Bartimaeus

Our night "moored" on the back of the trailer was comfortable enough.  We had a lot of packing up to do, making sure that anything that was likely to fall off shelves was constrained, and that most of the doors and drawers were taped shut.

We set an alarm for a time in the morning we're not usually aware of and were woken while it was still dark.  We had breakfast before continuing with the final preparations, including packing up the toaster and kettle.   The big drawers under the bed were held shut by wedging some seat cushions across the floor.

We were just about ready when Sean from Ortomarine arrived.  He helped us get the gangplank and poles down from the roof and stashed on the galley floor.  If they flew off on the road it could be very nasty.

The crane and lorry arrived just as the sun was starting to rise.  After some discussion about the sequence of operations, the lorry was sent to turn at the far end of the marina while the tractor took Bartimaeus to a spot alongside the crane.

The crane's usual hook on a wire isn't strong enough to hold the weight of a narrowboat, so the first job was switching it with a static one.  Straps were then slung under the boat and clipped on to the hook.  I was surprised that there was no precision placement for these, they were simply placed a short distance apart somewhere near the middle.

We were pressed in to service as the crane started to lift to make sure that the sharp edge of the base plate was lined up with the padding that protected the lifting straps.  We were warned to make sure we didn't get our hands trapped, there's quite a squeeze when twenty tonnes of boat is lifted.

A carefully monitored trial lift of an inch or two was approved, and Bartimaeus was lifted slowly off the trailer.

The tractor was driven away forwards, and then skilfully reversed out of the way, allowing the lorry driver to bring his trailer under Bartimaeus with equal aplomb.

It took a while to pack away the crane and tie Bartimaeus down on the bed of the lorry.  We were amused by the magnetic flashing orange light fixed under the bow.  If a driver coming up behind fails to notice Bartimaeus they were probably going to hit something else quite soon.

The crane and lorry set off for Ortomarine headquarters where Bartimaeus will be getting significant attention in the coming months.  We cycled in to Droitwich Spa in search of second breakfast. I was a bit surprised to discover the cafe wasn't open, but then realised it didn't open until 9am.  Fortunately we only had a few minutes to wait.

Before we'd finished, I could see that Bartimaeus had arrived outside the unit.  The next bit of the operation was to swap places with NB Albatross, a brand new boat that was coming out for launch in Milton Keynes.  Before we got on the train, Bartimaeus had been moved inside the building.