It is around four o-clock in the afternoon on Wednesday fifteenth July as I write today’s diary. The start of this new adventure began yesterday when we collected our narrow boat from Tring. Mega-excited, and full of optimism, we loaded her up with the contents of our faithful caravan and set off for a pub about an hours cruise up the cut. As Tom steered, Leigh thought she would have a quick clean up and start to put some of our things away. Thinking a quick clean up would be in order was the first mistake. Have you ever moved home and as your last items go in the removal van you pop back into your old home to make sure you have left it spick and span? Leigh always does…and she assumed that the previous owner of the boat would too.
Now, before I rush ahead let me take you back to the beginning of this adventure – which we decided upon whilst overwintering in Spain. On our return to the UK last month my humans started looking for a narrow boat to purchase. All we needed was a boat had been manufactured after the year two-thousand, with a decent sized living area and in good, clean condition. Should be easy enough eh? It wasn’t. We saw lots of tatty, old narrow boats and a few that were (in Leigh’s words), ‘OK, but not doing it for me’ and a couple of gorgeous boats which were not quite big enough for the four of us. Then we came across an advert on eBay for a beautiful blue narrow boat that floated our boat – pun intended. Yelp!
This boat was well designed with some lovely features, and the owner was Prince Charming himself (slight exaggeration). My humans loved the boat – although she was over budget – and Prince Charming explained that because she was, ‘rather special and a bit unique’ (plus the fact that we had seen a lot of boats in the same price bracket which were not quite ship-shape), he couldn’t do a lot on the price. We all agreed that she was worth the money and paid a deposit to secure the purchase. Prince C. also took us out on a day trip to see how she ran – and all seemed good. We then booked the necessary boat survey where she was pronounced fit for travel and she became ours on Monday.
Her name was originally ‘Drunken Duck’ but had been changed by Prince C. to ‘Dancing Duck’. Now, superstition has it that you shouldn’t change the name unless the boat is out of the water but because it doesn’t seem to have brought any misfortune on Prince C. we threw superstition to the wind. As it happens, I don’t believe in superstitions generally – although I do hold my collar until I see a human if I see the back of an ambulance. Anyway, to bring you back to last evening, when Leigh started to clean she retorted that ‘Dancing Duck’ should have been named ‘Dirty Duck’. The hidden parts – drawers, fridge, cooker, microwaves, cupboards were filthy.

The lesson here is to check everything if you purchase a boat, a house, a caravan or whatever. Because my humans believe in keeping things clean (and pretty sound people) they often believe others (especially those who portray a pleasant character) are the same. How on earth Prince C. could live like this I have no idea. Funnily enough he sold the boat to move in with his girlfriend – I pity her. She’ll soon be answering to Cinderella methinks!

There are a few other issues with the boat which Tom will need to ‘de-bodge’ and sort out. The biggest problem today is that the engine started cutting out. Tom called an engineer out – a really helpful guy – who spent some hours trying to fix it. We now have a day or two moored up here – just north of Tring – waiting for parts to arrive. Yelp!

Once we get to our planned mooring at Tardebigge in Worcestershire we will spend a few weeks sorting the boat out. Leigh is looking forward to purchasing a new fridge, a sofa-bed, seat cushions for my work station (dining area) and microwave, to replace the ones in the boat already. When she is in tip-top condition we will get her out of the water, black her bottom and set off – although we are not sure exactly where yet. That is pretty usual for us, as you will know if you’ve read my previous books. You will also know that my humans are as dogmatic as me and Rosie and we will not let this tricky start set us back. We will re-name the boat ‘Very Pinook’ when she is out of the water at Tardebigge, which will suit her when she is superclean and looking bambox (as Leigh’s mum would say).

Before setting off today Leigh, Rosie and I went for a swift walk up the cut. When we got back to the boat Leigh noticed that Rosie’s paw was bleeding quite profusely. Tom bathed it and managed to get it to stop after about ten minutes and Leigh found Rosie’s dew claw by the door – she must have caught it and ripped it on when getting back on board. Yelp! That was just the first accident of the day.
Whilst travelling this morning we hit a flight of locks, one after the other. Poor Leigh didn’t even get chance to jump back on board between them, as they were so close together. She had two minor accidents resulting in a red, swollen finger and a cut, swollen and bruised ankle. After closing the gate of one particularly tough lock, the windlass spun off and bounced off her leg. Actually, she was lucky it didn’t break a bone. Limping along, she carried on and did the next lock – and then a small miracle happened. Both humans were grabbing a quick cup of coffee when a lady called at the boat. She told Tom that she and the guy with her were lock volunteers, and wondered if she would like him to operate the next couple of locks for him. He said that would be marvellous, explaining about Leigh’s injuries at the same time; the volunteers then proceeded to do the next three locks whilst her ladyship drank coffee and sat up front chatting. Both humans thanked the volunteers and the lady volunteer told Leigh that she had had the same experience with windlass at the same lock, so she would get it checked out.

Around midday we stopped off at the Blue-Bell cafe near Marsworth, for sausage sandwiches and scones. Rosie, Leigh and I then went for a lovely walk around a pretty reservoir. On the way back to the boat we rounded a corner and encountered a rather huge heron! He took a quick glance at us and launched into flight so effortlessly, and in silence, that I couldn’t help but marvel at him. I thought we would have heard the sound of his wings furiously flapping, yet there was not a sound. It was really exhilarating to be upcloseandpersonal with such a fabulous catcher of fish.
The other experience that made me realise how wonderful life on water can be, is when I spotted a flock of Canadian Geese swimming past our boat. They were all adults so I didn’t take a great deal of notice, but when I looked out of the window a few minutes later I could see they had been joined by some youngsters; not exactly chicks but very young geese. It was just so lovely to see them all swimming along. It was as if the parents had been off to whoknowswhere and then returned to take the little ones out to play. A little later on (when we were still moored up while the engineer and Tom worked on the engine) Leigh, Rosie and I ambled past the geese – who were now sitting in the sun on the bank of the canal – and they hissed at us. I had never noticed how geese hiss and stick their tongues out at the same time. They reminded me of those rugby players who do that funny old routine called something like the ‘hacka’. I just watched them out of the corner of my eye and thought to myself, ‘How rude?’

The last accident of the day was when yours truly went bounding down the boat to see what Tom was up to. As I ran past the bedroom and up the steps to the stern of the boat I fell into the engine bay. I hadn’t realised that the floor access would be open. Yelp!

Woofs, Martha xx

P.S. Funny thing is that Leigh, Rosie and I all have poorly paws now although Leigh’s is her back paw and Rosie and mine are front paws!