A trip out

What a georgous day! We had promised to take some friends out for a trip up to L. (our nearest town),  have lunch at the canal side pub and come back, but one of them was ill today so they cried off. We had got the boat all ready for sailing so decided to go anyway.

We had a fantastic trip and I am getting so much better at negotiating bridges and tight turns. We are a good team P and I. We got the boat up to the basin and decided we may as well stay out tonight and as I have my flu jab tomorrow at our local surgery we thought we'd turn her round now so that we can make an early getaway in the morning.

We glided into a spare mooring and did a text book turn, me giving directions from the bow and holding the bow rope while P put her into forward and brought her beautifully and smoothly round.

We are starting to feel quite experienced now particularly as we encounted two problems on the way which would have completely phased us 'this time last year!' but we dealt with them really well. We were approaching bridge 92 which has a blind bend on the southbound approach, so as we were travelling north, we sounded the horn to let any oncoming traffic know we were coming through. We had just got to the bridge when a leisure cruiser appeared our of nowhere travelling far too fast and proceed to continue through the bridge at a right old lick! Luckily P. was at the tiller (I think I may have paniced!) and he slammed her into reverse just in time. They sailed past without so much as a 'by your leave' despite the fact that we had right of way. The lady sitting on the back gave us a haughty stare over her sun glasses as they flew past and then buried her nose in her 'hello' magazine. It's no wonder we narrow boaters name the plastic cruisers 'Yoghurt pots'! there's not a lot of love lost!

Of course this meant that we no longer had a decent line on the bridge, but P navigated us expertly through! A bit further up on an open stretch, along comes  another Yoghurt pot who was having great difficulty keeping it straight due to cross winds (you want to try controlling a 57ft narrow boat in a cross wind mate!!). So we decided to give it a wide berth and snuck in near the reeds.The canal is really full due to so much rain, but despite this we suddenly found we were stuck in the mud. Last year when a similar thing happened we had got so stressed and got the pole out and spent hours trying to pole ourselves off getting tired and muddy in the process. This time I calmly went down to the bow and plonked my not inconsiderable weight down on the port side and we waited until we elegantly slid off and were free in the swim again!

Having arrived at L. and finding a mooring 50 yards from the pub, we celebrated a successful trip with a pint and a pub lunch. It doesn't get much better!!!

A very happy boater!!

Batteries

Got home from work to be told by P (hubby) that the battery charger has melted. This is the second time this has happened, in addition to a battery which literally 'blew up' a few weeks ago. The hum of the M6 motorway can just about be heard from the marina as we are just off junction xx and so when the battery blew my neighbours assumed it was an accident on the motorway, it was that loud!

I'm sick of battery problems and the shop who provides this equipment is quite well known, but we won't be buying from them again! Time to do some research and maybe get a state of the art system - sod the expense, too much relies on our battery power! We had hot water tonight because we ran the engine for an hour, but the lights are already beginning to go dim.
That's got me thinking .... we don't take anything for granted anymore. Everytime I fill up with water I realise how important water is and how easy it is to just turn on a tap for most people. Every time we use water we are aware that we have a limited supply until we fill up again, which can't be a bad thing considering the current shortage of water in the world. Living on the boat is beginning to make me a bit of an eco warrior!!

Foraging

Today was the first really sunny warm day for ages and I wasn't working so it was the ideal opportunity to do some foraging. This time last year (I will be writing that phrase a lot because I should have started this blog when we first moved onto the boat, but it is useful to compare last year with this) we were still living in our house and hoping that the sale would go through. Everything we ate or used came from the supermarket.

What a difference this year! Most of our heating comes from wood gathered from the tow path or during our walks in local woods or footpaths, especially by the estuary where the wood has been well seasoned by being washed up from the salt water. A couple of weeks ago I came across some apple trees on one of my cycle rides through the countryside and was able to fill my ruck sack with apples and go back for more until I have now collected enough for us to press and make cider out of - watch this space on Sunday when we have booked the equipment for. Last Sunday I walked for 8 miles along the tow path and came back with sloes, damsons and blackberries. I spent today making sloe / damson gin having put the fruit in the freezer in order to simulate an early frost which is supposed to improve the flavour. here is a recipe:

1 lb sloes / damsons
1 pint gin
12 oz sugar

wash and dry the fruit and freeze for at least a couple of days. Mix fruit, gin and sugar together in a bottle and shake twice a day for 2 weeks, then once a week for 4-8 weeks. Then strain the liquid through a muslin cloth, bottle and leave for a couple of months.

I've never done this before so will keep you posted!

Today I picked blackberries and made chutney. here is a recipe! :

1 red onion
2 large chillis
3cm fresh ginger
1lb blackberries
45 gram sugar
30 ml red wine vinegar

Cut up onion, chilli and ginger finely and fry in  a tablespoon of olive oil for 3 mins until soft. add the blackberries and cook for a further 5 mins. Then add the sugar and vinegar and bring to the boil, simmer for 15-20 mins until it thickens. Place in storage jars while still hot.

I'll let you know how this turns out too as I've never done this before either!

The sunset was spectacular tonight and we sat on the stern with a glass of wine and chatted to our neighbour who is a lovely lad. He is the perfect neighbour to have on a marina like ours, in that he is there for a chat early evening, but never imposes. He has never invited himself on our boat (and we have never seen the inside of his either) and goes inside when it gets dark keeping himself to himself.

We all live in such close proximity that everyone has to be sensitive to each others space for a successful social environment. We got on really well with our neighbours when we lived in a house - they were great people and we still keep in touch. They would often knock at our back door or come in the front and shout for us, but then we lived in a big terraced house and that worked. Our boat is 57ft and as such the space is very private and personal and thank goodness genuine boaters respect that.

I cycled into town this morning because it was market day and managed to get some venison which I got into the slow cooker in time for it to be ready for our evening meal. A slow cooker is an essential item for boaters because if you go out for a cruise for the day, you can put a meal in the slow cooker and by virtue of having the engine running you get your power as a by product, so it cooks as you are travelling. Fantastic!

We plan to go out on Friday so .... watch this space!

One happy boater!

 

A year on and I've only now decided to blog!!

This time last year we sold our house, got rid of most of our possessions and moved to a boat on the canal as new 'liveaboards'. So many of our friends suggested that we keep a blog, as they were fascinated to know how we were going to manage. We were so busy adjusting to the change of life style that the blog never got 'out of the traps' but a year on and I feel I should start logging our experiences, if only to demonstrate to people who may be thinking of doing it, that it is possible!

It may be a bit retrospective at first but I hope to catch up on our first (very eventful) year quickly and continue to give my readers a flavour of the wonderful life as a 'liveaboard', so watch this space .......

Al the boater