Tuesday, 24 April 2012

Our first cruise on Jubilee: Kegworth to Shardlow (and a narrowboat weathervane)

Jumping back to last Wednesday I'll briefly describe our very first journey on our very first 100% owned-by-us boat.

Shortly after midnight on 18th April 2012 I made the payment from my bank account which completed our purchase of Jubilee, meaning that we were free to go. At a more reasonable time in the morning we untied from the mooring and carefully navigated under Kegworth Road Bridge, off the backwater and onto the main River Soar.


It was a fantastic feeling! We were on our own boat! It was raining and I didn't care! In fact it poured. As we passed a boat on its mooring at Red Hill a man popped his head out of the side hatch and shouted, "You must be mad!"

Our first stop was at Sawley Marina on the Trent where we bought a 12' shaft. We'd bought an anchor, chain and warp the previous day and had taken them to the boat by car. This was my first full-length photo of the boat.


We were soon at Shardlow where we tied up.


Near the Clock Warehouse I spotted this narrowboat weathervane on another warehouse.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can hear the joy in your voice! Lovely first pic from a very pretty boat. I still have that feeling but was tooooo nervous to enjoy the first time! E.

Frank Clarijs said...

You have another important job to do :) On the top of your blog, in the picture, it still says "often on our shared ownership boat Shadow". Reading your -- clearly very happy -- stories these days, the days of shared ownership are gone.

Enjoy the new boat

Halfie said...

E., can you give me a clue as to your identity?

Frank, our days of shared ownership are not quite over. Our daughter and son-in-law will be living on Jubilee for the next couple of years, so we'll hang on to our share for a while longer. But, yes, I should change the masthead. Unfortunately Blogger has just been "improved", that is to say, messed up, and I don't think I'm able to change it.

Anonymous said...

Top Secret! Timid boater. Enthusiastic reader of (some) boaty blogs (to improve knowledge/gain confidence) E.

Halfie said...

All right, E., you're very welcome. I appreciate your comments.