Widebeam River Boat Still Rockin' is for sale

I know that for most of my readers this will come as rather a shock, but the time has come to think about what the future holds for us.

Although we love being, living and cruising on the river we also feel the need to be closer to family as we get older ... but we're definitely not old yet!  

Which is why we're taking this big step of putting our lovely boat on the market and starting to look in the Shropshire/Cheshire area to start another adventure where we hope to live close enough to the canals to get frequent boating 'fixes' and the occasional meet-up with our narrowboating friends.

The link to the Apolloduck advert is below ... please share it far and wide for us.

Widebeam River Boat Still Rockin' for sale

The wind ... the rain ... and the river!

The UK has a lot of it just now and although we're not in any such dire straights than in other places (and our hearts go out to those who are) it is affecting life here on the Thames ...

 Storm Dennis (Monday 17th) caused the pram hood of boat opposite us to collapse, no damage done though thank goodness

Tuesday at 7:30 the river is rising  and our long gangplank is once again under water ...

but we didn't think it would get any higher than this

Looking over the mill stream ...

 We've got another pair!  This time it's two Great Spotted Woodpeckers ... the male is on the suet balls and the female is waiting her turn beneath him.

5pm and it's still rising ... is that it? Or is there more to come we wonder ... it's not yet as high as it was when we left Still Rockin' just before Christmas

 The female ducks often 'hide' in places where the males can't get at them!

 Thursday (20th) the poor daffodils are nearly drowned!

 Yesterday (24th) and the level has gone down by about 12 inches ...

 but there's still about another 3 feet to fall to normal levels!

 All ten ...

 of Hambleden Locks ...

 are open ...

and with no barriers the river is hurtling down.

The whole of the non-tidal River Thames is on red boards ... navigation not advisable!

Back to Oz ... Goodbye Melbourne ... Hello Sydney ...

 Ray (of ex-nb Ferndale fame) very kindly dropped us off at Melbourne Airport on Monday 4th March 2019 for our 12:30 flight on Qantas Cann River ...

 onboard and being briefed by the hostess ...

 and we're off the ground on our way to Sydney!

 It's only a 1.5 hour flight ...

 so it's not long ...

 before we start to descend ...

 brakes are on ...

 as we taxi to the arrivals bay.

Half an hour later we're in our pre-booked taxi travelling under Sydney Harbour and over Spit Bridge to Manly ...

 and our hotel for the week ...

 the Novotel Manly Pacific

where we had a lovely spacious room on the top floor overlooking ...

 the beach ...  what a view!

Out for a walk an hour or so later to familiarise ourselves of the immediate locality as we have a very early pick up in the morning ...

 Our stay coincided with the World Volleyball Tournament and we could see these courts from our hotel room balcony.

 

We walked as far as Circular Quay to watch the ferries coming and going as this would be our main transport whilst staying here.

We're going to have the most fabulous time!