Hectic isn't the word!

Down to the boat last Friday, followed by a major clear out of all the kit that doesn't need to be aboard over the winter and then some

Then some because, of course, we don't expect to be using Erbas again other than as a floating cottage for a few more weeks

With boxes and bags loaded into the car, we headed down to Burnham for a very pleasant evening aboard the good ship Laurin

Curry, beer, music and scotch did flow and after staying over a very welcome breakfast set us up for the journey home

Wednesday morning saw us back on the road at the ungodly hour of two am after Jane got an early finish

We slept most of the morning and then set about Erbas with the pressure washer and hoover as appropriate! A couple of hours graft in the sunshine had her looking her best again

Then this morning I set about diagnosing the tiller pilot fault. As I half expected it turned out to be a bad connection on the back of the deck socket...



With that fixed the good tiller pilot worked perfectly so I had a look at the old dodgy one. I'd wondered if the original problem had been damp, to which (ridiculously) tiller pilots are notoriously prone, and it seems that may have been the case as it now seems to be working OK.

I wouldn't trust my life to it but as a back up to the known good one it's a bonus.

All was about ready for a visit from a potential buyer for Erbas who duly arrived for a tour of the boat and a chat. Chickens are not being counted yet but fingers crossed!

Meanwhile Carol has been busy fixing things on "Safe Return" which is good! We'd have popped round for a visit but we've both got colds which are probably best kept to ourselves

It's back home again in the morning for another round of solicitor nagging as we've had a call from the agents and our buyers are getting understandably impatient. So are we!

The Great Escape - the saga continues

It's all a bit frustrating at the moment really. We're champing at the bit to get on with things but solicitors and banks seem incapable of moving along quickly

To recap, we're now simply waiting for the last piece of paperwork on the purchase of the house in Kettering and then we can exchange contracts and agree completion dates on both properties.

I'm going to be pushing all parties hard on that next week, I want the earliest possible completion date set in concrete by next Friday.

The lift out and survey on the new boat is booked for the second weekend in January. Unless the keels fall off or something equally dramatic I don't expect to learn anything that will put us off or affect the deal. (In fact, as there's a survey less than 10 years old available, we could have avoided the expense of having a survey done now. However, we'd then have needed a survey all the sooner and given that we're blowing our entire budget on the purchase it's probably wise to get the boat checked over and make certain there are no hidden nasty surprises)

We're now in the middle of two trips down to Erbas in less than a week! We've come down this weekend to have a major clear out of all our personal gear, which really needs to come off over the winter anyway, and to move as much of the boat kit as possible that won't be sold with Erbas into the Boson 's Store

It's a properly windy day today and we had a bit of a disturbed night last night. Not so much the wind, that really doesn't bother us much, but neither of us slept that well.

We'll crack on in a while, it shouldn't take long to do what needs doing, and then it's back home in the morning.

We'll be back down on Wednesday to spruce up Erbas to look her best as a chap is coming to look at her on Thursday. It would be very useful indeed if we could sell Erbas at around the same time as buying Pagan, or even sooner, thus avoiding owning two boats which can get very costly!

On with the kettle I think and then it's time for some action!