We couldn’t relax for long as we needed a gangway at the bow which would be easily removed for future trips with Waterdog. We tried to contact metalwork fabricators for a couple of days, but since none of them would answer their phones, we set to to make one ourselves. Our new neighbour Gary had some ideas and some spare steel box section, so started us off and away we went. Suddenly, Lorna liked welding!

We made a bracket with two arms, one slid under a forward bollard and the other went down the side of it and was held in place with a stainless nut & bolt. It was rock solid and easily removed. The gangway was then made from a scrap wooden roof beam from Gary’s barge which we ripped into two and topped with treated decking. Some posts and 1” rope finished it off nicely. We fitted the old davit crane at the bow and can now lift the gangway without straining ourselves to take it off the boat.

Our new boatyard also organised to renew our aft mooring post, since it was very short and our ropes could have slipped off the top at HW spring tides. It was soon in place and was vibrated, or hammered, about 3 to 4m into the seabed.