28th July to 1st August 2017
We were looking forward to visiting Tollesbury Marina. As well as being beautifully located, Dave had already been to the marina as they acted as brokers selling our previous boat, Penta- when he popped down to do some work on this boat one weekend, he noticed that the site also had a family friendly campsite, and a pool on site. As has been fairly common, the marina staff were very helpful on our arrival, and we were quickly settled into our new mooring. That evening, we rushed to the pool for a quick swim before the adult only swimming time started, which the boys loved- it was difficult to get them out of the pool, and especially to get Theo off of the diving board!
The marina also had an outside saltwater swimming pool with a beach area, which was a bonus given that the marina itself is located a long way down a river and so we weren’t expecting a beach. As well as spending hours digging and splashing, Arthur and Theo had their first chance to interact with some other boat kids with a bit of freedom from us parents- with life jackets on, they darted round the pontoons fishing with some children visiting relatives on another boat.
We also took a couple of walks into the beautiful and picturesque local village. Well supplied with a great butchers and local shop, as well as a very helpful pharmacist (who explained to us about electronic prescriptions when we inquired bout sea-sickness medication), it had everything we needed, though at a greater expense than if we had used supermarket- if we had been staying for longer I think we would have considered a journey to, or delivery from, a bigger store, but for a few days it was nice to support local businesses. The walk between the village and marina was a little long, though manageable, with two young kids and groceries, and those bikes we are dreaming were becoming more desirable.
Below a few photos we took (some more can be found in the ‘First Three Weeks in Photos’ blog post).
