What a weekend!

Gosh… I’ve managed to get a few brain cells back on line to do this post after a phenomenal weekend. Sorry I didn’t post on Saturday or yesterday, just didn’t have the time or the energy.

The weather was so kind; it’s only today that it’s finally broken, so that we haven't been able to finish taking the marquee down, but for the Open Day itself it was dry and even sunny at times.

We saw loads of people at the Open Day, Peter took an order on the day and we’ve great hopes that some of the other potential customers will turn into actual ones in time to be with us as virtual owners next year. (Virtual owners are those who have ordered a Braidbar but it hasn’t been built yet.)

The charity auction raised a lot of money for the Anthony Nolan Trust; don’t have the final numbers quite yet, but with gift aid it should get into four figures. Bill's performance as auctioneer was worth coming to the weekend just to see. The barbecue was excellent as ever and my quiz didn’t seem to be as agonising as in previous years.

Yesterday we had a Boaters Question Time, with the same sort of format as the Gardeners version. A panel of four of us plus a chairman took questions from the audience about all sorts of aspects of owning a boat. We went on for a bit more than the hour we’d pencilled in for it, so another success to be repeated next year. My thanks to Des, Gill, Martin and Peter for taking part.

A quiet afternoon was followed by the traditional Chinese takeaway and another rumbustious session was enjoyed by those present.

Today we got ourselves up in good time for Ian Grindrod to pop on to finish off the jobs he’d started earlier in our visit, then we set to to take the walls down off the marquee and lay them out in the sun to dry. As I say, the subsequent rain means that the frame, end walls and roof are still up, but the guys in the yard will be able to clear that up later in the week.

Boat shuffling filled in the time to lunch; we’re back out on the Deeps (breasted up outside Cala) as are Sapphire and One Day and Ice Breaker has gone back into the yard. There’s a bit more to do to get other boats in their right places, but again that can be dealt with when the present monsoon has blown through.

Tomorrow, we’re back to boating again. We’re planning an early start, probably seven o’clock, to get as far as Lyme Green. We aim to be back in Mercia in about ten days time.