New era dawns

摘要

With the children grown up, holidays were usually spent in Wales or The Lakes. Jayne, my wife, would drive the loaded car and I would follow on my motorbike. We would then tour on the bike leaving the car at the camp/cottage. Then Jayne had knee replacements meaning she could no longer easily mount or sit comfortably on the bike. An anniversary meal on board Judith Mary at Whaley Bridge sparked an idea for a canal boat holiday where Jayne could steer and I could operate the locks etc. We started to look around, and a visit to Macclesfield Canal Centre saw us introduced to Rushton Lady. Hired from the marina, she was a 45ft cruiser stern narrowboat. We booked for a week in May 2002 and she became 'our boat' for the following three years with cruises on the Four Counties and Llangollen. The idea of owning our own boat grew, and when I received my share of my mother's estate in 2005 we began our search.