Time to celebrate.

Here is video footage of the launch. Quite an unceromonious occasion, as it happens, but exciting for us none the less.

Sunday was a very exhilarating day. Our first trip out was a little 'touch and go' first thing in the morning due to the gale force winds, but having had a little chat with the Harbour Master we, well I decided that we should pluck up the necessary courage to venture out onto open water.

It turned out that the Leicester Arm of The Grand Union Canal has not has the TLC it deserves of late. The narrow and twisty waterway is quite overgrown and in places making it difficult to see approaching boats due to the overgrown reeds and other flora and fauna.
We had a narrow miss when I cautiously got to a bend to find another boat coming the other way. Not being used to the length and weight of Tempranillo yet I thrust her into reverse expecting go backwards immediately, like Harvest Moon used to, but it took longer to slow before eventually going in reverse. This put the bow well into the bushes leaving a towel that Sue had hung out under the cratch to dry swinging from a branch.... clothes peg and all! But it was still there on our return trip so Sue retrieved it as we passed.

We were advised, as it was our first venture, to only go as far as the second winding hole where we could turn round but we got there in about 40 minutes and we wanted more! So we pressed on...and on...and on looking for another suitable place to turn. It was also lunch time and there was no site of any watering hole of any description so we pulled over for a bit of home cooking.

We did eventually find a point to turn and I made it in one without hitting anything. Thank goodness for the Bow Thruster.

It was quite late in the afternoon by the time we got back to Crick Marina and the weather had turned a little aggressive. The wind had come up making it tricky to negotiate the marina entrance and then almost impossible to slot Tempranillo back into the berth that I'm sure was much wider when we had left it earlier.

My first attempt was abysmal and we ended up completely in the wrong end of the marina. It didn't help that the wind blew Sue's hat off and we had to spend a few precarious moments fishing it back out of the water.
Friendly fellow boaters seeing our plight ran to the rescue ready to catch any rope that might get thrown in the general direction of any piece of adjacent land. Fortunately the wind stayed just calm enough for me to get the bow into the mooring slot and from then on  it was easy. We were soon moored up and all hatches battened down in the comfort of our new surroundings......Lovely!

We are hoping the weather will improve over the next couple of days so that we can begin our journey south.

We will let you know.....