We had been a little concerned that the parking facilities at the canal boat depot at Rugby Wharf may not accommodate our truck so it was with some relief that we discovered, plenty of space, no low trees or structures and a bunch of laid-back people who seemed to have no issue with us parking a big yellow truck on their premises for a week. Phew!

Brendon and Jessica arrived a little while after us and packing of the boat with a weeks supply of stuff got underway. There were a few hassles during the loading process as Brendon had bought a local GSM chip for his phone and it was not working, Nina wanted to buy some additional groceries at a local super market, and the staff at the wharf wanted to get us going ASAP as they had a busy afternoon of getting people and boats organized and moving. So about 30 minutes after our appointed departure time, following some very brief instructions on the boat and its features/systems we were headed down the wharfs side canal to the main channel. For this 200 yard trip we had an instructor. Good thing too, as at the junction we had to perform a 360 degree turn. Once completed we were on our way, and on our own in regards to how does one handle one of these boats.

We stopped after a few minutes near the local super market (which we did not previously get to) and then we were really on our way. Over the next hour we started to get the hang of steering this very long boat in this very narrow canal, passing other boats and passing under bridges (with only 12 inches to spare on either side). It was a pleasant sunny afternoon and we found a nice grassy bank at which to stop for the night about an hour after leaving the super market.

We put our camp chairs onto the grass, broke out the beer and cheese and had a very pleasant evening.