"There is nothing, absolutely nothing, half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats."

Last Sunday saw the maiden voyage of our tender (inflatable) Indefatigable at Knott End. We arrived at the car park at the seafront and proceeded to unload our boat (in pieces) from the boot of our little Fiat Punto. I'm sure there's advertising mileage there for both Honda and Fiat. Obviously it didn't seem to fit back into it's bag or the boot quite so well later, but they never show you those bits on the tv!
The aluminium slatted floor turned out to be the ultimate flat pack, quick to assemble, not quite so easy to fit into the floor of the tender. The instructions were obviously in 10 different languages, with the English sections not making much more sense than the rest. Anyway doubtless to the amusement of the surprising number of visitors to Knott End on a Sunday in October, very soon the pile of random pieces soon formed a boat shape. We carried her down to the water and took her for a spin. The smaller engine we opted for won't win any speed trials but can be stored upright in the anchor locker and so reduce the weight to carry off the davits on the transom and make us far less attractive to thieves.

There were quite a few boats heading out of Fleetwood for the usual dash round the buoy during the couple of hours that the lock gates open at high water. It felt great to be out there too even if our vessel was slightly less grand. We did a bit of manoeuvring practice with Alex who clearly preferred the wheel of our last boat to a tiller that you have to point to the opposite direction to where you want to go!
As pathetic as it may sound we'd been really looking forward to getting out on the water on our little tender. A day off to have fun. It was fantastically relaxing to be out there. The sun came out for a beautiful sunny afternoon, we were also joined by a flock of oyster catchers overhead. They were an amazing sight as the light caught individual birds exposing the white then dark side of their wings as they flew, creating the effect of a ripple spreading across a sun drenched pool of water. Then they were gone, I realise how much we miss dashing around and what a great deal more we'll experience as we travel.

It is certainly the difficult phase of the planning at the moment. We always knew that it would get harder before it gets better and it is certainly difficult trying to juggle the many arrangements with full time job, travel and evening courses etc.
My main preoccupation continues to be the house sale particularly with the constant headlines about potential price drops etc at present. Viewings in general appear to have dropped off and yet it seems as though every other house locally is for sale. We clearly timed it just wrong in putting our house on the market, in terms of the credit squeeze impacting the UK from the States. I even looked at the website of one of these guaranteed quick house sale companies on Saturday morning in desperation to get some sort of definite timetable to our plans. However, calculation of the 80% offer that they make shocked me into realising how hasty we are being.
So, we have decided to look into renting our house instead of selling, as we have had the house for only a year and the site is not yet complete so we are not really making the most of our investment having spent on furnishings etc. It would mean that I would have to see out my contract til Aug 08 to make up for the delay in the release of equity. However as much as it is not what I'd like to do, it's a small price to pay in the grand scheme. Apparently there are approximately 10 people queuing for each available rental locally, so it seems a good option. Though rental rates still seem to stay beneath the level that the property value could make in interest, so it's still a gamble on a rising UK housing market. It will also mean us having to sell Kevin's house instead but that will definitely be easier as it is a good starter home.
Finally, before anyone else asks no we haven't booked the wedding yet! I'm also aware that it apparently takes longer to adjust a wedding dress than to build a house. I'm trying not to get drawn in to the wedding hysteria, but it seems every one has fallen for the hype that it is required to order flowers several months before they are even planted etc. I've been a bit reluctant to commit to the date until my contract end date was confirmed as I wasn't sure about spending the first few months of married life apart. Obviously that also gives an excuse to put off my non-existent wedding dress diet a bit longer too, as I'm clearly not quite so ambivalent about the hype! As I thought I wasn't applying quite enough pressure to myself yet so starvation seems the necessary extra. No I haven't finished my Yacht master theory either due in November either before you ask! Though I did get up and go for a jog yesterday morning at 6.15 in the dark and the rain and now walking up stairs is painful! You're right I finally am loosing it!
Still we fly to La Rochelle for our factory visit tomorrow, so that will be a great relief - subject to the rugby results! At least all the boats we see will be preordered otherwise I think the temptation to cut out the hassle and just go might be too much...though I think even a slightly larger tender outboard engine might be enough by March to tempt us!