All aboard!

It's late, it's been a long day, but we are finally aboard!  I underestimated just how much there would be to do today, but then this (hopefully) was the hardest day of the trip as it was akin to moving house.

Angel by night

I left home at 13:31 and thanks to clear freely moving roads, got to Blisworth at 15:40 (just as Shelley & the boys were leaving home).  It has been non stop since then.  First off, was the boat handover from the original owner, all fairly straightforward and very clearly explained.  As I got onto the boat I had a really good feeling and just knew we had made the right decision (bit late to change our mind, I know), but the reason I say this is because the second visit we made,  I just wasn't sure, but I put that down to general nerves when making such a commitment.

Next I unloaded my car and loaded the boat (what you can't cram into a mazda 3 is just not worth having!).  All pretty uneventful, and "pirate Jim" has been shown to his quarters, which is the small boat cabin at the back of the boat.  Then on to filling her up with diesel. Now you would have thought that I would have jumped at the chance of driving her out of the marina bay and parking her up for re-fuelling but strangely I felt nervous.  I think I feel happiest when my crew is aboard (and I can summons help in the form of "quick grab the middle rope" or "use the pole" or even "sh*t, sh*t  we're gonna crash" and having that moral support of everyone just waiting for the bump and looking at me with helpless eyes!  Actually to be fair, as close as I have been, I have not yet crashed on a narrowboat, touch wood.  Anyway, as the original owner has been a boater since he was five, I thought maybe he was better placed to swing her around to the pump, obviously so that I could observe how she handled, yes,  extended boat handover, that's what I call it!   So then on to filling her up.   Apparently, it was already half full, so we just topped her up with a mere 150 litres of diesel, that's right 150 litres. It was a good job my wallet was on a lead or it might just have run off, but at least that should see us through for quite some time.

Back to the marina platoon and again, I thought I would observe the handling as her previous owner parked her up!!  Next, the final phase of the purchase, the bill of sale, and as soon as we completed that, Shelley, the boys & Alfie (our dog), arrived.  Now the boys have only seen photos of the boat until today, so they were well excited.  They have both been little stars and helped pack and do chores without complaint which meant that they were able to turn things around with 35 minutes of leaving school.  They couldn't wait to climb aboard.

Now like I say, it has been non stop.  I was given the task, when I got here, of unpacking everything and hoovering the floors and cupboards.  Do you think I had time to do that?  Did I catfish!  So with the crew aboard we unpacked, whilst looking around the boat, pinching ourselves, and generally being very excited.  At this point I thought it would be a good idea to make a drink, something I was gasping for.  Aaron was given the task of setting up the telly (I think the goal is to have it ready for X-Factor, yawn) and Ryan has setup the fireside tools for the pot belly stove we have on board.  Shelley set to work to give the boat that "womens touch" and make her feel like home, and Alfie just tried out every possible corridor and place to lie down where he could cause us humans maximum discomfort when stepping over him!

We now needed to move one of the cars to where we are planning to end up on Sunday night.  As we hadn't eaten, we thought we might as well get a takeout (subway) and get a few last minute things from Tesco, you know things that aren't essential, but nice to have,  like say toilet roll!!  Yep, of all the things, we forgot to get toliet paper.  I blame myself for that (surprisingly).  You see, when we were looking at buying our boat, the kind and very helpful Saleswoman, Jan, explained to us the concept of pink and blue jobs.  Emptying of the toilet is, apparently, a blue job, which roughly translates to, my job.  Of course I am more than happy to do this, but for the sake of efficiency and in true blue workman style, I have duly declared the toilets as out of order.  This must have had the effect of wiping from all pink consciousness, the notion that we might actually need toilet paper!!  Anyway, problem solved, thanks to Tesco!.

We found a suitable place to leave the second car positioned for Sunday's rendezvous and so back to the marina we went.  All aboard again, now 22:50.  A clear night with full moon.

Full moon over Blisworth Marina

Still more jobs to do.  As we are leaving at 7.00am, I have decided to fill her up with water.  Also bike locked up ready for if we don't make our target on Sunday.  Boys beds blown up, in fact one of them literally, well more of a melt down as it was put too close to the radiator, but thankfully there was a spare duvet so all the crew will have a good nights sleep ready for tomorrows locks,  curtains drawn, time for a well earned rest.