All signed up and the excitement mounts

We spent a wonderful weekend in Essex catching up with our parents as we had not seen them since before Christmas.  It was like Christmas all over again opening presents and so on.  It felt so good to see the folks again.  My father is to have an operation on his knee as the joint cartledge has failed so now he is walking bone on bone, it pains me to see him wince when he walks, he must be in so much pain so I'm glad the operation will help him.


On Monday we braved the cold at took the train to Southend-on-sea and walked along the sea front. Its been ages since we took the train and it was difficult not to behave like school kids :-).  But man was it cold!  The light wind was like a knife and cut you to the core despite wrapping up well.  We finished off with a hot lunch to warm ourselves before heading home. 


Tuesday was a big day for us and after a 6am start we headed over to Grantham and Fernwood's.  Both Chris and Julia have gone down with a cold and cough so it was tissues at the ready. Ken popped his head into the office but beat a hasty retreat as both girls were coughing.  He returned later to discuss electrics (more on this in another post).


After discussing the hull type and engine together with the basic layout of the boat for several hours we eventually signed the contract and accepted an outline spec.  We have more meetings planned to finalise details.  So that's it, 3 signatures later, our bank balance sagging a bit more, AmyJo will now become a reality.  We both are elated and we have to say feel a little trepidation too.    Fernwood boats are superbly built with beautiful styling and although we are sure AmyJo will be built to their usual high quality we hope our choices all go together to make a beautiful boat.  There are some excellent boats out there and we hope we can aspire to the same level with AmyJo.  The magnitude of the task ahead is just starting to become apparent.


So when will the build start?  Fernwoods cannot give us a start date just yet but we can confirm Jim Sparks at Alexander boats will be building AmyJo for us and hopes to start soon.  It all depends on when he can slot us in, Julia was confident that would not be to long so watch this space.


On the way home we picked up the Francis lamp and are chuffed to bits with it.  It is in superb condition with only one minor dent and a few hairline scratches at the back.  Can't wait to see it on the boat!


Anyway thats all for now.  I'll post again with what we have agreed and once we get final confirmation of the layout from Fernwoods I'll reveal all.