It's ours

Well the boat actually belongs to us now. All the payments have finally cleared after a last minute hiccup with the bank (don't get me started). I went down to the boatyard for the handover briefing but again there was several practical problems. The oil pressure sensor had blown and they were waiting for another to be sent. Consequently the engine bilge had some oil in it. The bar that keeps the weed hatch in place was also missing. Needless to say that I couldn't go for a cruise as we would probably have ended up on the bottom of the cut after water flooding through the hatch and a seized motor. Not good for the troops morale. We have the handover cruise now booked for the 21st January as there's now more time due to the stoppages. I also need to get the insurance sorted for licensing etc. I've had a look on t'net and Craftinsure seem ok at £160.

Barry the boat briefer briefed me up on the bits and pieces on-board and there were no surprises. In fact the whole thing was more or less as I had expected it. In fact Barry and I spent most of the time comparing our various medical ailments and medicine types and amounts. I've always thought that old people spend most of their time discussing their medical conditions and here I am doing it myself. Lisa now wants to go down next weekend and have a look at the boat. We are bringing bread knives with us as, since she wants to get involved, she can jolly well help me cut the spray foam from the top of the batons ready for the ply to be screwed into place. We'll see how enthusiastic she is after a couple of hours of that. Nothing like a bit of hard work to sort the men from the boys, the sheep from the goats and the bourgeoisie from the proletariat. Haa.

I stood where the bulkheads were to be and imagined the size of each room. My workshop for the first couple of months occupies where the workshop was planned, our bedroom and wardrobe space. This is were I intend to carry out the fabrication of the fittings then attach them into position in order to keep the boat as dust free as possible (I'm probably dreaming). It is an enormous space over twenty foot long. But I think it will decrease quite substantially when we get our stuff aboard.

I know. You've all seen piccies of sailaways before and they all look the same. But this one is different. This one belongs to ME. Aaooh (I've just had a cuff round the ear. Apparently it belongs to US. When will I ever learn).