Talia is launched

Friday night didn't start off too successfully. We didn't have a key to get any electricity or water, the loo wouldn't flush and Eberspacher (heater) wouldn't start so we had a cold night. Add to that we didn't sleep too well as the shelf is in the way of the king-size berth we wanted to use.

On Saturday the ex-owner, Bob, came down to see Talia (as yet there is no name on her as the old one has been removed but the new one hasn't arrived yet) who is now moored on the outside pontoon at Titchmarsh Marina. With the old owner present we instantly fixed nearly all the problems - turned out we did have a key we just didn't know it and the toilet does flush, you just need to know the knack and we brought a new battery which should hopefully help the Eberspacher when it is serviced on Tuesday.

We soon got the water tanks filled, the mainsail and lazy jacks on and the genoa set up and then went out for a little "sail".

There really wasn't much wind but at one point we managed 5 knots but you don't really notice the speed on this boat.

We did some practice manoeuvres. Using the Sillette leg (steerable leg) at an angle really helped the turning circle. Both Tamsyn and I brought her back to the pontoon without hitting anything - which was a relief!

We tied up at about 3:00 PM and said goodbye to Bob who had been really helpful in his extended handover and then sat down quite exhausted in our own boat all alone in what seemed like the first time. The enormity of what we had brought was slowly beginning to sink in.

And so then what did we do ?

We started ripping pieces out of our boat...

We had always planned to remove the shelf as it wastes the fantastic king size berth. But we had had such a bad night on Friday night that we couldn't wait.

Suffice to say that once it was removed we got a much better nights sleep on Saturday night.

Still have a little bit left to remove but this shouldn't take long.

We woke up to a howling F7/F8 Gale. It is testament to Talia that it was quite quiet and calm inside the boat but outside was a different story as this footage shows.

We spent the day hunkered down sorting through bits and bobs on board trying to get the boat ready for our Easter trip.

Got some nice (ish despite the weather) photos of Talia alfloat.