Delivery

Tambourine ('cos its green - anyone remember the Lemon Pipers?!) was officially declared 'completed' on November 28th 1998. Malcolm agreed to look after her at Victoria Basin until we could have her craned out and transported by road to Overcote Ferry on the Great Ouse, where we had arranged a mooring at the Pike and Eel Marina.

 

 

 

We tested the systems, reported a couple of minor glitches and then, apart from one or two visits over the winter to play, she was left in Malcolm's tender care until the planned delivery date of March 4th 1999.

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                        Delivery day, March 4th 1999 was bright and cold. We arrived at the Pike and Eel marina at mid-day only to find that the haulier, Ray Dempster, had beaten us to it by about 20 minutes!

Tambourine was sitting on the bed of his artic. and the crane driver from Huntingdon Plant Hire was wandering about trying to figure out how to lift the boat off and into the water.      

 

 

By 12.30 the lifting straps were fitted and Tambourine rose slowly into the air and swung out over the water.

 

 

 

 

Leaving her hanging on the straps, the crane driver climbed out of his cab; his crane was slowly sinking into the mud under the weight of the boat. He looked up at Tambourine, down at the railway sleeper props supporting the crane and muttered 'Bugger - that's a heavy boat'.

 

 

 

Tambourine was gently lowered into the water

 

 

 

 

 

And the straps were removed.

We bow-hauled Tambourine away from the slipway, tied her up alongside the marina manager's narrowboat, Kingfisher Too and repaired to the pub for a celebratory drink and a bar-snack. We spent the afternoon checking that all was well after the journey and fitting some curtains. We left the boat on its temporary mooring that night and returned home.

 

During the next couple of weeks the weather was awful with bitter blustery winds and squally showers of sleet and snow. We made a few trips down to the marina for various domestic jobs on-board and to load up the cupboards with crockery, pots and pans and things - but didn't move Tambourine to her permanent mooring until March 20th.

We didn't actually get away on our first cruise for a further month while we waited for our Environment Agency licence to arrive - you can't work the Great Ouse locks without the little key they send with the licence. We spent the time practicing manoeuvres round the marina and scaring the pants off the owners of the grp cruisers moored around us.

During our enforced wait we discovered a problem with the bow-thruster - condensation was getting into the control box and the thing would suddenly develop a mind of its own.

Sometimes it would start up on its own without warning, other times it wouldn't start at all, or would turn in the wrong direction. We sprayed it liberally with WD40 but it was clear that the condensation problem needed a more permanent solution.

To read about our cruises please visit our cruising log.

 

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