Back to the Beginning.

 After tying up in the marina we had washed the st'bd side of 'Holderness' in preparation for me to paint it with raddle black paint. After all this time, before I had finished, there were a few small drops of rain. Typical thought I, but it didn't turn into anything and I was able to finish it. It certainly looks better for doing. One reason I wanted to do it was to not such a poor neighbour next to the boat with the live aboard next to us on the pontoon. How ever he has sold up and moved ashore, but I am glad it has been done. There are bits of hull paintwork to do now, but the main place requiring work is around the control stand where the switches and Morso control are. This will require removing them from the steel and I really will have to do that in the Marina so we will have to wait and see when that gets down.

Last night I also tried to replace the fuel filter, but I couldn't budge it. Never mind hand tight. And why have they positioned it just where the dip stick comes out, and with the inlet and outlet hoses make it almost impossible to take a good grip of it anyway! I was sure I had a chain filter wrench, but I couldn't find it last night. However, whilst looking for something else I came across it so that was another job done this morning.

I also filled up with water, without getting the newly painted hull wet either. It was then a case of filling the car up with all the stuff to take home. We left the kitchen sink, but took a lot of the flowers from the bow. The bloke on our pontoon used to water the plants for us, so I'm not sure what will happen now he has gone.

It has been a great almost three weeks and around 167 locks too. Visiting Brum. is always fun, but with the Commonwealth games thrown in it was great.

Whilst certainly not in new condition it made me think of when we were looking for a boat in the first place. Everyone has a list of things they are looking for. Some where marked down as deal breakers and some can be compromised on for other possible benefits. Once the list is created then the trawling of the website magazines and brokerages starts. In fact 'Holderness' was the first boat we physically viewed. We both liked except for the bathroom set up. We still had about a year before we were ready to get use out of the boat so we left. Later on, when we started to look more seriously, we noticed it was still on sale and for a reduced price. We looked at other boats, but still felt this one fitted our list almost too perfectly, other than the bathroom. So I spoke to the builders and we did a deal that included making the bathroom into a walk through, and that works much better.

These are the original details that we saw. As you can see there is no name and now artwork on the boat. It was on the way to the yard to have the name painted in and the bits and pieces been done to the boat that we decided on the name for the boat. There is only one 'Holderness' on the register, and the closest other is 'Pride of Holderness' which was owned by a lock keeper at West Stockwith I think.

All in all we are still really very pleased with our purchase and I think about 3,800 engine hours later, and many days aboard we still so enjoy our time aboard.