A new home for Atlantis - part 38

Ello is me again! Bin a while ain't it? I forgot where I was. Oh yeah we was gonna find annuva moorin for Atlantis an move her an they was gonna finally get to work again after a lonnnnnnnnnng time of not being able to get on board her (legal fings).

Well, true to her word, mum found a moorin. T'was in a place where they had looked years ago funny enough. Lowestoft! So the mooring was found, the deal was done. All they needed to do now was get Atlantis seaworthy enough for them to get her up there.

Now, why dus these fings always ave to appen in Winter? Poor old mum and dad spent 5 months from November to March getting Atlantis ready for her trip. I was supervisin the whole time of course, keepin em on their toes.

First fing dad ad to do was find out what was urgent to fix and what we could live wiv for the trip wifout danger to life! Atlantis had been laid up so long , there was a lot to do! So, his list looked a bit like dis:

• Fix the raw water pump without which we couldn't run the engine
• Weld the wheelhouse so we could put in the navigation lights
• Weld the Portuguese bridge for added safety whilst at sea
• Install new batteries for the 24-volt navigation system
• Clean and prepare the fuel tanks
• Fix the anchor windlass (that's a winch to you landlubbers)
• Repair the crane
• Get new ropes
• Fabricate new bollards
• Get rid of all the rubbish (mum's job!)

Water pump - the raw water pump was rotten so dad had to machine a new shaft, new seals and gaskets.

Making sure we could anchor safely out at sea was impawtant as we couldn't make the trip in one go. The anchor's hadn't been lowered for quite a few years so we had to test em. Dad had to get sledgy out again.

You might remember we did also get Bandit wot is our rib that is our tender and our life raft if we needed it, wot we didn't I am glad to report. We took her out for tests on the Blackwater during November.

More next time on all the fings wot we dun. I hope you enjoy the bloggy and is good to be back!

Lexie out!

Dreamers, tyre kickers and time wasters need not apply - part 37

Ello! Is me again, Lexie. Where was I? Oh yeah, sellin Atlantis *sob*,

bedroom all shipshape

So, the decision was made. Mum an dad had agreed. It was time to sell our beloved Atlantis. They were heartbroken.

The mill and the marina manager were ringing and emailing every week, putting pressure on mum and dad to move her. Move her where?! There was nowhere to go. So mum put Atlantis up for sale on a boat website. They knew it was unlikely someone would av the vision an ability to finish er but it was either that or they was gonna av er scrapped!

spray foamer

They dun a bit of tidying up in case anyone come round to look and removed some of the tools and equipment like the spray foaming machine. Mum even washed the duvet!

Mum got a call a few weeks later from someone wot was intrested in buyin er. I won’t tell you wot the asking price was, but let’s jus say it was a knock down once only price. Well this man an is wife came to look at Atlantis.

The came about 4 times in all I fink. Dad was there to talk through his vision for Atlantis and even offered to elp advise and guide his contractors (he wasn’t gonna do it imself). Looked like it was gonna appen.

Dad did some work on the engine to make sure she would run ok and be able to leave the mill. Then, the man sended an email, an email mind you saying he fort it was too  much to take on and was gonna start his own hog roast business instead! A what now? Pftttt weirdo!

tidy (sort of) engine room

Then annuva man says he wants er. So he comes to see her. Well, first fing he says? You wanna put some paint on that! Ha really? What a great idea, we never fort of that.

Then, whilst surveying the river through the awesome wheelhouse wot dad built, he says ‘what you wanna do is cut off the front of this wheelhouse and put some patio doors in and then she’d make a lovely houseboat’.

Lucky, dad wasn’t there. Coz if he had been, I fink he would have made the bloke walk the plank (if we ad one). Mum says I don’t think this boat will ever be a houseboat. Thanks and goodbye.

Mum rings dad. Come to the boat she says to im. So off we goes to Atlantis and meets mum there. Mum was crying. She says ‘I can’t do this. She doesn’t want us to let her go. We have unfinished business and it’s time we finished it’.

Dad says ‘ok, well, find me a mooring and I will do it’. Mum telled me later she felt so appy inside, knowin we was gonna get this fing done an we weren’t gonna sell her.

Now all she needed to dus was find annuva mooring! I'll tell you next week if we dun it .. but I fink you already know the answer to that one :).

Lexie out!

Let's have a quick recap - part 36

Atlantis in Maldon

Well ello me pals and my oh my ain’t it bin a while!? Well, yes achewly it as. First, I will give you a potted histry of wot we bin doin over the last few years.

As some of you knows, we has got a boat, hmmm, a ship I mean. We as got a ship. She is called Atlantis. Mum and dad bought her way back in 2003 when she was a fishing boat in Ireland. You can read about all that on some of me old posts.

Anyhoo, in 2010 we moved her from Kent to good old Essex where we was gonna make her all bright an shiny, then sail off to Malta! That didn’t work out too good. The marina manager (boo hiss grrrr) weren’t it turned out, a man of his word. So, we gets to Essex an he tells us no, you can’t live on it, no you can’t weld, no you can’t paint, you can’t do noffink. In fact, he says, I don’t even want you ere. So for the next 5 years he moved us from this mooring to that, each one worse than the last. We finally ends up on a mooring next to a flour mill.

We was forbidden by the marina manager (boo hiss grrr) and the Mill elf an safety manager (quite nice man really) to set foot on her apart from to check her ropes and make sure she wasn’t sinkin!

Atlantis view from port side

We was at our wits end abowt  wot to dus. They coddn’t see how we was gonna ever finish Atlantis or even get on board [we went to Ibeefa to run a dive centre but that’s annuva story wot I tell you laters]. While dad and me was working hard in Ibeefa mum tried to sort fings out once and for all.

She did the only fing that made sense (at the time) – to sell Atlantis! Mum an dad had fort about it long and hard and could not see any uvva alternative. Their dream had come to an end.

Well … find out in the next excitin episode wot appened! See you in the next chapter pals! Remember, stay slinky :).

Lexie out!