The BIG adventure all began when I took delivery of my narrowboat Beau on Friday 13th April 2007.  A very lucky date for me as this was the fruition of a dream I've held for many years.  The first tentative voyages were from Barrow Upon Soar to Loughborough and in the other direction to Sileby Mill.  Both no more than a couple of miles but to me it was like crossing the Atlantic single handed.

 

Venturing further afield I sailed down to Trent Lock and explored the Erewash Canal up to Langley Mill.  Other voyages took me to Shardlow and down the Trent to Newark.

 

This was when I encountered the vagaries of the good old British weather.  Instead of flaming June it was waterlogged June.  I was fortunate to have got back up the Trent to Nottingham but was unable to go further as I found out when I tried to get up to Cranfleet Cut but found myself at a point in the river called Thrumpton Nip where the current was so strong in the flooding river that even on full power Beau was going BACKWARDS.  Very scary.  I think I was being told to go back to Nottingham, which I did and found myself marooned on the Beeston Canal for over 4 weeks.  However, the Navigation Pub at Castle Lock and Sainsbury's saved my sanity.

 

Once the rains had subsided and Noah had gone home I was finally able to get up the Trent to Shardlow and beyond.  I was joined by David, my brother and we completed the Leicester Ring in a couple of weeks.  Finding many a hostelry and making many new friends on the way.

 

Shortly after that I was joined by my friend, Henrik, and his wife Susanne from Denmark at Fradley Junction.  The first disaster was about to strike.  Having had a very liquid evening in the Mucky Duck (i.e. The Swan) none of us noticed the the water pump was running and it very kindly emptied the whole of the fresh water tank into the boat.  This problem only being discovered when the low battery beeper went off on the fridge and I went back to turn it off that I found myself in 4 inches of water and this was 4am!!!

 

So with my pals help we had to rip up the new carpet and try and get as much of the water out as we could.  At daybreak I was able to cut a hole in through floor and use the Pumpout to drain the water completely.  Panic over we set of in fabulous weather and headed for Great Heywood.  Here we found a great pub called the Clifford Arms.  The following day we continued up the Trent and Mersey to Stone, a lovely town in Staffordshire.

 

Now for some time I had been thing about getting myself a dog to live aboard with me and as fate would have it we met a lady who had adopted a Border Collie from the Border Collie Trust in Rugely which is only a stones (pardon the pun) through away. So armed with the address and telephone number I contacted them and arranged to visit the next day.  We got back to Great Heywood, and the Clifford Arms by 1pm and the landlady gave me a list of local taxi companies.  However, not one of them was available so it looked like we were not going to be able to go until a very kind lady, who I later found out to called Mary, came over and offered to take us to the trust herself, wow.  It must have been meant to happen and the rest is history as Bill very quickly chose me and became one of the family.  Mary and Paul, her husband, have now become firm friends of ours.

 

This was the icing on the cake of a fantastic weeks holiday for us all.