Been A While

Well we did launch...sorry for not updating blog but having a real nightmare logging on to the blog.
Well the boat arrived and the launch went well if you want a few more pics of the launch follow the link on the previous comment's blog (thanks Dan & Kelly)

We didn't get to many pictures ourselves as yours truly had packed the memory card for the camera...Well there was a lot going on that day!

As you can see by the time the boat was on the water light was fading fast, so only time for basic checks and tie up for the night. We decided to give Fernwood a bit of space to do the commissioning and not move our stuff on till the weekend.

We moved the boat up on to our mooring on Saturday.

Ken came with us on our trip up to our mooring on our maiden cruise (which takes about an hour) and the boat handled and performed well.

We then spent the Sunday moving our stuff onto the boat. Well we thought we had paired our belongings down to a minimum but its not till you move onto a boat you realise how much stuff you have, but we got there in the end and now we are just through the learning phase of remembering where we put everything (and keeping up where Netty has since moved things to from the last time I looked).

Well what a baptism of fire our first few weeks has been..Snow, Ice, Torrential Rain but do you know what, we are loving it. If anyone says we have gone for the relaxing easy option I am not sure we would agree, but the lifestyle is great, it is so quiet on our mooring, this is where we will stay till end of March (not that we have much choice but stay at the moment).

Obviously, we have been having a few snagging problems which we are working through with the builder at the moment. Hopefully, they will all get resolved before our off.

We are working a little blind at the moment as we have no diesel or water gauges, and not being used to the boat are a little unsure of how we are doing in these areas. The main problem is that we cannot calibrate the fuel tanks till they are full. We can dip the main tank but the water and heating tanks have flexible fillers so this isn't possible.

The stove "The Hotpod" is performing well and keeping us well toasty, in fact we have just reached 23 degrees (but we are starting to learn how to control it). The stove is a welcome feature when you have been outside chopping logs etc. and the ever warm kettle soons boils when we put it on the top of the stove.

Wildlife is abundant here, we have seen partridges, a marsh harrier, kingfishers, wrens, robins, swans, coots and moorhens and have been told that last year they had a flock of ring necked parakeets here, as well as our resident barn owl being quite vocal on some nights.

We have slept really well on the boat (tip to anyone get a memory foam mattress) but last night was a little disturbed due to the high winds, we awoke this morning to find the river had risen approx 2' so we are now stepping down to the mooring rather than up.

Hoping to go and replenish water and pumpout on Friday.

Anyway hoping not to leave it so long till the next blog.