Saturday, 4th December 2021

Well, what an exciting, exhausting and exhilarating five days. Our lovely daughter and son in law lent us their car (our car being unfit to drive at speed on the motorway due to a very loose bumper) and we drove to the marina near Rugby on November 30th to have an extensive boat handover of Naomhog. All quite daunting, especially as this is very much ‘my boat’ so my responsibility! This is deliberate as I do not want R feeling he has to fix everything and do all the worrying. Obviously he is an amazing support (I still have to learn how to light the woodstove and my grasp of batteries and electrical circuits is very limited, not to mention my lack of mechanical knowledge, such as how the engine works). Hu, the previous owner and his wife, have kept the boat immaculately (no pressure then!) and are selling after ten years because they are upgrading to a new boat. Naomhog (knee-vogue) was built in 2006 for a retired midwife from Woking, who then sold it to a couple living in Farnham (small world!), who then sold it to Hu who lives in Cobham. So very much a Surrey boat – must be why I like it!! It is very compact but the storage is so well thought out that there is no shortage of space. I am just so happy to only have 43ft of boat to navigate the cut. Somehow it feels much more manageable. Yet we still have a 5ft wide bed and R can stand up everywhere without hitting his head. Oh, except the shower rose – it comes up to his chin. Don’t expect to see him clean from the neck up!

So bidding farewell to Hu, the previous owner, we faced our first challenge – all our belongings, including bedding and housewares were on DayDream, 11 locks and 5 or 6 hours travel along the canal. We decided to spend the night at the very same BnB we stayed at prior to going on WindRose, over a year ago. We even ate at the same pub and discovered the village shop was in the pub carpark and opened at 8am. Useful as we had no breakfast, other than snackbars and chocolate! The forecast looked dry so I suggested to R we leave at 8am via the shop to pick up victuals and then get to the marina, ready to move asap. As daylight hours are limited getting to DayDream well before sundown was a priority because without an engine Day Dream has no power and I didn’t relish packing up by the dog chewed head torch we’d recently bought.

It didn’t bode well when we awoke to a layer of snow on the roof of the car! Then the village shop was closed – winter hours meant it opened at 9am! Fortified by chocolate we arrived at the marina only to realise we didn’t have the code to get through the gate, which would be opened at 0930. Luckily I spotted a boat owner out walking his dog who gave me the code for the security gate but the cold weather meant the gates weren’t working! I did manage to prise them open enough to squeeze us both and our belongings through. Then we set about readying snow-laden Naomhog for her maiden voyage. It was a beautiful, cold and crisp sunny morning and I was eager to get cracking as I knew I had quite a journey ahead, complicated by having to operate the locks in icy conditions, which is not ideal. I was traveling alone to begin with because R had to take the car to another marina which will be our winter quarters, and then walk along the footpath to meet me before we reached the first of the locks. As we were short of time there was no opportunity to stop for refreshments and although R managed to pick up some food, we had no means of boiling a kettle, so by the time we completed the last of the 11 locks I was truly chilled. My trusty thermals and waterproof trousers were on DayDream so I lacked the insulation I would have preferred! We only passed a couple of moving boats coming towards us but I got very excited as I spied a boat ahead – if I could catch him up, we could buddy up down the flight of locks (they were wide locks for two boats). So full speed ahead and we were on his tail. Sadly he was only going down one lock and then turning around! Still it was better than nothing as the lock gates were heavy duty and R was exhausted by the end. I offered to do some but he said my work would begin once we got to DayDream and I had to pack everything up! The locks made Naomhog look very small and it was quite hard to stop her bouncing around when the water whooshed out of the gates. Owning a boat suddenly makes you much more aware of bumps and scratches!

