Friday 1^st June

Up early on 1^st June to visit the hair dressers.  I decided that I couldn’t cope with long hair whilst at sea and so elected to have it all cut off (it’s now the shortest it’s been since I was born).  Then we went to Southampton to take delivery of 60m of anchor chain.  It was a beautiful, hot day, so with Pyxis out of the water and on the hard, it was pretty exhausting work hauling it into the anchor locker.

Saturday/ Sunday 2-3^rd June

My P’s visited for weekend (great - meant they could take a car load of storage fodder back to Derbyshire).

4-8^th June – a busy first week

On Monday we walked nonchalantly into the local travel clinic to ensure that our tetanus, polio, etc. were up to date.  We walked out 15 minutes later in shock at having had to have Rabies jabs - the injection was painless enough but the price of a course of 3 was enough to have us frothing at the mouth.  We also needed to have Hepatitis B (less surprising, but more painful).

Then, packing.  As we are letting the house while we are gone we needed to clear it.  Started the task and realised what a lot there is to do – stuff for storage, stuff for the boat, stuff for charity, and stuff for recycling/ the dump.  This week I sorted the clothes and books (no mean task) and fitted in a trip to the optician too (new pair of glasses required).

Visited Pyxis again as she was going back into the water on Friday and we needed to check all the work was done.  Unfortunately Richard spotted that some of the work needed to be re-done as they had not used the correct fittings – Richard then spent a couple of days travelling to Southampton to ensure that work was completed correctly.

Pyxis went back in the water on Friday with all the hull work finished in the nick of time – phew.  Just the new electrics to complete now.

9-10^th June

We had a rest this weekend on board Pyxis back at Ocean Village, with friends visiting for dinner.

11-15^th June – a very busy second week

On Monday Richard took his CEVNI test so that we can go to the French inland waterways if we choose (yes, he passed, with full marks). 

On Tuesday we went for our second Rabies jab and we took our tropical fish back to the Aquarium shop – hope they find them a good home.

Wednesday and Thursday we moved the big stuff to Richard’s Mum’s.  This was hard work but very satisfying as the house now looks almost empty. 

Friday we fitted in a dentist appointment before taking a car load of storage fodder to Derbyshire.

16-17^th June

Visited all Karen’s aunts prior to our trip.

18-20^th June

On Monday, we cleared more small stuff out of the house (don’t know where it’s all coming from).

On Tuesday we went to Pyxis (with another car load of stuff – I think we’re going to have to tow a barge behind us!) ready for our shake down cruise to France to test all the new equipment.  I had decided to take the bathroom scales but when I got on them and hadn’t lost a single pound after all the physical effort of clearing the house, I changed my mind and they will be going into storage (otherwise my web diary would begin to sound too much like Bridget Jones’ Diary).

Unfortunately on Wednesday morning the weather was not good for a trip to anywhere as we were being pinned onto the pontoon by 20-25 knots of wind, so Richard enjoyed boxing in our new batteries.

21^st-26^th June

Plan B:  trip to France was put on hold as the wind was blowing hard from the South (the direction we wanted to travel) and so we decided to detour to Brighton and hope that the weather situation would improve and we could get across from there.  Still, on the way to Brighton, we saw our first dolphins, at 8am in the Solent – we had expected this treat somewhere more exotic but we were still very pleased.  Unfortunately, we weren’t quick enough with the camera, so you’ll have to take our word for it.  A couple of days in Brighton were fine; we saw the Pavilion, went for a Thai dinner to celebrate a friend’s birthday and caught up with a friend from work. Unfortunately we then got pinned in Brighton by gale force winds – very impressive watching the waves crashing over the harbour wall – and finally ended up passaging home on a still quite blustery day. 

27^th-29^th June

Collected more stuff from Surrey for taking with us (will one barge be enough?) and spent the next two days trying to stow it all.

30^th June-1^st July

Spent the weekend clearing the rest of the house (still more?).

2^nd-8^th July

On Monday we had our final Rabies jab and our second Hep B.  We need a further Hep B in 6 months, so we’ll do it on a return visit.

On Tuesday was the visit to the dentist for some treatment – yuk.  Also, having now got used to short hair, I re-visited the hairdresser and had even more taken off!

On Wednesday, we took some more stuff to Pyxis (yes, that second barge will be required).

On Thursday we went to Derbyshire with the final car load and visited Richard’s sister en route who cooked us a lovely dinner – thanks Janet.

On Friday we actually slept in late – the first time in ages.  We spent the weekend stuffing things into the P’s loft and we had a BBQ on Saturday which was great.  On Sunday I visited an old friend, Brian, before we had lunch and a drive back down to Surrey.  We spent some time on Sunday evening with our neighbours having a last drink with them, and collecting our water maker that had finally been delivered.

9^th-11^th July

On Monday we moved onto Pyxis, on Tuesday we did a final shop with the car and Richard’s brother and family came to see us in the evening and we went for a meal at the local bar overlooking the marina.  They had just come back from a cruise to the areas we hope to visit; the photos were great and it looked from their tans that this is precisely the weather we hope to find there.  On Wednesday Richard took the car back to Surrey and so this means we are now officially living on board!