So a little background to start off with. This will be a blog about our travels around the UK waterways on our 28ft  cabin cruiser, Lazee Daze.
My name is Chris Bradley and my wife is Gratsi, (It's Italian and short for Graziana) and we travel with our two Jack Russell dogs, Scrappy and Fudge.

Scrappy and fudge keeping a lookout on the Great Ouse

We are based on the River Great Ouse at the Pike and Eel marina near St Ives, Cambridgeshire and since we both still work, most of our travels will be around that area to start with.
We have been boating for about 7 years, hiring on the Broads, the Great Ouse and the Caledonian Canal, before taking the plunge and buying our first boat, Yogi Bear, a Princess 32 as an introduction to owning a boat.

Yogi Bear, our first foray into boat ownership

Despite last year being the worst summer ever (2012) we had a great year cruising the river and decided that Yogi needed a huge update over the winter, ready for this year. So in January we travelled to the London boat show to get some idea's and to cut a long story short, ended up putting in an order for a new boat instead!
Lazee Daze is a Viking Seamaster 28, built by Viking Marine in Dunmow, Essex and which we bought through David Taylor at Riverside Marine at the Pike and Eel, where the boat will be kept.
We've made a few trips down to Essex during the build to have a look and took some photo's while we were there.
                                                    The build so far in late February

Into March now and the interior woodwork is going in

So that pretty much brings us up to date. The build is going well and Vinnie at Viking couldn't be more helpful making alterations as we go and keeping us informed as to progress. Thanks Vinnie!

Hopefully the engine is going in this week and the whole thing should be finished in the next two weeks and delivered to our mooring here.

Vinnie promised me some more photo's next week so I'll post them up when they arrive. 

The sun's finally out, the water has receded enough to actually see the pontoons, so we're all set!

It's April 24th and I finally have some photo's to post. Things have moved on and Lazee Daze is just about finished. There's a delay with the canopy so delivery won't be until next week, but hopefully we should be able to handover by next weekend.

The vetus inboard engine is now in place with the heater just visible to the left of the picture and the blue coloured calorifier ( that's a hot water tank to you and me!) tucked away underneath the floor

 In the bathroom there's just a mirror to fit, the head of the tap pulls off to make the shower

 The view forward into the V berth, just waiting for the furnishings to arrive

 Finally, the kitchen, under the cardboard is a 3 ring gas hob with a glass cover

So that's it so far, the suspense is killing us now but not long to wait. Looking forward to seeing her in the flesh and spending some time aboard!