I love being in the marina

What I love most about living on Kantara is cruising. Taking our home with us along miles and miles of canal and river. Waking up at a new spot most mornings, seeing new places, meeting lots of people, being out-doors, enjoying the scenery. And doing everything at a leisurely pace. But I do love being in the marina, too.

I've just finished washing the boat. Just a hose and a chammy. No bubbles, no wax. Not this time. I'll do that closer to the day we leave for the winter. Darren was washing Cream Cracker. He started before we even got up this morning. And Adrian and Myra were similarly putting a shine on Hereward. Sarah and Trevor turned up and prepared to take AtLast out for a couple of weeks. And it was fun. There was lots of chat. Lots of banter and laughs. Stories told, legs pulled. And that often happens here. People gather in twos and threes and fours around the marina and spend time with each other. In or outside the marina office, at any of the picnic tables which are dotted around the site. Walking dogs, or sitting on benches while the dogs wear each other out. Or simply standing on their boats and chatting across the pound. Voices travel well across water. You don't have to shout to be heard some tens of feet away. You just have to make sure that what you're saying's not confidential. It certainly won't be private!

I'm ashamed to say that I've never had that kind of prolonged conversation with any of our neighbours in St Albans. We just didn't have the time for each other. I'll have to work on it when we're back there in December.