Here we are at Harefield Marina near Uxbridge and Adnan is the new and proud owner of the traditional narrow boat ‘QUINTESSENCE’! A fine day to pick up the boat, the sun was out and there wasn’t much wind either.
Some more fuel and we were ready to cruise towards Uxbridge Boat Centre for hull blackening, an essential part of boat maintenance. Firstly the hull will be pressure cleaned and then layers of black bitumen put on it. This process is ideally done every 2 years.
Adnan elegantly manoeuvred his new princess out of the marina, let’s not forget boats are addressed as female and the avid boater doesn’t talk of ‘it’ but of ‘her’.
Anyway, this is the first of many cruises to come. Hitting the Grand Union canal we slowly cruised towards our final destination. Natascha was amazed about the clean water, she only knows the Regents Canal in London, as she lives near by and the water quality there is far from acceptable. She often referred to it as ‘a floating rubbish dump’. Little did she know at this point.