A Tale of a Tall Ship

Hello again, welcome back.

We were up early on Saturday morning to see the Tall Ship Kaskelot come up from Sharpness Dock en-route to Gloucester Dock.

She's a three masted Barque built in 1948, being comprehensively refitted in 2013, and has been used in many films.

She was being pulled by a small tug boat but was also steering under her own power. I would have LOVED to see her in full sail.

She's now in Neilson's Dry Dock in Gloucester undergoing some maintenance and repairs.

Her twin anchors and chain are huge, ours look like toys in comparison!

She looked big when she was afloat, but out of the water she's massive.  You can see how big she is compared to the workman at the bottom of the photo repairing her hull.

Because she's so big below the waterline, they've had to carry out some dredging works in the dock to get her in.

This is the little dredger that has been sucking up silt from the bottom of the docks for the past month or so. It's been working all day, every day and mooring in the basin has been suspended until all works are complete.

The silt is piped out into the river through this pipe

Kaskelot isn't the only Tall Ship that will be seen in Gloucester Docks this Spring.  There's a Tall Ship Festival here over the end of May Bank Holiday weekend.  That should be quite spectacular, so if you can make it I don't think you'll be disappointed. Full details are available HERE

Ahoy me hearties!

Hello, nice to see you again.

We had a bit of a surprise the other evening. I got up to make a brew and looked out of the window as I was going down into the galley and saw this coming towards us

It was totally silent and crawled past us like a ghost boat

There was a 3 man crew on board but they didn't want to chat and barely responded when we waved and said "Hello".  We recognised it as having been in Gloucester Docks since before Christmas for works, although it didn't look finished and obviously needed painting. We checked online and it was booked to go out of the lock and down the Severn estuary later that night on the high tide.

I'd have loved to see it in full sail, maybe it'll be back for the Tall Ships Festival in May

Bye for now

Spring's Sprung in Sharpness

Hi, nice to see you again.

Spring has finally arrived here on the Gloucester & Sharpness canal.  It was so warm and sunny yesterday that we ate lunch up on the "poop deck" and I dug my sandals out and painted my nails!

Now that may seem like a strange sign of Spring to you, but when you take into account the fact that I spend the winter months in thermal socks and either Doc Martens or sheepskin slippers it certainly shows how the temperature is rising! If it carries on like this I may just have to unpack the shorts and t-shirts.

We saw more traditional signs of Spring on our walk today.  There are daffodils and primroses everywhere.

Our visits into Gloucester Dock have been curtailed for a while as it's being dredged in readiness for the Tall Ships Festival in a few weeks.

 That's one of the reasons we're here in Sharpness, although the main reason is that it's just so pretty and peaceful here. There are very few boats about and hardly any dogs so Chico likes it here too as he gets lots of long walks without any agro.

Wandering down a lane towards the estuary at Purton we came across The Pub

It looks deserted but there's a sign on the gate that says it re-opens on 7th April so we'll pop back and check it out.

Just past the pub is a very muddy footpath which leads to the estuary.

The tide was out. It's stays out for a very long time too.

Roger's been carrying on upgrading the boat both mechanically and electrically and we've now got remote heating controls so that we can phone the boat from the pub to switch on the heating. He's also fitted some secondary double glazing in the bedroom and lounge which has helped cut down on the condensation. The silver "bubble wrap" insulation that I told you about a while ago has made a tremendous improvement and we no longer have any problems with damp under the beds.

I've not been totally idle and have done a bit of varnishing in between crocheting this jumper for my granddaughter.

Oh and I made myself a bag.

I hate handbags as I can never find anything in them so this was just large enough for my purse, phone and train tickets when I went to London last weekend to meet up with the ladies from my cancer support group.

Fancy meals out in London are alright, but a custard donut takes a lot of beating..........

We had a great time catching up with each other, eating and drinking and doing daft touristy things.

It's been a busy few weeks. As well as going to London I've also had a couple of trips back to Manchester for check-ups.  ALL CLEAR!!!!  yippee...........

That's all for now, but I'll leave you with our view from the boat as the sun just starts to set.

Bye for now, look after yourself and come back soon