Maiden Voyage

28th February 2016

We had a reasonable first night on board, warm enough snuggled up in a big duvet in our 'den' (the under cockpit berth) but waking to various noises or boat movements, things we'll soon get used to I'm sure.

The Thames is flowing quite fast at the moment and amber warnings were in place so we decided to just have a short trip on the river and not to go through any locks.  To prepare for this we had a hearty breakfast, filled the fuel tank and prepared the anchor just in case!

We needn't have worried, the engine and boat performed perfectly. She is slightly 'bow down'  at the moment (this was obvious when using the hob last night) and the ballast will be adjusted this week to fix this.  We turned left out of the marina and headed towards Sonning. I fiddled with the depth gauge/fish finder/chart plotter to see what it did and Caroline did much of the driving.

It's less than a year since we were last on the Thames and we know this area pretty well.  We turned around at Sonning and headed west to Caversham lock. It was almost as if we had the river to ourselves with very few other boats venturing out on this cold winter's day. For many years we have seen a few 'characterful' boats moored in this area and today was no exception, these have been moored here for many years.

As we passed the Better Boating Company we thought this poor boat might benefit from slackened mooring lines (or is there something else causing the list?). There have been warnings from the EA recently - There are many boats with very tight mooring lines, some listing, some sinking or sunk along the river bank. Owners are reminded to make regular checks on their boats to ensure that they can cope with the fluctuating river levels and changeable weather conditions.

We soon headed back into the marina after our maiden voyage had passed without incident. After a light lunch we started to pack away and tidy the boat so that it could be left ready for Tingdene to show other prospective customers around should they need to. I took the opportunity to make up the cockpit seating with the infill that completes the 'U' seating arrangement to see how it looked, it's one of the benefits of this model that you can sit about 8 people in the cockpit, something we look forward to trying when the warmer weather arrives.

And that was it. Our first night spent on our lovely new boat. We are so fortunate to be able to do this, after 30 years spent 'thinking about it' it was brilliant to finally have our little floating holiday home!