After much faffing, we are off!

But before we left, there were lots of things to do. We bought a pair of overalls for David so he could happily get down in the engine bay to clean it up. For some reason, it was pretty damp in there and all the puppy training pads we had placed before we left in 2015 were sodden.

So while I went out to take the rental car back to Leicester, David used the little pump thing to suck up the water in the bilge and wiped down all the surfaces.

 

Two strange things about this photo - 1) David's hair looks much greyer than it actually is, and 2) he is wearing overalls - for the first time in his life!!

It has been sunny since we arrived, honest! Still in the marina and you can see, if you look with a discerning eye, that the pram cover is attached. You can even see the red tape that was meant to tell me so much - see last post.

See that manky looking swim? Needs a good clean, a rub down, an application of fertan, then a paint! David, prepare yourself ...

Later that day (Tuesday) Ed, our trusty engineer from Four Counties Marine, came to visit and took out the diesel stove - we hated it. We used it two or three times back in 2014 and 2015, but the water pump that was connected to it to heat the radiators whined and the noise was unbearable, mostly for me, but also for David. So we have donated it to Ed - he was the fabulous person who connected all of the radiators to the Webasto in 2015, so we can heat the whole boat easily at the switch of a button, with a hard-working Webasto, instead of just heating water and one radiator - such treatment had gunged it up, and at the same time as connecting up the radiators, Ed had given us a replacement heat exchanger or somesuch important piece of kit to make it function properly.

We also had Mick and Julia come over for dinner on board with us that late afternoon - it was great to catch up with them again. They had returned from a US holiday and were also jetlagged, so it was an early night ...

And finally, on Thursday we were ready to leave the marina, in sunshine no less - warm enough for a short sleeved shirt but not shorts at that point ...
 

It was sunny so I wore my elegant cap with handsewn hankie neck protection ...

Not sure why David crossed the bridge - oh yes, now I remember: as I came out of the marina entrance, he had to get off the bow and haul me around - I didn't turn widely enough to get around in one go ...

And we tootled about a mile up towards Saddington Bends – we were going to moor up there, all of two miles from the marina. But as we came through Bridge 70, we looked at the view across the cut and decided to stop. Out on to the sunny towpath came the little wine table, bottles, glasses and nibbles and then the chairs. And so we celebrated the first day of any boating on Waka Huia for 18 months.

The wine table is ready, the drinks are poured, I've changed into my shorts and sandals - so where is the photographer?

Aha! There he is, the lovely man!

Happy sheep across the cut

Wildflowers in the evening light.

I think this is hawthorn - I want a tree in our garden at home. So I must check if we can buy it in NZ. The perfume of the flowers is beautiful!

After a walk up to Saddington Bends in the lovely twilight, I had an early night – the airplane cold, cough and snot bugs were still attacking me. But as is usual when I go to bed really early, I wake at quarter past extremely early to compensate for being sleepy early in the evening – methinks this is a self perpetuating phenomenon …