Wednesday, 20th October 2021

Better late than never! At last, as I write this, we are en route to Day Dream a month later than anticipated. Car is packed to the gunwales, with just enough space to pop P, our youngest in the back. We’re picking him up at the M40 motorway services so that he can help us unload and then borrow the car for the next two months, so not a bad deal!

It hasn’t been a wasted month. As well as our speed journey from Banbury to Reading, which gave us more confidence to tackle rivers whilst cruising, we were also able to spend some time with our eldest daughter before she departed for an extended trip to Jamaica. We’ve had the joy of getting to know our future daughter in law better as both she and G have been living at home and we even managed to arrange a small engagement tea party with a few local friends who have known G since he was a toddler. We had the firepit lit but needn’t have worried as the weather for October was surprisingly mild and we were able to spill out into the garden. All slightly rushed as I had forgotten I had agreed to lead evensong at church at 1830 – one way to bring a gathering to an abrupt end! I went walking for a couple of days with a cousin whilst R went and worked hard at the family seaside house during ‘maintenance week’. Think I got the better deal although he did have the fun of a visit to the cinema with his siblings to see the latest James Bond – he was so tired he slept through most of it, only waking up when there were loud bangs and car chases!! The month taught us a lot about living in the moment, not knowing how long we had at home before the boat would be ready. All to do with the delivery date of a new engine, so quite vital really! We still had no confirmation by the end of last week so I had reconciled myself to a further delay. Then a phonecall on Monday evening telling us we could go on the boat the next day! Of course, I then said I couldn’t be ready with less than 24hrs notice, although our hall has been full of boating paraphenalia for the last month. So 2pm today is kick off and I have no idea what’s missing from my packing because I can’t remember what I packed over a month ago but at least I know there’s a full bottle of whisky and a wonderful Welsh gin!

Just heard that the boat isn’t quite ready! Potentially a problem, with our car going back south today. Obviously there are still a few hiccups along the way! A, the broker, rang me half an hour ago to break the news and we are about to arrive! Two hours later and we are sitting,in the warm sun, with all our possessions on a pub table, having said goodbye to both P and the car. I’ve made friends with the pub, so worst case scenario is that all our possessions can stay overnight in their function room whilst we go off and find a local BnB for the night. Still hopeful that the boat will be fit to go. Apparently the engine has been completely rebuilt but when they started it there were some issues. Compounded by J, the ‘chief engineer’ having to go off mid morning to the doctor to sort his bad back.

The very good news is that my patient step brother is all ready to join us either tomorrow or Friday to help with the impending dozen or so locks which are up ahead. The first one is within sight so our ideal plan is to moor the boat here overnight and then retire to the pub!

Well, a few hours later and we are in a very nice pub called The Holly Bush Inn, courtesy of A, because there is a problem with the engine and tomorrow it needs more testing before we can set off. The upside is we were able to drop our belongings on the boat and it looks great. All newly fitted out including a brand new showerroom and kitchen. The downside is we are without wheels and have been dropped at a pub in the middle of the boonies! The only choice of food is a Chinese so if we are still homeless tomorrow night I think we may need to swop pubs just to have a change of cuisine. We were told it was round the corner from the boat – a twenty minute car journey later….

So now we are snuggled down for the night, 60 channels on the TV and a bath – we thought we wouldn’t have one of those for eight weeks! Who knows how much further on we will be tomorrow but no point in getting stressed – it’s all part of the boating life.