It was an early start for the ten 'nogginers' and surprisingly, they successfully ended up in the correct cars when they arrived at Fleet Services. However all was not without incident. Roger was tasked with bringing the eggs, a quite simple straightforward task one would presume but even before he’d got into the car the dozen eggs became nine, Roger having somehow broken three en-route from his kitchen to the carrier bag. In a dilemma as to what to do he decided to fry the broken eggs and have himself an early breakfast.
Sir Neilly Mou of the Noggins as we know had drawn the short straw with both Angela and Claire in the same car. The girls were rather taken aback to be sharing the car with a 'power washing machine' presuming that such was the lack of facilities on the boats that Sir Neilly Mou had taken it upon himself to bring his own shower! Was his intention to give the motley crew a hose-down on the broadwalk?. The journey in the car was rather uneventful, although Neil did take delight in handing around his nuts, apparently they were on special offer! Arriving at Fleet Services Claire's excitement to see the others saw her promptly fall up the stairs. Apparently no alcohol had yet been digested, or so she said, so can only presume it was an overdose of Neil's nuts that did it.
Richard and Lindsey were the first to arrive at fleet well before the others. According to Lindsey, Richard's on a mission to be the first at everything on this holiday.......time will tell Richard, time will tell!
Maice was travelling up in style with the Admiral and his crew which consisted of Roger the egg man and Graham the grump. Apparently Maice learnt an awful lot of things about road making she never knew before. That'll really come in handy on the broads!
After fuelling up with cooked breakfasts and yogurt for those trying to be healthy and nothing for Roger as he was full up it was a race to the cars, with a shuffle round for seats and then the race was on to beat Richard and Lindsey to the boat yard. Having all used the facilities at Fleet services the notices in the ladies toilets advised ladies to 'Look after your Ladyparts' and for the men to 'Know their Nuts'. Make of that what you will, but Neilly Mou may be streets ahead what with the nuts being distributed in the car!
The majority of the Nogginers arrived at one o'clock , obviously Richard arriving first. The aim was to leave the boatyard early for an early afternoon sail off. As one would expect the girls had their boat up and ready within minutes and finally after a couple of hours of the men faffing around, setting the tone for the rest of the trip no doubt, we set off down the dyke. It seems Jacob, the boathand at the yard couldn't wait to get rid of us!
What was expected to be a quick sail up the river Thurn turned out to be numerous long short or even short long tacks due to the fickle wind on the High Seas.
It was a lovely afternoon, the sun was shining, the sky was blue and the Admiral's boat was leading the flotilla, the other two following in fast pursuit. Or so they thought. Maice tuning around to take some action photos of the other two boats was surprised to see an empty river. Although everyone left at the same time it seemed that they were not all headed for the same destination. Whereas High Seas was heading for Hunters Yard, Lutra and Leda however seemed to find solace in the reed bushes!
Apparently whilst undertaking some extracuricular activity Neil found himself pinned up against the quantum pole. Luckily he survived, unfortunately the same can't be said for his corduroy trousers which succumbed to a rather large tear! Ah well, it will match the other rips and holes in his attire, you never know, he may even start a new trend.
By the time we all arrived at Hunters Yard it was wine o'clock and Roger was instructed to mix up the Pimms adding an additional slosh of gin for good measure. By seven o'clock stomachs were growling so we headed off down the road to the pub bagging the table with the lazy susan that needed some wd40. Without too much ado a drinks kitty was sorted and the wine was promptly ordered. As usual a lovely meal was had by all followed by after dinner entertainment featuring Perudo. Richard's desire to be first at everything was short lived as he was knocked out in the middle of the round. Neil was the winner.......and no one could begrudge him this considering we nearly lost him earlier to the quantum pole!
Stephen amazed us with a few card tricks albeit they didn't always go according to plan and then we walked back to the boatyard under the light of the full moon and Claire's square torch, which everyone was slightly envious of.
So, that concludes Day 1.......what will the next few days have in store for our Nogginners!!!!!!!
Night all….
M.A and the motley crew!
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