As you may know we have a new linear mooring in Eggington that I am very excited about. Instead of studying for post-graduate exams I am planning a woodland garden (and an allotment for the growing of herbs and flowers for the very specific making of my own creams, but I digress) and thinking about how we can settle ourselves in. Obviously, this means we have to leave the marina and travel to our new mooring. Oooooooo the prospect of taking the boat out has me all overcome!
It’s a fine spring day when we arrive to move her to her new home. The sky is clear and blue and there is a hint of summer in the air. Luckily there are no birds nesting on or near the boat. I have become more and more convinced over the past few weeks that there will be a bloody duck/moorhen/insert other type of bird here, who will have decided that our boat is the perfect place to nest and have lots of babies. The problem with this is, should a bird have made my boat their home, we will not be able to move her until the babies have grown up and fled the nest. Should those babies be like my first daughter, they will go at a respectable 18, but should they be like my second daughter they may never leave. And so we may never be able to leave the marina. It’s with a huge sigh of relief that we find no birds have taken up residence in our absence (why the hell not?? What’s wrong with my boat? Bloody birds!)
We get ourselves ready to leave. For me, this entails taking lots of photos of the lovely marina and bossing Keith about while filling the water tank. Keith lights the fire and I turn on all the electrics. Except that I actually turn the engine battery off at the isolator – I had clearly forgotten to turn it off the last time I was here (more likely Keith but lets not upset his fragile masculinity) and the forced separation from the boat means I have no idea which way the isolator switch needs to be facing for the on position. Anyway, eventually we work it out and start the engine. And she starts. With not a hitch. Hurrah, we are going boating!!!! (I’m so excited by this I have broken out in exclamation marks)
Let me share a dirty little secret. We watch narrowboat vlogs on youtube. A lot. We have some favourites and some not so. We watch Foxes Afloat, Minimal List, Holly the Cafe Boat, Cruising the Cut, Robbie Cummings and a smattering of others. I am by no means secular in my youtube viewing, I also watch exam revision stuff and anything to do with allotments (The Big Allotment Challenge is delightful – BBC 2 take note!). We watch the vlogs from people we identify with and who we think are nice genuine people. So in my head, I watch these people on the telly box so they are on the telly. ON THE TELLY. Famous like.
Anywho, Keith unties the bow and I untie the stern, step smartly onto the boat like I’ve been doing it forever (as in, I don’t fall in!) and I wait for the bow to swing over to the right. Once she has moved her nose, I reverse in a straight line. There is not even a breeze. Nothing. Nada. I look at the 4 geese who have decided that in this ginormous marina with fabulous wildlife areas the best place for them to be right at this moment is immediately behind my boat. I let her drift slowly backwards out of our mooring. With it’s pontoon. And electric hookup. And water supply. And hot showers and plumbed in toilets…
We exit the marina and turn right onto the canal with not a hitch. Well, apart from giving the couple with a small child sitting on the grass a bit of a show when, as usual I completely fail to execute a flawless turn due to the presence of onlookers. Eventually we are facing in the direction of travel. Our new mooring is about 45 minutes steady cruising away, however we will need to go past to wind at Shobnall so we can be facing the right direction to take her for blacking in a few weeks.
As we come into Willington, we see Holly the Cafe Boat. The actual live Holly the Cafe Boat. In real life. I am so excited by this that I nearly just moor myself next to her and knock on the roof. Demonstrating an unusual amount of restraint we go past and moor up a few boats down. Now, despite my profession, I don’t drink more than 1 coffee a day generally and tend to prefer cold drinks but I’m absolutely not passing up an opportunity to meet actual famous people, so we decide to buy a coffee. As we watch Holly the Cafe Boat, I feel that I am acquainted with the coffee machine they have and so must test it out. Also, I’m all for people earning a living on the canals and try to buy locally, including from trading boats, so when we have time we will stop and have a look at what people are selling.
The lovely people on Holly are exactly as they come across in their vlog and we have a chat while waiting for our coffee. I’m having a major fangirl moment and Keith is discussing boat maintenance! At least he probably stopped me from climbing onto Holly and refusing to leave, thereby saving himself the embarrassment of having to manhandle me off someone else’s boat. So, my day completely made we leave Willington and continue onwards. Arriving to wind (turn) at Shobnall, we find a boat moored half over the winding hole, making it a bit difficult to manoeuvre my great big lump around in a single swing. This necessitated a three(ish) point turn, shuffling back and forth, once again clearly showing off my masterly boating skills. A small blonde girl eating an apple solemnly watches us turn and gives us a congratulatory wave as we untangle ourselves from the tree at the bottom of her garden and head back down towards Eggington.
Arriving at our mooring it is still clear and bright but now decidedly chilly. Neil’s boat is temporarily residing in the space just before ours and despite the overhanging vegetation and tree roots under the water I manage to moor her without incident. We will have to use the plank to get on and off the boat until we’ve cleared a bit more vegetation but that’s ok, Dad already has plans for a mini pontoon…