The Adventure Begins...

... and little did we know that the windlass would break on the first day, that all the chandleries were shut for Christmas holidays, that we couldn't light the coal-fire without firewood (not damp twigs!), that we'd have to bribe a fellow boater to sell us one of their windlasses, that we'd spend Christmas Eve with no heating, that we'd start to run out of coal on Boxing Day (and the man with the coal next to him refused to sell us any coz he was on "holiday"), that we'd run out of booze (bloody hell!), that all the restaurants and petrol stations and supermarkets in Branston wouldn't open till the day after Boxing Day (no coal, no firewood, no booze...) and that we'd have to eat a MacDonalds for supper on Boxing Day, that we'd moor up at the Branston Lakes and accidentally leave our headlamp on for an hour, blinding the poor boat moored in front of us (that alas turned out to be the same people who sold us their windlass three days earlier!)... but would we have changed a thing about this holiday? NEVER!

We met some amazing people, experienced the kindness of strangers helping us with our fire and supplies; the generosity and welcome of the lovely landlord and landlady at the Swan Inn at Fradley Junction; we successfully managed to p*ss off two fisherman outside a marina who wished us a "Merry f*cking Christmas" that in fact made our day; were highly amused by the "Branston Masseeef" (a bunch of not very scary teenagers in a red sports car with rap music blaring driving around a 1980's Wimpey estate trying to look hard... ("Kev and me are from South-East London, mate, you boys are just funny")); and experienced ten-minute showers with the pilot light cutting out every 60 seconds or so - "hot COLD hot COLD hot COLD, bugger it, I'll stay dirty" and we huddled round the little stove after a cold day's cruising in the winter sun supping mulled wine and we had the best Christmas we've ever had!!!