Piper’s chaps left us moored up at Westport Lake: an artificial pleasure lake that has become a nature reserve pretty much in the middle of Stoke-on-Trent. Not a bad place to spend one’s first night and day.

A gentle first meander with Vinny & Graham from Pipers on board  took us past the Festival Park to the Etruria Industrial museum then back to Westport Lake for our first overnight stop afloat.

We broke out the champagne eventually, but after drinking it the picture came out as blurry as us.

The other guests crashed out too.

The salubrious surroundings of Longport Wharf are close and convenient, and the “launch” went without a hitch, although getting the lorry to the wharf was a challenge for the driver because of other boats parked on the hard standing, not normally there. Nothing’s ever easy.

We saved the Champagne for later, rather than mess up the shiny new paintwork, as the commissioning chaps Graham and Vinny wanted to go for a quick spin to make sure everything was OK.

After many years of enjoying narrowboat holidays on the English canal system, we had often considered spending more time afloat, without any of the time pressures in returning to base. When retirement loomed, the canal system was undergoing the transition from being managed by  a quango British Waterways Board (BWB) to a charity The Canal and River Trust (CRT) rather more akin to The National Trust. Somewhat concerned by what might happen in the future, boating plans were put on hold, and a splendid time was had for a couple of years wandering the highways and byways of the UK and France in a motorhome, along with Biggles the cat.

The water kept calling, though, and we kept finding ourselves looking at boats while being decidedly disappointed at what was available on the second-hand market.

But they say that the boat finds you, and eventually it did.