Pat's Progressed
Our quest for more suitable ballast took a distinctive turn for the better yesterday after an impromptu visit to our local scrap yard at Ryeford. By chance, there was a quantity of un machined iron castings which would do nicely and they were prepared to energise the great magnet and extract them from the pile for us.
Each one weighed 1.13kg and we were after about 0.25T's worth. So, this morning, a van headed over and collected the load, which later found its way to Patricia via Western Depot. At WD we located and cut in half, a number of empty 25L oil containers. These were ideal in that they made handing the load much easier and safer. A few old milk bottles made an impressive contribution also.
At Dudbridge, the old breeze blocks were extracted and the new iron loaded into the bilge. Our main task for the day was to relocate Patricia to Ebley Mill. Goliath was to called upon to tow Pat backwards, as there was no suitable location to turn her.
The mighty fight with silt commenced. Progress was very slow, but we eventually reached a point near Ebley where it was necessary to call in the services of Margaret with her many more horses with webbed feet!
The cavalry soon arrived and made easy work of dragging both Goliath and Patricia. All vessels were then moored outside the mill adding a significant splash of SVCC purple to the area.
Patricia is just visible live if you visit:
Pat's Cam
