Since we are in the pantomime season, we could compare the crew to a posse of Cinderellas - they spend the day cleaning, scrubbing, painting and polishing without complaint. And when they've finished, they get up and do it all over again. Sometimes in these dark months, it seems that no one appreciates all the goings on behind the scenes, to enable Gondola to re-emerge serene and swan-like in the spring, ready to receive passengers once again to delight in a luxurious sailing experience.
So we'll give you a flavour of what's been happening. Fortunately, with so much hard graft to be done, our good friend Alex over at Old Hall Farm was able to come over from Bouth to lend a hand with the first big job. We required the use of a crane to haul out the engine room cabin so that we could get to the boiler. As you can see from the pictures below, this was no easy feat.