Did we mention we went on our first leisure cruise with Fantine. It was brilliant to be out there on the waters, enjoying exactly what she had been made for. We thought it might be a good idea to share the lessons learned and what went well from that first trip out.

Driving

Firstly driving the boat is no where near as scary as we had built it up to be. I’m so proud of James for all of the driving over the weekend, he handled it perfectly and by the end of the trip it was becoming second nature.

Weather

Whilst James had turned down most of my ideas for what to do on the weekend, claiming the storm of all storms was due for the weekend. Turns out it ended up beautiful, sunny and warm. Perfect cruising weather.

No Locks

We specifically went the other way out of the Marina to avoid locks, which meant there was only one lock to navigate on the route, right at the end of the day! Meaning lots of time for me to sit on top of the roof, with Gin. Unfortunately didn’t mean I can get away with skipping arm day at the gym.

Happy Dogs

The girls loved the trip out on the boat and settled to it so quickly (Disregarding one escape attempt by Heidi). We took a short time lapse video of a bit of our journey, along with an added curious Rosie dog. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAgM9i92uZ4

Wildlife & Scenery

The stretch of canal we explored was truly beautiful, the scenery, rolling hills and livestock fields. Along with our gorgeous swan family we encountered herons and ducklings galore.

Turning

I previously mentioned how great James had been at driving throughout the trip, but if you read our previous post you would know we encountered our first winding hole on the trip. Again James did a super job of turning Fantine with ease, despite the pressure of onlookers, whilst I just hid in the boat.

Stay posted for what we learnt on our first cruise!

James & Kirsty