It is hard to believe that it has finished already. It seems only yesterday that we were at Braunston, 4 o’clock, on the first Saturday waiting for the first guests of the season to arrive and the boat builder was still appearing with more ‘bits’ to be fitted – the seating cushions finally turned up almost along with the first guests!

But that said, apart from a few minor things which will get finished over the winter, the new Duke has proved a great success, not only with our guests but also us and the crew. We now have a wonderful new galley with oodles of working space along with two ovens and two fridges which has made not only the menu planning easier but also the preparation and the cooking.

The larger lounge and dining area has been much appreciated and also our breakfast bar which magically hides my keyboard and some good musical evenings have been had.

But what about the boating I hear you ask?? Well, the season seems to have flown by with some truly memorable times along the way. An early cruise up the Caldon canal was everything that we hoped for, with the weather being very kind, as it has for most of the season, and the delights of the Caldon were as good as ever. Owing to some expert locking skills from guests we flew along the Macclesfield canal in record time and to fill our gained day, we dropped down the Marple flight to the Ashton canal to Portland Basin where it meets the Huddersfield narrow canal. This gave me an idea for a route for 2010, namely a different way into Manchester – duly added for next season. The Anderton Boat lift thrilled everyone once again and we found Northwich down on the River Weaver to be an excellent place to do our Saturday turnaround so are repeating this for 2010 as well. Chester and then Llangollen were as wonderful as ever to boat to and it was with great pride that I steered my new boat over the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and on into Llangollen, knowing full well that my father would be watching us from his final resting place up on his mountain.

Tempting as it was to linger, we had places to be, namely, all our new rivers down south and what wonderful rivers they turned out to be. Unfortunately it is not until you have tried a new route that you know if it is worth repeating, so sadly we will have to wait until 2011 until we can explore these new waters again.

We had lovely trips down the Grand Union in to London and then on to new ground as we went down to Limehouse basin, mooring amongst boats that had crossed the North Sea! With a look at the lock out on to the tide way up the River Thames to Tower bridge and onwards – perhaps 2011?????. We retraced our steps and headed off up the River Lea, passing many places I remembered from when I lived in that area as a student. On our right we started to see building works, major ones at that which turned out to be the Olympic Stadium and all connected with it – quite a mammoth undertaking. The river continued to wind its way out of London up the lee Valley, through always pretty countryside. After Waltham Abbey we turned right on to the River Stort, which is a gorgeous little river that gets twistier and twistier the further you get up it, but all good practise for the upper reaches of the Thames which really test steerer’s skills! Having turned around we headed for the town of Ware, which also turned out to be a good place to do a turnaround at the weekend.

We headed off back to London and Little Venice for the weekend.

The following week saw us one of my favourite stretches of water, namely the River Thames up above Teddington.

At Shiplake they were having a regatta, nothing to rival Henley, but the river here is somewhat narrow, so a police launch escorted us through the site, but despite all requests, would not put on the blue flashing light – the siren we could live without.

At Shepperton, we turned onto another new river for us, the River Wey. This is a must do route for us again.

On our return, the new engine let us done for the only time this season and that was caused by a boatyard selling me some somewhat unclean diesel, so having moored up to await Monday morning and boatyards being open, I took all the guests of to Hatchlands House and the National Trust very kindly again let me play the organ for half an hour. Soon on our way again we rejoined the Thames at Shepperton and made a quick stop above the lock to collect a box of Chutney made for us by one of our guests whose garden runs right down to the river!

We finally made Newbury our destination for that week, but had a few problems along the Kennet and Avon canal, but this did not put us of having a good couple of weeks pottering along it.

Back onto our old friend the Thames along to Oxford, where we made ‘history’ being the first hotelboat pair to navigate to available waters of the Wilts and Berks canal – albeit only about 3 hundred yards, but even so….and then finally on up to Lechlade, along an ever meandering course with very tight bends and medieval bridges, but well worth risking ‘steer’s elbow’ to get there!

Finally, a gallop up the southern Oxford canal and we were back in Warwick for the weekend gathering our strength for 101 locks the following week to get us down to Worcester. Locks?? – we laugh at them, and owing once again to ace locking guests we arrived in Worcester a day early, so on our final day, I took the boats down on to the River Severn and we headed up stream for a gentle days cruise, but unbeknown to the guests I was actually heading for the almost ready to be opened Droitwich Barge Canal and we moored almost in the newly restored first lock for lunch, - another first for Duke and Duchess? this gave us ample time to walk along to the next three locks and watch the final dredging taking place.

Now it was time to tackle ‘real’ boating and play with the big boys as we continued down the River Severn passing the beautiful town of Upton on Severn and on to the semi tidal section down the Gloucester Docks. We covered the 14 miles in just less than three hours – it really does help when you literally ‘go with the flow’. The docks were another eye opener and made a wonderful place to moor overnight and as we had to wait for the tide to turn, we did not leave until after lunch the following day, so had plenty of time to explore this amazing glimpse into the lives of the old sailing ships as well as looking round the canal museum which is based there. Another new route has opened up for us, and we will try and continue down this river as far as Sharpness at a later date. Back up the river but this time, slightly slower as we were going against the flow. I decided that we would be pushing it to try and get to Tewksbury that evening, so moored on a floating pontoon just outside. It was another of those sunny balmy evenings, but at 2 in the morning I was woken by sounds of slapping water against the hull, and looked out to see quite a torrent rushing by. We were quite safe and none of the guests noticed anything, but the lock keeper informed us that there had been a mini bore that night!!

Tewksbury saw a ‘crew revolt’, so the skipper gave in and went and got his hair cut to keep them happy and newly shawn, we headed of up the River Avon which if I have to pick one new route we did, this would have to be my favourite. It really is everything that we were told about, wonderful views and wonderful boating, throw in two weeks of wonderful weather and you can imagine why we were in raptures over it. Another definite for 2011.

Sadly, time to leave the Avon and head home of up the Southern Stratford Canal, resplendent in alls its autumn colours and finally, moor up in Warwick for the winter.

If you have managed to stay awake and read all of this, you might just have got the impression, that we all had a glorious season!

On a personal note, I must thank my crew for all their hard work and enthusiasm throughout the year. Ian worked uncomplainingly all year giving stirling service and delighting everyone – his chicken pie was very much appreciated by all amongst other things. Stephen had to leave us early on in the season, but Maciek made a triumphant return yet again from his studies in Poland, and Jenny once again did sterling work in the table laying and late night washing up departments. Thank you all.

Time to catch up on the paperwork now – never my strongest point, and then think about my own holiday and getting the boats down to Braunston for their winter docking and maintenance works.

2010 already looks to be a very good season, so if you haven’t already booked, please do not leave it too late…….

Thank you everyone who made 2009 such an enjoyable season and we all look forward to doing it all over again next year.

With all good wishes,
David