We are now live aboards. Over the past couple of years we have read and thought so much about these mythical creatures that it doesn’t seem possible that we are now one of their number.

We had a difficult day yesterday, despite all the sorting, moving and packing that had gone before, finally emptying the house was a real challenge. All those bits inside and out that we had ignored, because we just didn’t know what to do with them, had to be faced up to.

Our final biggest problem was the rubbish, we had put as much as conceivably possible on the skip, Rick made an emergency run to the dump and our lovely neighbours who popped by to wish us farewell armed with tea and cake to help us through the day or Champagne to toast our new life, had all left with at least one black sack, but I still ended up with two bags in the back of the car.

We started at six in the morning, were organising and carrying at ten, cleaning by one, driving to Southampton at four and finally left the storage unit at eight. It was a cold night, we are still dependent on fan heaters to heat the boat and we woke with ice on the decks, but the sun was shinning and now this was our home.

We had shed a tear leaving Ongley, however as we sat drinking our morning tea on the deck of our beautiful yacht with the March sunshine gradually warming us, there was not a breath of wind. Our view, the rivers glassy surface, was only disturbed by the swans and rowers gliding by and the marine industry slowly coming to life. Had we made a mistake, of course not.

We smiled wryly at each other, thank goodness we hadn’t woken to the pouring rain.