Offer Accepted!

Our first offer was rejected, which we fully expected and the marina told us the minimum offer that they would accept. I was prepared to accept this but Matthew said to offer £1000 less than that. It was a good decision because they accepted it! We received some surveyor details from the marina along with the paperwork for purchasing the.boat. I spoke to four surveyors in total and decided which one we would instruct to carry out the survey. It is booked for Wednesday 31st July, only three days away. It is a bit nerve wreaking - we don't think there are any big problems but you never know.

Assuming that the survey doesn't reveal major problems, we will get the hull blacked straight away which will take four days. Then we will be ready to set sail! We will make one more journey to see the boat in a week and a half, just to take some furnishings for the boat and to make sure everything is on it. We plan to start our adventures on the boat on Saturday 10th August, less than two weeks time.

Before then we need to purchase all the furnishing for the boat, mainly kitchenware, and life jackets and an alarm for the door so that we know if Anthony or Charlotte go out onto the deck. There is lots to plan and buy and not a lot of time!

The Waiting Game

We received confirmation last week that our Operating Proposal was approved, pending written confirmation from our moorings site and the boat services. So we immediately placed an offer for the Dalton Dame! We have continued writing our documentation and now we are just waiting for a response to our offer, which was below the asking price. 

This is like buying a house, and just as nerve wrecking!

There and back again - Shropshire Tales

Matthew and I travelled up to Shropshire, to the Blackwater Marina, a week ago to look at our preferred boat, the Dalton Dame. We spent about an hour and half looking through the boat thoroughly and overall we liked it. It was a bit of a shock for me though, when we first boarded the boat, I made the decision that we would start at the stern (the front) of the boat and work backwards. However, when we made our way down to the double bedroom, I felt rather claustrophobic and was then left wondering how I would survive for about two weeks on the boat!!! However, to try and over come these feelings I went back to the back of the boat where it is more airy and the entrance is situated. This made me feel a lot better and I was soon moving happily all around the boat, claustrophobia overcome. 

We will have to do some vanishing and polishing/repairing of fixtures and fittings but nothing that we can't do. There was some water damage around the air vent in the double bedroom and the galley area. This was concerning because it was dripping into the light fitting and had damaged the wood. However, when we raised it with the marina manager he said that it would be repaired, should we buy the boat. We had a good chat to the marina manager and we left feeling that it could be a good boat for us. We will need to get it painted, it is going a bit rusty on the roof, and it would need blacking after the full survey.

Now we have to complete our Operating Proposal and send it to the Canal and River Trust to see if it will be approved before we can place an offer on the boat. We do need to speak to the moorings site, and the place where we will use boat services such as refuelling and pumping out waste, to make sure that they are happy for us to use them because the boat is hired out some of the time. Lots to do and organise.