Introduction

In the middle of July we bought a 60' narrow boat called Take Five. We had spent a few days a month earlier, ably assisted by Andrew, and some of the time by Ellie and Alice - separately - looking at a large number of boats. Take Five was the last to be seen and the advertising details led us all to believe that it was the most likely, which it proved to be.



Built six years ago as a family boat (the parents had three children, hence the name!) it has not had a large amount of usage and appears in very good condition. After a survey and other discussion, we eventually became its new proud owners. In the process of making our decision we were invited to talk to the owner of the boatyard at Lower Heyford who had done quite a bit of the maintenance work in recent times, including a 'blacking' realier in the year. This had the very positive pay-off of finding us a mooring as well. Moorings in this area were proving to be quite hard - we were looking on the south Oxford canal so that it could be convenient for the Oxford family and not too far for Andrew from his new base in Devizes.

We have not yet taken any really good photos - setting up the boat to 'work' for us has taken all our efforts! However, here is one photo taken when were looking at boats before making the purchase.



The boat, as bought, lacked some features that we consider important - if not essential (at least for oldsters looking for some degree of creature comforts!) So, after a few short trips (and the Oxford family used it last weekend) we have commissioned the boatyard to install a water heating system, some radiators, solar panel trickle charger, inverter to power the mains sockets (previously only usable from a landline) and to fix a safety point on the wiring which the boat surveyor requires before re-issuing the boat safety certificate. We hope that this will all be ready for our next planned trip towards the end of the month when we will have time for a much further exploration.