The first week of any boat journey

At long last we introduced Natalie and Sam to the Young Larry!

It was a long trip, repeatedly counting bags from plane, to train, and finally into the welcoming
automobiles of Andrew and Maire.

Last transfer to the final train

We were tired but had that essential burst of arrival energy that carried us through some unpacking and dinner with them in their lovely house. Seasonal asparagus and strawberries!
 As anyone knows, when you first embark on a boating adventure, you don’t actually go anywhere for at least a week. My memories of commercial fishing in Bristol Bay as a teenager include the first days of working in the dusty/muddy boatyard getting the boat ready: hauling nets, painting the hull, and doing other dirty jobs while my dad slaved away getting everything else sorted.
The Young Larry was in a very different marina - quite a posh one in fact. But there was still a lot to do. Andrew spent the better part of 3 days going over the boat with Murray, and I started provisioning for the trip. Natalie and Sam helped out however they could.

It was a pleasant 15 min walk to Lymington High St along the river.

Lymington is a very yacht-y town with lots of touristy shops and the ever-helpful Tescos for groceries.


 The first sail on Friday was lovely!

Docking, not so much in the tight marina.
But we managed with the help of Andrew and Maire.
My biggest fear is the bowsprit: 9 feet spear pointing from our bow. On the Katalla you could walk
out on it but not on this boat. All those expensive yachts with their flimsy fiberglass shells that our
bowsprit could pierce right through...it literally gives me nightmares.
Another key difference is that the gears and throttle are only on 1 control instead of 2...to go ahead
you push it forward into gear and further to accelerate, the opposite for reverse.
We punctuated the boat work with a walk through the salt marshes to the impressive Hurst Castle fort, and dinner at a nice pub.
On Friday our dear friends the Broads came with their 3 boys and we had planned to go out for a sail. Unfortunately things did not go smoothly - we reversed out of the slip with only one small scare, but
then, when Murray went to put it into forward it was jammed in reverse and back we went, towards the next finger of boats.
With 5 children littering the decks we leapt around, attempting to soften the blow with our fenders.
In a typical show of spousal support I grabbed the controls and again tried to put it in forward which,
 since it was stuck in reverse, gave us a burst of speed into the innocent boats behind us. Natalie has
a description of the whole scene from her perspective on her blog too.
Along with the horrible crunch/sliding sound, there was a woman on a boat we were aimed at (but we slid by without even touching) who was shrieking like a harpy at us! Like…crazy lady shrieking. I was sputtering, “we’re not even touching your boat!” as we were sliding past, en route for the others, but she didn’t shut up until Natalie snapped, “Yelling at us isn’t helping at all! We’re doing everything we can - you can come help if you want!” That’s my girl…We all got a huge laugh at that afterwards.
Thankfully, no one was hurt, the damage was shockingly minimal, and the best thing was that Alexa and Rupert were there to help - both in the moment with the boat and afterwards with our nerves.

We took the kids to the oldest Lido (saltwater pool) in the UK, one that is 3 min from the boat and which Sam had been begging to go to.

Ice creams and chips after a swim

Playing in the cabin

We had a good day catching up and Alexa kept me from freaking out. As Murray says, she has a good
 effect on me.

Next day we found an angel of a mechanic who addressed the gears and offered to do a quick “once over” engine class with Murray on Monday.
Somewhere in the next few days we went on one of our infamous death marches, the highlight of which was Sam’s introduction to cream tea - in a tent in a u-pick strawberry field. Amazing! He is a huge fan of cream tea now and we plan to adopt it as a family tradition.

Tuesday morning, at long last, we were ready to go, the wind was calm, the tides favorable and we gently eased out of our slip and away from our first marina home, into our great family adventure.