Lymington, jumble sales and an elevated time at Shamrock Quay

Lymington was, as always, lovely. Especially as the sun was busy too, so rare this year. However, we kicked things off with a big wash and scrub for the boat. From something in Dartmouth we had inherited lots of sooty black flakes that were a real pig to wash off.  The steam train was well away across the river so we can only assume it was the Higher Ferry or a particularly ill and enormous coal eating bird with his equally ill family flying in close formation.

To improve things, we had a lunch invite from Andrew and Linda on Zephyros. Their boat is really pristine and to keep it that way Dylan the dog gets special footwear:

His slightly sad look might be related to the bootees or to the fact that we were not feeding him our lunch. We must take the Cares to task though, - they bring Dyl to us unshod..... Perhaps they are insinuating that our 47 is a bit of a shed.

Our regular stowaway Anne arrived with Izzy our goddog. No footwear for her, she kind of views the entire boat as hers now and sees off anyone who looks like boarding us with great glee. When Anne took up her usual pose (recliner chair, alcohol, dazed look) Dylan decided that he could claim her:

Izzy looked on, unimpressed that her owner had been adopted:

Saturday was a quick walk, an all too brief catch up with the Broom 39 owners John and Kath, then a short run to Shamrock Quay ready for our lift out. It was grey and gloomy again - the UK spring sunshine was clearly spent. Thanks to a big following tide and our poor memory of how long such a trip would take, we arrived at Shamrock well before slack water. The work berth that we have to use ready for a lift out is a long pontoon that is at right angles to the river and hence the stream. When it runs, it really runs. More sprinter than marathon runner speed too. We had a very interesting time getting between these two cruisers and avoiding being swept onto the downstream one:

It reminded the captain of a job when he was way way younger (but no better looking) acting as  Potter Heigham bridge pilot on the Norfolk Broads, squeezing hire fleet boats into silly spaces.

Then the annual excitement / stress of seeing your home being hoisted into the air. Only this time it was very low stress as the lift guys in Shamrock Quay are excellent. Last year was very different - high stress and frustration levels thanks to the mob in Hamble Point who are total cowboys when it comes to lifting and moving boats. Duly moved into the lift bay:

and then carefully hoisted aloft:

The bottom was not too grubby but we did discover an  unexpected hanger on:

There was a piece of thin rope wound between the prop and the rope cutter which we reckon we picked up in the approach to Shamrock. It was twisted around and the end was nicely frayed, probably due to our rope cutter giving it some attention when we went astern berthing.

The Shamrock Quay hoist team did a good job pressure washing her off and chocking her ready for us to start work. We just love this bit.