After her launch, Major Ralph Nightingale collected Naiad Errant from Osborne's yard in Littlehampton in the last week of June 1939. He brought her round the south coast and up the river Thames to Sunbury in three days - stopping overnight at Newhaven and Ramsgate on the way.
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The photograph on the left shows Naiad Errant moored up at her new moorings at Horace Clark's yard
at Sunbury in 1939. (This is now Turk's boatyard.) Sunbury was a convenient place for Major Nightingale
to keep his new boat, just 8 miles from where he lived in Wimbledon.
In opting to carry a small rowing boat on her roof, Major Nightingale obviously wanted to be able to reach Naiad Errant when she was not moored by a river bank or shore. This, in turn, required a boarding ladder - seen here at the stern. |
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This photograph (left) of Naiad Errant's bow was also taken at Sunbury in 1939. The raised
lettering of her name played a surprisingly important part in her history.
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Below is another shot of her moored at Horace Clark's yard (complete with crew member lounging on the foredeck). 
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In August, Major Nightingale arranged a family holiday up-river in Naiad Errant. Their 142-mile round-trip to Shillingford took ten days. The three photographs below show her moored at the Shillingford Bridge Hotel. On their return journey they joined fellow-members of the Thames Motor Cruising Club at Shiplake, and moored alongside Nanette II. They could not have imagined that next summer both boats would be at Dunkirk at the same time.
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Less than three weeks after returning from their trip, Britain was at war.
Idyllic river scenes such as these were about to become a thing of the past.