and a 'v' section welded to the trailing edge. The geared up steering helps, but you definitely can't relax as much as you used to. Hannah seemed to steer the best out of all of us, although everyone did pretty well.

I also replaced the old throttle linkage with a cable assembly and this too worked well. Always a relief when untried changes work.

  

We got to Teddington safely and went to the pub by the lock, the Angler, which has a garden bar and a childrens play area - ideal. Hannah, Harry and Ed went back to Staines to return the next day.

On sunday morning we had breakfast in the wheelhouse, as we'd packed Nate's high chair we had to improvise.

Hannah, Ed and Harry returned and at 2:30pm we moved down into the lock to go down to Brentford. The Thames is tidal downstream of Teddington, so life jackets were donned as we wanted to set a good example to the two boys.

 We saw some interesting sights on the way down, including passing through Richmond.

One of the bridges downstream of Richmond has the tidal gates, which keep the water level between Richmond and Teddington at half tide level (the gates are raised 2 hours after high water).

As seasoned boat people, Nate and Harry took the trip in their stride, Nate obviously had some calls to make and Harry managed to catch up on some reading.

Soon we arrived at Brentford and made our way up the entrance to the Grand Union canal to tie up alongside a barge.

 It was a long and enjoyable trip. We're now living in a Travelodge (the most budget of the UK budget hotel chains) and hoping that MSO can do the work in the 6 weeks they have estimated. If it goes beyond that, the Thames winter lock closures will start and we won't be able to get back to our home mooring.

No pressure then.