The big day dawns!

Ok, we'll start with the day before the big day:

Deep Thought, all 29 tons of her, is craned onto the trailer:

And leaves the Piper factory to head for Thames & Kennet Marina, Reading:

The following day we travel the arduous 30 minute journey to T&K, arriving around 0730, desperate not to miss anything, only to find that there are a couple of lifts scheduled before ours, so we head off into Caversham for coffee, returning just after 0900 to witness the action! My videos are too large to load into the blog so you'll have to make do with some stills:

It was interesting that the lift straps were left under the boat until the Piper guys had a good look inside to make sure all was well and no water was on the wrong side of the boat!!

We unloaded our car (full of important boaty stuff) aboard, then left Tom & Jim (Piper engineers) to go about checking all was well with everything. This allowed us to pop home again for a further load of important boaty stuff.

We returned and had a bit of trouble finding the boat, mainly because it was on it's way from the launch site to our mooring at Dreadnought Reach, we eventually caught up with it and stepped aboard for the first time with the boat on water!!

We went for a bit of a trip around the marina, I took the helm, turned around and manoeuvred, in reverse to our mooring. Deep Thought was very easy to handle and I was very happy with my first go at the wheel.

Tom gave us a final run through all of the systems, Jim ran through all of the snags, just a couple of small issues still to resolve, we signed the handover sheet and Deep Thought is all ours!!

We set about sorting the many boxes of gear that we loaded and sat down with a bottle of champagne for a well earned rest, before heading off to Waitrose for essential supplies!! Then our first dinner afloat! Happy Days!!

Last visit to Biddulph!

Well, hello again! I'm at this moment sitting in our wheelhouse having just spent our first weekend aboard, albeit in the yard at the piper Boats factory.

Deep Thought being manoeuvred from the fit out unit to a slot between Steel Away and Lazy Days in the yard: 

Deep Thought in position:

And in close up:

And now for a tour of the inside, starting with our en-suite, I've been told off for not straightening the towels!!

Master cabin:

Saloon, we've tried out our glass fish display, they're now packed away safe & sound prior to transport to Reading on Wednesday night, we were even watching a bit of telly on Friday:

 Galley / saloon looking a lot more cosy:

Another galley / saloon:

The galley part, we like this a lot, even though we've just discovered the double oven is in fact an oven / grill, poor description on Belling's part, nothing to do with piper, our choice:

Saloon side, the wine cellar is under the rug:

Looking into the guest cabin / dinette, we don't think we'll be using it as a dinette very much, you'll see why further down:

Looking through the doorway:

The day loo, small but functional:

Penny's 'pull out' larder cupboard:

 Domestic controls / gauge, diesel is full and we're ready to go::

Wheelhouse, this is why we don't see ourselves using the dinette downstairs:

Wheelhouse again:

Looking in through the rear bi-fold doors:

And again, we love the wheelhouse, loads of room and a huge table:

Dashboard, all tested and ready to go:

I love my choice of wheel too:

We're both absolutely delighted with the boat, finished to a very high standard as we were expecting, obviously there are a few things that need to be addressed, that was why we just spent the weekend on board, but I'm sure they'll be sorted out before launching on Thursday. All in all, the agonising over the many choices we had was worth it.

So, the even bigger 'launch' day awaits as we get to spend Thursday to Sunday on the water, and I'm sure there will be time for a quick blast along the river!!

See you again next weekend.

The windows will be here on Monday!!

Yes, for a few weeks now the windows have been due to be delivered on Monday, every Monday for some weeks!

I got an email this week, saying they had left Holland and were due..... go on take a guess?

Anyway, enough of this, the same email sent me some pictures, here they are:

Guest cabin / dinette, just needs the upholstery:

Saloon / Galley looking forward, look. the lights are on!!

Galley looking very smart, an extractor hood has appeared, no bloody portholes though!

Master cabin awaiting mattress and windows!! More lights:

A shot of the en-suite:

Saloon / Galley looking aft:

I stole this one from the Piper facebook page, that's Deep Thought in the corner:

So all in all it's looking  pretty much finished, just a few days to go and we get to spend our first couple of nights aboard, are we looking forward to that? See you next time with (hopefully) the finished boat.

Penultimate Piper Visit

Yes, as stated last time, we've just been to the builder .Piper Boats' for the penultimate time. Next time (17th March) we stay on Deep Thought' for the weekend to check everything is working and to locate any niggly defects so the builder can get them sorted before delivery and launch on the 23rd March.

Last time we both felt a little disappointed at the progress, more I think because of our 'built up' expectations, this time we're both really pleased with how it's all looking.

The only major thing missing is the portholes / windows which are due to be delivered on Monday, the anchor is still to appear, but other than that it's just finishing touches.

We took the opportunity to deliver our mattress and corner couch so's they can be loaded prior to our weekend.

On to the show:

Master cabin, quite difficult to get a good shot as there's not much room. Just the ports, window, some trims and some cupboard doors to go. Couldn't get a shot of the en-suite as it was too dark, but it looks really good in there, you'll just have to take my word for it:

Saloon / Galley looking forward towards the master cabin:

A better view of the galley, we're really pleased that all of the agonising over selection of hob / cooker was worth it:

Left to right, washer dryer, big drawers, sink, dishwasher, oven / hob & small drawers:

 Our fridge, freezer, larder cupboard and day loo, just on the right as you come down the stairs from the wheelhouse:

The really important bits, dashboard with chartplotter, marine VHF, engine monitoring etc and he wheel:

Looking into the wheelhouse from the stern deck through our bi-fold doors:

View of the gin deck, love the tek deck finish:

The bit that makes it go:

Not much has changed on the outside, but here's another picture anyway:

And a shot of the factory floor, Deep Thought is in the far corner:

So the next two weeks are going to really drag, we're both really excited as we get to spend the weekend there next time, with the launch a few days later. Expect more then.