Our first visitors

Finally, our kids' work schedules allowed Naomi and Steve to come up and see Kantara yesterday.  Jess was worse than peeved, though, because she could not swap shifts with anyone, and had to work, as did Eddie, Naomi's husband.  But it was great to see Nome and Steve, and to spend time on board with them.  Oddly, we didn't take Kantara out.  Our kids are very familiar with canals and boats, so there was not the novelty factor with them.  Instead, they must have discerned our need for a bit of exercise, and we went for a walk together.  The weather was OK, the view from the top of Cracks Hill was superb, and the walk did us good.  Thanks, both of you!

That said, we both woke up this morning feeling headachy - nothing to do with Nome and Steve, I hasten to say! - and have had to cancel the visit of my sister, Jill, and her husband, Rod.  Sorry guys - we'll do it another time.

Tomorrow, Sam is coming from Foxton Boat Services to service the engine.  It will be very good to have it thoroughly checked and serviced, and to know that we will then have a healthy engine on which we can start to do the routine maintenance with confidence.  I hope to learn a fair bit from Sam - all part of the pretty steep learning curve we are in at the moment!