The long-awaited handover day

Everyone seemed to think we’d be too excited to sleep, but in fact we slept really well at our hotel. This morning we had a hotel breakfast and then I went for a walk in the rain to get plenty of steps in early. We got to Braidbar at about 10.10 nd got our first view of Kingley Vale out of the paint dock.

After some tea, we had a walk through of the boat to make sure everything was ok, then Donna and Jam left us to unload the car and unpack all the boxes and bags. We made remarkably short work of it, and found places for everything — and there’s plenty more room for the rest of our stuff.

At lunchtime we went down into Poynton for a sandwich and to do some shopping for the next few days. Back at the boat we had a visit from Nicki, who’s Jam’s cousin, who had the boat a couple ahead of ours. Then it was time for the acceptance cruise, backing out of the arm and taking the boat down to the winding hole just beyond the Deeps.

We went out on electric propulsion and back on diesel, then as we got to the bridge I jumped off to get some photos.

Once tied up again, we went through more technical stuff, including how to light the Refleks diesel stove, and then it was time to sign all the acceptance papers, and the boat was ours! Have to say, it’s been remarkably stress free. We’ve have more things to bring on board, but we’ve already made a start of making it feel like home. Some photos of the inside.