It’s over a year since I started my life afloat, it’s gone by amazingly quickly and my enthusiasm for a nautical life has only grown. The river is always full of life, activity and friendly faces.

For the back end of the summer I stayed fairly close to Windsor. The river was busy and finding a mooring at times challenging as were the queues at locks . My Windsor mooring is in a superb location so no real reason to move during the summer peak. During September and October I’ve been moving up and down between Henley, Marlow and Windsor. I’ll keep doing this through the winter for as long as river conditions allow. The lock maintenance schedule starts at the end of October so movement will be restricted at times.

Coming downstream yesterday the colours are beautiful.

My daughter Kirsty and her puppy Lottie have joined me for a few months over the winter. Lovely to have their company.

In Spring 2018 I plan is to move to Central France. I’ll cruise across the Channel with an experienced skipper to Calais. From there into Paris and then Central northern France. A very basic plan at the moment which may take shape over the winter or I may just wing it!!