the final farewell

Our boat in final paint scheme

Lisa phoned to confirm the survey was fine. The buyer was going ahead with the purchase and was leaving the boat out of the water until it could be blacked up. The Captain agreed to meet her in the office at 1.00 to sign all the paperwork.

It was 10.00 when we left Mum’s heading northwest. There were problems on the M6. We diverted around it but still reached King’s Bromley Marina just after 12.00. We picked up the spare keys and said goodbye to the staff who were there.

Then we set off for Great Hayward Marina, arriving just after 1.00. We completed the paperwork, handed over the keys and checked they had the boat’s logbook and other documents.

As the boat was out of the water we had a good look at her hull. The steel work was as good as when we had her surveyed prior to buying 10 years ago. Amazing that the survey said she had not lost any thickness to the steel.

Then we strolled over to the neighbouring farm cafe for a celebratory lunch.

our boat at its survey before we bought it

Our drive back home started later than the Captain intended. He had a fairly untroubled drive down to Cherwell services on the M40 even though the traffic was heavy at times.

rear of boat

However there were problems being reported ahead both on the M40 and on the M25 which was reported as having heavy congestion from the junction with the M40 all the way round to Reigate.

We decided to leave the motorways and reached home via Oxford, Reading, Bracknell, Guildford and Dorking.

After Guildford we stopped at a park on the top of the Surrey hills to take a break from driving, give Lottie a walk and give her dinner.

Normally the drive home takes 3 ½ hours. Today it took over 6 only partly because Great Hayward Marina was an extra ½ hour away. The Captain was philosophical; “we won’t have to do that journey again”, he said.