We're only going backwards, as we can't find forwards...

Sorry to the singers from the "Star Trekkin' song for messing up what was, at the time, a catchy tune, but we literally found ourselves with no forward propulsion today!

This morning was  Ying & Yang and then back Ying again. In the interests of fuel & time economy we decided to start the day with a trip to Ikea, before heading down to Sawly to take our lovely boat to be out on the water to see, feel & hear how she ran -I do fear hearing a noisy rattly engine that sounds like it it determined to loosen every bolt and fall apart....
We thought that as we knew what we wanted from Ikea it would be a quick case of in the store, a trip through the maze and be propelled out the other end with our purchases....  WRONG!!!!!!! That would

need a whole new blog to describe that visit and I just don't have the inclination. Suffice it to say, anyone who has been to Ikea - they  Will  Know!!

Once we were at Sawley, we waded through the puddles that used to be the car park and headed off to our boat to re-familiarise ourselves as to what was going to be a financial drain over the next few years- she didn't disappoint!
 Paul, our Marina Official and all round good egg, started Harebell up and reversed her beautifully off her visitor mooring.

James all ready for Harebell's Demo.

He then continued to do that until he hit the concrete piling opposite, as the forward throttle was not working. So, in best Hacker Boating Tradition, off came the engine covers & Marcus was sticking his head down the engine space to see what was wrong....honestly, we'd hardly been going 30 seconds.
A faulty throttle cable was thought to be the culprit, and we had no choice but to leave her on the other side of the marina and trudge back in the rain. We consoled ourselves with a coffee and panini at the excellent cafe on site, Mason & Mason. The rain did not seem to want to ease, so we had a quick nip round to have one last look at Harebell before we headed home, majorly disappointed.

Harebell, as we had to leave her, stranded on the opposite bank of the Marina.