Stoke Bruerne to Foxton (again!) and a new boat!!!! (39 miles and 14 locks)

Welcome to another post on my diary blog and I would like to introduce our new motor boat JJinad!

JJinad ~60 foot trad stern narrowboat with Gardner 2LW engine

One of those moments where you both say 'ooh I like that boat' and 'I wonder if it is for sale?'

We went and had a look at the weekend, by car and arranged for a valuation on Comfortably Numb a couple of days later, on our return to Whilton by canal.

On up the Buckby flight again, but this time with a different feel!

And very quickly, she was ours!  The appeal is the look of JJinad.  Richard has wanted an undercloth conversion for a while now, but I had always decided they would make the interior claustrophic and were dangerous with the sides over the hob.  But then we saw the interior of JJinad and loved it!

My first time at the tiller going back up the Watford flight

She is lined with ash coloured ply and allows much light in through prisms in the top plank. 

We packed as much of the old boat into the butty before the handing over and then spent a day cleaning the old boat and familiarising ourselves with Jjinad, whilst waiting for the Boat Safety Certification to be done.

Carrying on towards Crick

Once we had done all the necessary business on the purchase, our mission was to get to Foxton for the weekend, so moving in was a bit on the back burner!

Entrance to Crick tunnel

Electrics have been a big issue, but now we have resolved the 'wherefores', the 'whys' are now irrelevant really.  We thought the invertor was not charging the batteries, but then realised that when the generator was on, if we put the immersion heater switch on as well. the charger in the invertor sprang into life..... Ummm, much head scratching has been done and we have decided to get rid of the extremely electrically thirsty freezer, we had initially been excited about!

Moored in Foxton,  ready for a busy few days now it has stopped raining!

So on the shopping list now is, a new washing machine (left our's behind), possibly some fresh batteries and little bits like a water level monitor for the watertank.   Other than that, I think we can adjust to sleeping permanently in the back cabin, the lack of storage and of a proper toilet (2 portaloos!) for the time being, who wouldn't?