Despite the weather we made excellent time and by 1430 we were reversing along the narrow arm to where Day Dream awaited. Reversing is another learning curve in a new boat but we managed to do so without mishap and then we found ourselves alongside DayDream with the realisation that the only way we could get our belongings from one boat to the other was bow to bow, both boats having cratch covers which limited the freedom of access. I’m amazed the only casualty in the water was my furry hot water bottle! It was a precarious couple of hours, time being of the essence. I was amazed at the quantity of belongings we had to move (a mini houseful) and repulsed by having to throw away the contents of a fridge that had been switched off a month previously. By the time dusk had fallen we were faced with our new boat in absolute chaos. I felt incredibly daunted at the prospect of finding a home for everything and yet miraculously all our belongings were accommodated, with space to spare. Just as well as R wants to bring his accordian!

So the last task of the day was to move the boat in the dark to a proper mooring which we found opposite the Blue Lias pub. Grateful of our short length we squeezed between two bigger boats. It wasn’t until we emerged in the day light that we found we had moored in a long term permit holders only space. Fortunately noone came banging on the door! We went across to the Blue Lias for supper and I have never seen such a bedecked dazzling pub. Talk about a Santa’s grotto! It was a sight to behold. Apparently there is not a pub to match the gaudy light display when it comes to the Christmas season.

There was a niggle in the back of my mind that I had left something on the boat – I was fairly sure I had not seen my bottle of rather lovely Welsh Blue Slate gin. I recalled having hidden it in the bed before we left as it was the one thing of real value to me! So in daylight, we returned to the boatyard and asked if we could do a final sweep of DayDream fearing we may have overlooked some things in the fading light of the previous day. It involved a precarious trip across narrow steel girders and gang planks but it was worth it – there in the far corner of the bed was my bottle of gin. Phew!

Returning to Naomhog we awaited the arrival of our friends BBT and PJ. It seemed very fitting that they should be our first guests as BBT is so named because of his extensive knowledge of boats and trains. He was incredibly helpful when we first decided to become boaters and has always taken a keen interest in our progress. He is also a very willing helper when there is a flight of locks to work so he kindly agreed to come with PJ to help us up the flight we had just come down the previous day. What an amazing difference a team of four makes. A rhythm is formed with one member of the team going ahead to prepare the lock above the one that the boat is currently going through. Although the person on the helm has the least physical job, they do have to navigate the entry and exit to the lock, trying not to bang into the gates and as it is filling with water it can be quite tricky to steady a single small boat in a double lock. The force of the incoming water can push the boat sideways and even the use of the mid rope around the bollard can be insufficient in keeping the boat steady.

In no time at all we had completed our mission and all that remained was a short cruise along the cut to the marina. Feeling slightly peckish we moored up to eat and very thoughtfully BBT and PJ had come armed with their own sarnies, correctly assuming that we might have limited food aboard having had no time for a grocery shop.

Just before the marina, Jules Fuels the supply boat, was filling a boat with diesel. We manoeuvred Naomhog alongside and as well as a diesel fill-up of about 165litres of fuel, we also stocked up on coal and kindling. Thus fortified we entered the marina, quickly found our allotted berth and reversed into our mooring spot. Thinking it would be straightforward to connect to shore power we were slightly disconcerted when we discovered we just couldn’t get the electricity to work. Eventually we admitted defeat and decided instead to return BBT and PJ to their car. It’s funny when you think you haven’t traveled far and yet it takes twenty minutes by car to get back to the start of your journey. We all then went to the Potting shed at the Folly pub in Napton for supper before BBT and PJ returned home and we found out way back to Naomhog.

A lengthy and helpful telephone conversation with Hu ironed out many of our problems and soon we were confidently connected to the shoreline. His wife gave me helpful tips on organising our small galley which actually has ample cupboard space and she was very encouraging about the baking potential of the oven. It was also strongly recommended that we purchase a mattress topper to ensure a much more comfortable night’s sleep.

So this morning we headed off to Rugby to one of my favourite bargain shops and I was not disappointed, arriving back with a bamboo mattress topper, a larger duvet and cover and other ‘essentials’! A food shop completed the outing so that I could make our first home cooked meal, testing out the cooker. I then sat down to write this blog which I finished well after midnight!