After completing the boat preparations, including the fitting of a stronger bottom pintle to the rudder, there was just one last opportunity to pop DiDi in the water, albeit the River Thames, to ensure all was well. Better still this enabled me to offer a trip out in the boat to a couple of our staunchest supporters, Keith & Hilary Shore, who had missed out on the original launch & pre-Indian Ocean outings. And as they were about to do Tom & I a great favour by delivering the boat to the shipping agent this was the least that I could do to show our appreciation. This also provided an opportunity for Keith to familiarise himself with the beast that is my old Land Rover Defender, which takes a bit of getting used to unless you regularly drive a tractor!

So having trundled her (DiDi that is not Hilary) down to Walton-on-Thames we found a suitable slipway to launch her once more into the water. It's fair to say that whilst dry, it was a blustery old day. Keith had a baptism of fire having to single handed & for the first time, manoeuvre the boat from the slipway to the jetty, which was no mean feat in those conditions. I had the job of detaching her from the trailer whilst successfully filling up my wellies with Thames River water .... lovely. It just goes to shows that the skill of an experienced waterman shone through as Keith took charge & brought her safely to the bank.

We were just in the process of putting the rudder on when we had a most pleasant surprise. One of our other supporters, Giles Christopher from Media Wisdom happened to be passing & spotted the boat. Giles & Abi Cockcroft run a highly professional commercial photographic company who took some media shots of us early this year. They have just opened a new studio at The Old Stills Studio, Halliford Film Studios in Manygate Lane just up the road in Shepperton & Giles had just popped out before his next shoot. Straight away he offered to come back with Abi & take some more photos of us, which I readily accepted. He just had to go a do a pussy shoot ....... which he assured me was of the feline kind & having seen the exceptionally high standard of his work I completely accepted. (Don't forget Giles we're still up for taking part in the next Ann Summers shoot).

So in true Skiff Club tradition, Keith & I took to the oars with Hilary coxing to blast up the river all the way to the nearest pub for a well deserved (possibly) pub lunch. Coming back was much easier. Was that due to the wind direction or the refreshments I wonder? Anyway we returned in good time to have Giles & Abi turn up to work their magic & the results speak for themselves & are posted on our gallery for you to see them in their full glory.