Upright at last!

Finally we have managed to get the Lady upright and level!

Two days in a row she has been floating with minimal effort from the pump. A joy to behold...

The wood for both temporary legs was delivered last week but instead of using it for both sides I decided to use the whole lot for the Starboard side, this gives dimensions for the leg at six by twelve inches. I don't think that she needs too much in the way of support on the port side at present as the starboard side has historically been the heaviest and she is leaning on the harbour wall with her port side. The two telegraph poles allegedly get delivered this weekend so they will be fitted properly shortly after. The plus point, in the exercise so far, is that I am able to get very accurate measurements for the length on the legs (since I didn't know what the draft was) which should make for a simple and hopefully quick crossover.

I would like to say a big 'thank you' to Richard who is one of the volunteers that I mentioned in a previous blog. Richard came down on both the days to help out with the lashings and manhandling of wood and the Lady. Between us we managed to get her ballasted and levelled out, the boat moved into deeper water and its his pump that he donated to the project. His pump looks hellish cosmetically and has an old style starter chord however, it works a treat and was 'puttering' away in the back ground for most of the two days. Unlike my all-singing and all-dancing piece of junk that seems to block if the wind changes!
Another 'Thank you' has to go to the guys at the council yard who were kind enough to let me borrow six wheelie bins in order to ballast her to starboard. I was also given two 45 gallon plastic drums as well. Without those drums and bins there was no-way I could have got her level. Some of the suggestions for ballasting her have ranged from lowering ton bags of the cheapest aggregate from the builders merchants to buying two two ton mooring blocks and having them lowered to the deck. The wheelie bins were the best option given that they were easy to move and filled up in seconds with the three inch pump. It was good to get an e-mail from Archie who had the same epiphany during the night regarding the wheelie bins and many thanks to him for the offers of help and advice as well.
The wheelie bins are not so easy to empty though as they weighed a ton and had to be half emptied by bucket before they could be tipped.
If my son, yes he's getting the blame despite the fact that he worked VERY hard yesterday, had put them round the other way they would have tipped straight back but he left them hard against the gunwale and to be honest I didn't even think about emptying them.
It would have been too much hassle to use the pump and to be fair it only really took another ten minutes in the great scheme of things.

The Lady is now sitting, more or less, level and is easier to access. The next job to do is to fit a wheelhouse door and then to scrape the decks in order to stop them behaving like an ice rink!

We also managed to get a good look under the starboard side of the Lady, which is really the first time I have had to have a proper look. I cant see any 'sprung planks' or 'but ends' that are pulling out, its not that they are not there though. There was plenty of seams leaking I noticed but other than that it seemed to be cosmetic. I guess that once we are in and about her side properly then something will come to light.

I'm having tomorrow off though, my back went into meltdown whilst moving the pumps yesterday and it wasn't as though I was lifting much it was just an awkward movement that set it off.... The joys!!

Thank you to everyone else who came down and offered support and advice. especially the chap who stood in awe and said "I honestly thought that I would never, ever see her afloat again.....amazing", that made my night.

Some up to date pictures below -