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We visited the dry dock by car to make sure they were expecting us, this was a recommendation from other people that had been there. We think it was sound advice because we got to meet the yard man, Jean-Luc who organises the work details on a daily basis. He hadn't been aware of our imminent arrival so would probably not have been ready. It seems the office people don't communicate with the workers or with each other, not uncommon in business.
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We arrived Sunday night so we would be ready for the Monday morning docking, we were sharing the dry dock with a commercial 39m barge called 'Ronita'. We lined up with the orange marks that showed where the supports were, tied up tight and then the pumps were started.
Lorna inspects the newly dried out hull and is pleased with the good state of the metal. Unusually Waterdog sits up on her box keel and will need chocking at the bilges to give us confidence in her staying upright.
When we saw the thick growth of weed and mussels covering the bottom of the boat we understood why the barge had seemed sluggish when cruising. After our 2008 dry docking we had seen all the bitumen peel off the under water hull within the first week, we think this was because it didn't bond to the epoxy primers. Maybe this accounts for the huge amount of marine growth we had picked up.