Kerala
We have enjoyed our first season boating with Kerala. Although similar to Rose in layout as far as guests are concerned, we are happy that the small changes and improvements we introduced into her design have been successful. The galley is certainly a great space to work in, even though its actually smaller than the one on Rose, and we have managed to find a space for everything we need from day to day. The cabins are better soundproofed with stud walls and the bunks in the single cabins have a few extra inches to their width to make sleeping a little more comfortable. We are particularly pleased with ‘Doris’ our Dorman engine who worked brilliantly all summer to get us and the butty to where we needed to be.

2010
We had some fantastic boating this season. The weather was some of the best we have had since we began hotelboating 5 years ago with our early cruises in May, June and most of July, enjoying beautiful sunny and warm days. The Haythorn blossom along the Grand Union in May gave us some particularly scenic moments. The Huddersfield cruises proved as hard as we had anticipated with everything from shallow pounds, drained pounds, leaky locks and broken paddles to test our skills, everything in fact except low water levels which was surprising considering the worst drought since the 1920’s striking the Northeast of the country. The stunning scenery and solitude of a canal hardly used by other boats made every challenge worth it though. The River Wey was another new waterway for 2011 and we were impressed by how rural it felt considering its course through the heart of the Southeast. We hope everyone who joined us this season enjoyed their cruise and look forward to welcoming back many of you in the future.

Crew
We were very lucky this summer to have found 2 crew girls which made the season so much fun for both crew and guests alike. Hannah & Lauren both worked exceptionally hard, whilst at the same time managing to giggle their way through most tasks. So much so we nicknamed them ‘The Giggle Girls’. They have both gone off to their separate adventures this winter, Lauren on a tour of Europe and Egypt before she returns home to Oz and Hannah has just a few weeks breather before beginning her next season as a Chalet girl in France. The boat seems oddly quiet without them around and India is certainly missing her 2 best friends. We are very happy to report, however, that although Lauren must return to University and get on with her life, Hannah is very keen to come back for another season of boating. Barring an attractive French Ski Instructor making her a better offer we look forward to having her back with us next year.

The biggest news we have, however and forgive me for waiting until the second page to divulge this information, is that I am pregnant and expecting John and I’s first child. We are very happy as we had wanted a family, however this obviously has implications for our season next year, given that I will be due at the end of April. It was with very great consideration and deliberation that we have decided to make a rather large change to next years schedule.

Our schedule page has the amended itinerary, which as you will see will not be starting until mid-June in order to give us a chance to enjoy being new parents and to avoid inflicting a new born baby and sleepless nights on our guests! From June onwards, John will be skippering the boats, as usual, but we are planning on my taking a back seat for this season and providing land support. On consideration we didn’t think it was very appropriate for a young baby to be on board the boats and are basing our plans on the new arrival being the worst baby in history. Anything better will therefore be a bonus!

Hannah, who did such a good job in the galley this summer will be stepping up to the role of principle cook, something she is more than capable of doing. The menu will have a bit of a shakeup, (something I think it could do with anyway) to incorporate some of the recipes that Hannah has as well as continuing to include a number of the old favourites so taste buds should still be excited as much as usual and hungry appetites catered for.

I will be visiting the boats, at the very least on arrivals day to welcome everyone on board and serve the first evening meal and I hope to come out at least once more in each cruise to lock wheel, show off the baby, help with kitchen prep and whatever else may be required of me, but it is unlikely that I will stay on board the boats unless the baby is particularly calm and quiet.

On that note then, we bring this our 6th newsletter to a close. We hope you have an enjoyable winter and festive season, it looks like it could be another cold one this year so don’t forget to hunker down with those woolly jumpers and hot chocolates, life’s little winter luxuries.

The next newsletter from us will follow late April/early May in which we hope to inform you of the safe and easy (!) arrival of our first girl or boy.

All our very best wishes,
Hanna & John.