Crick and Time Flies

Hi all
Sorry for not posting sooner.  Since last Wednesday we simply have not stopped.  I don't know why but I just have not had time to sit down an post until now.

So where to begin.  Friday started out nice and sunny.  After some overnight rain I dried off AmJyo again and set too polishing the Starboard cabin side.  

You guessed it, as I took the photo when I finished it started raining so I gave up and went below and did some cleaning chores inside.   It rained constantly for the rest of the day and was still coming down by morning.

After the rain Friday night getting Chris from Rugby station and parking the car in an already very muddy field was interesting to say the least and by time the crowds had arrived Saturday morning the fields were becoming reminiscent of a world war one battle zone with mud everywhere.   This continued throughout the many stalls causing the organisers to lay loads of straw down everywhere.   Having only trainers I purchased a pair of wellies and within an hour the stall holder had sold his entire stock of them.

The familiar wet sight Crick

Our mooring neighbours were getting into the spirit of the show and started to raise flags on their boats. One, Gary, raised his with a rendition of Dixie which had us all in hysterics.

Our neighbours Bill, Brian, Gary (in the hat) and his good lady

We managed to have a look round the show but to our dismay many of the stalls that sold items on our shopping list were absent though we did manage to buy a long boat pole to many comments about pole vaulting amongst others to dubious to mention.

Later in the afternoon whilst visiting the Fernwood stand ominous black clouds gathered

Minutes later the heavens opened up and  shortly after hailstones the size of garden peas battered the marina, by now there was no one to be seen.

We finished the day off in a packed out beer tent listening to Toyah Willcox and a great evening was had with the lads from Fernwoods who built AmyJo.

Sunday was a much better day and the sun shone throughout.  Chris and I had promised Fernwoods to show interested customers around AmyJo so were kept pretty busy all day with a steady stream of people.  I have to say I was a bit dubious of this but to be fair all were respectful and took off their muddy boots and coats without being asked. It was clear some were just being nosey but the others were very interested in our experience asking lots of questions and it was nice to share advise we had been given when we were looking to have AmyJo built.

Monday passed in a flash but with the return of the wet weather.  We had several lovely surprise visits from bloggers and boat owners beginning with blogger, John (Halfie) and his wife, his blog can be found here (click).  It was a real pleasure to meet you and we're sorry we could not visit you on Jubilee, we simply ran out of time.

We also got to meet one of our twitter followers, @bsbnutter aka Mark and his wife.  We chatted for some time and it was good to meet them both.

Shortly after that Mike and Helen from nb Little Bear dropped by and we were keen to hear how they did on their recent cruise up the Llandgollen canal.  Seems like they had an interesting time and we enjoyed sharing post launch tales with them.

Later another knock and this time Adam and Adrian from nb Briar Rose (click) were stood at the door.  Thanks for visiting guys we really enjoyed our chat.

Last of all we had a real natter about boaty things when Tony and Sue from nb The old Masters dropped by.  Their boat is also a Fernwood boat and as we had met them the previous year being given a tour of their boat we reciprocated with a tour of AmyJo this time round. 

If I missed anyone out I do apologise.  We had so much fun chatting to all our visitors it made for a great time at show.

Thank you to all those who took the time to visit us and AmyJo we really enjoyed your company and it helped to make a fantastic time at the boat show for us.

With the show out of the way our thoughts are now turning to our trip up North to bring AmyJo to her home berth on the Shroppy and of course we be posting about that we hope.