INTRODUCTION Fourteen tons of steel narrowboat dangled precariously in the air above our heads and slowly descended into the water. Like anxious parents we stood mesmerised wondering if we were about to lose everything we possessed in one second of carelessness on the part of the crane driver. Luckily, there was no disaster and we breathed a sigh of relief. The story had begun! Actually, it all began some months previously when we decided to close down our businesses, sell our home, build a narrowboat and cruise off into the sunset for a year. The Narrowboat “Tristram Sprague”, named after an ancestor, started life as an empty 57ft steel cigar in a boatyard near Droitwich in the West Midlands. We ordered her in December 2000 and she was ready to collect in March 2001. Having decided
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