Silt, Silt, Glorious Silt III
Silt, Silt, Glorious Silt III
by: Peter A.
Well, another day, another load of silt to remove. This time, a thorough go at the front deck and inside the covered bilge. The slurry pump had to be shifted to expose another area of thick silt.
One tricky area was the cabin. Here the floor cannot be lifted without all the bench top areas being removed first. A certain amount of access was possible, but not enough to do a proper job. Likewise, in the loo area, the floor is well fixed down.
Many trips were made to the canal to dump a load of silt and eventually, the stage was reached where we felt confident enough to start loading much of the offboard equipment into the front hold area, having replaced the flooring around where the slurry pump once stood.
It was about this time that an opportunity arose for a lift back into the water. Too good to miss, so a quick sort out of other bits and bobs around the craft and all was loaded thus clearing the site. Just a builders bag of rubbish remains to be collected on Monday.
By about 14:30, the strops were being fed under the hull, the dredger boys were heading towards us armed with ropes to hand ball Annette back to Ebley. Soon, she was airborne and disappearing over the yard wall.
Our confidence was such that we knew she would float and float she did. Soon, she was heading due west towards Ebley.
Annettes weight loss programme has been quite impressive. When she was first lifted from the water, she weighed in at 11.5 tonnes. After the first dig of silt, that was down to 10 Tonnes, but she barely floated. Two working sessions in the yard and today she landed back in the water weighing about 8 Tonnes.
The BAT squad has got well plastered in mud this week, twice. One thought was whether we should rename our team ‘The BRAT Squad’ (Boat Recovery and Acquisition Team)
We are extremely pleased to have reached the stage where Annette could be refloated. Now, she can head off to Harper’s Field for a proper refit and clean of the cabin area and probably an external repaint. Well done to all involved and special thanks to Ellis Cranes (again).
