How this all began

Before we embark on the biggest journey this Sunday - as big as 4mph can be, I thought I'd take a little step back just to chronicle how this wonderful madness all began. This is mainly a pictorial trip just to give a brief synopsis of how UTA came to be...

September 2008 - Watching Rick Stein on his French Barge one morning, I asked Marion if she'd ever been on a narrow boat holiday?

With a negative response, we booked just a four day cruise on the Kennet & Avon, leaving two days later!

 Marion fell in love with it and even Freddie took to it like a duck to water

During our delightful days aboard Ruby from Sally Narrow Boats, I declared my lifelong dream to retire onto a boat. This (over maybe a bit of wine) then turned into a joint dream and subsequent reasoning - why wait?
As time pressed on and we spoke to friends and family, we were getting mixed responses to our dream of living aboard. One friend actually (sensibly) lectured "but you've only ever been in the summer and not for long, you may hate it." Right then... we booked a month on a hire boat starting in November 2009 with a tall order to get from the GU Leicester line and down to London through stoppages, awful weather and back again.   This was City Basin in between gales...

During the trip, our minds were made up. After just a week on the noisy, unreliable and very drafty boat, we knew we didn't want to give even her up. During the trip we started searching for used boats (had the laptop with us of course!) and, having spoken to a few liveaboards on the way, considered even a new build. We also happened to pass the most beautiful boat we'd ever seen...

At the helm, I was so transfixed, our old hire boat nearly mounted the opposite bank. We both clocked the boat builder as we passed. We made appointments to see both used boats and builders and made what turned out to be our best appointment to see Clare and Russ at Russ Hubble Boats. For anyone else who's considered this, you may also have been totally shocked by the sheer volume of boat builders in the country - it's a minefield.

Just an hour with the Hubbles - seeing the boat they were currently fitting out, the magnificent workmanship, their attention to detail and that we simply clicked with them, we walked straight out of their workshop and both, in unison, agreed we had to book our build slot with them. After plenty of discussions and choosing the design with their expertise, we settled for a narrowbeam Dutch, similar to Mad Hatter. We had some months to wait before the build slot and this is her some time later as a shell built by the wonderful guys at Colecraft...

Colecraft shell

Packing for next Sunday- THE BIG DAY

Marion is already busy packing in preparation for next Sunday - UTA day! After nearly two years planning and many, many months in build, we are finally picking up our beloved boat. Either sadly or suitably named Underneath the Archers, this beautiful 60' narrowbeam Dutch barge has become fondly known as UTA by ourselves and the VERY talented and amazing boat builders Russ Hubble Boats.

Billy (the territorial and queen-B tabby) is not happy about boxes being packed. At 15, she knows what this means. Freddie, however, is just snoring happily like any (nearly) 12 year old Springer should. They are both very used to boat life. Since this crazy idea was born, we have taken them on our many water holidays and they take in their stride. Can't wait to see how Billy reacts to her own 'Kitty En-Suite' - a rather clever solution to where to home a litter tray (behind the end panel of our bath on UTA with her own entrance flap - brilliant Clare & Russ!)

As I'm coming to the end of this post, the 'to go on the boat' pile of half of our belongings is pretty much all neatly packed. I know I have to go through another processions cull but, hey, we have the rest of the week although am sure work will get in the way of that. Oh hang on, Marion's now started on the tool box. Really? Will we need tools...?

This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago in the paint shop;