MOVING BOATS

Karta and I slipped out of London very early in the morning and headed down to Chidham in Chichester harbour. We were on a mission.

This is Karta. I like Karta, he does mad shit like, buy's ex-naval minesweepers. We both love and own large boats, and do not feel the need to shave everyday.

After an exhilarating blast through the smooth waters of the inner harbour, I saw HMS Sidlesham for the first time, moored in the deep water near the harbour entrance. I really tried to say something other than "That's fucking HUGE !"...but failed.  She is 30 metres long ( HUGE )

We quickly boarded her and made our way up to the pointy bit to admire the view. First things first.
Then we got on with the task of inspecting all the preparations for her to be towed to her new mooring on the Thames.

Next there was an excited shout from above decks, "the tug is coming, the tug is coming "

The harbour master was watching us like a hawk, constantly circling the two vessels...checking out what we were doing, and whether we were doing it correctly.

I thought that if I took lots of photographs of them, they might go away, but no.

A rather large orange towing line for the 20 hour trip around the south coast and up the Thames...

All in all there was eight of us dealing with the tow, here are two of us putting up some temporary navigation lights...

Everything was now ship shape and off Miss Sidlesham went. We followed her a fair way out to sea, it was quite an impressive sight. Oi, get your head out the way !!

The next time we would see her she would be coming up the Thames, hopefully the following evening. We would then get her on to her new mooring on Cadogan pier, Chelsea.

The next day we heard that HMS Sidlesham would arrive at Tower bridge at around 10.00pm so, after a spot of dinner we belted down the river from Chelsea at what felt like 100mph ( probably only 95 ) to meet her...

 We went under Tower bridge and then went ashore for some apple strudel and a pot of tea.

Before no time at all, or even some apple strudel, she appeared. After a couple of quick shots from land we jumped back in our boat and followed her up stream...

At 1.00am in the morning she was safely on her new mooring. We were tired, worn out, and now freezing cold, so a good nights sleep was in order.. the following afternoon we returned to check the moorings...

...and to stand on the pointy bit to admire the view of Chelsea bridge.

Next we went around the entire boat, removing all the ply boards that covered the portholes. For insurance purposes they must be blanked off while towing... Working from a small boat, in a strong tide, was not as easy as we thought ! ...

...but we were rewarded by the sun coming out in the evening. With plenty more light below decks  we opened up the galley, started to move stuff around, got rid of some old carpets and crap, and began planning on how to turn her into a home. We also had a few tots of Rum.