Poor P also gets woken up very early on those days. I have to get up at 6.30am and we chose the wrong desgin of boat for early starts! The normal narrow boat design is to have the bedroom at the back and sitting room or kitchen at the front with the water tank under the sitting room floor. There is a less usual option of reversing that design and we chose that layout because when friends come for a cruise with us they can sit in the living area and chat to us while we are at the tiller. However the downside is that when I turn the shower on at 6.30am the water pump springs into action under the bed and makes a hell of a racket! Add to that the noise of the 'gulper' shower pump which takes the water out of the tray and into the canal I usually come out of the shower to one very grumpy and wide awake husband!
So on Wednesdays we have a lie in, a cup of tea in bed and generally relax. This Wednesday we were due to take our other little boat to it's mooring. This was a boat that this time last year was a rusting hulk in the basin, (see pic).
A fellow boater bought it for very little and took it out of the water to black the bottom, get the holes welded and the outside painted. It was starting to look nice and we needed somewhere for son number two to live in the holidays when his houseshare student friends went home, so to cut a long story short, we bought it, (also at a good price). We have spent the summer with it moored in an empty berth next to us, doing it up. We put a shower in where there was previously a cupboard, some nice blinds up at the windows and a new wood burner and it now looks lovely. We have been out in it a few times and it has attracted quite a bit of attention as it is such a sweet little boat.
What an improvement and son number two looks very happy with his acquisition!
Strangely enough I seem to be the only one capable of steering it!! It doesn't have a tiller, but has an outboard and a steering wheel as it's only 24 foot. This does make it quite awkward to keep straight and whenever P or L take the wheel we proceed to weave our way down the canal tacking from bank to bank as though sailing a dinghy in a head wind!!
So yesterday, it fell to me to steer it the 100 yards to its proper berth. All was going well as I reversed it out smoothly into the cut. It was very windy and this is a major problem when steering a boat, because if the wind 'takes you' you will have a heck of a job getting back in control. The significance of the wind is why the turning places in the canal are called 'winding holes'. A skilled boater will take the boat into a turning place in such a way that he uses the wind direction to help to bring the boat round. We decided with our little boat that the best policy would be to put it on full throttle and head as fast as we could into the wind and towards our mooring.
I was just starting to feel smug at how well she was handling, when something small and hairy swung into my line of vision with all 8 legs wriggling just a few centimeters from my face. Most people look at me in utter disbelief when I explain my fear of spiders, as a boat is probably the last place someone like me should be living. They are all around us in very close proximity. But I love the boating life so much that I am prepared to live with my phobia and I actually do just about manage it.
However, when taken by surprise I don't cope particularly well. I didn't scream or anything but I grabbed a tea cloth that happened to be on the seat next to me and was wildly trying to flick it away and in that instant of lost concentration the wind took us and we started hurtling sideways down the canal towards some moored boats. Luckily a couple of dog walkers on the tow path shouted at us to throw them a rope, which P did and they pulled us over just before we crashed into a beautiful new shiny boat moored up a few yards away!! They gave us one of those looks that said 'you don't know what you're doing' and we sheepishly muttered something about the wind! Having recovered my composure and flicked the offending monster overboard, P got off, gave the boat an almighty shove and ran around to the jetty. Once again in control, I manoeuvred her beautifully into the berth, but of course by then the dog walkers had disappeared!
Having two boats is a bit of a luxury really and this brings me to the issue of mooring fees. Many people think that living on a boat is nearly cost free. To a certain extent this can be true. If you don't have a mooring, you can just buy a British Waterways licence for about £700 a year and moor up alongside the tow path. However this is on the understanding that you are exploring the inland waterways network and are therefore always on the move (continuously cruising). It can be quite a hard life as you always get moved on if you have overstayed at a tow path mooring, so you are never able to settle anywhere. You also don't have access to an electric hook up so everything has to run at 12 volts and you have to run your engine at least once a day to charge the batteries. Since our battery charger blew up, we have had to run the engine every day in order to get our lighting, fridge and everything else which runs on 12 volts and it can be a pain.
Our marina is quite posh in that it includes a facilities block (showers, toilets and a laundry) as well as electric hook up, water points and a secure car park, but for that we pay over £2500 per year which many boaters feel is too much. Some people continuously cruise in the summer and just apply for winter moorings. There are many options available and some private house owners who have small moorings at the end of their gardens will sometimes allow people to moor for a small fee.
Today I was hijacked by J the Whippet for a walk, as he knows I'm a soft touch. We had a lovely walk down the tow path and I found some more blackberries and I ended up with about 2lb of them. More chutney to be made, or should I make a crumble?
Tomorrow we will need to chop more wood. We have got through loads today as it's been cold and miserable outside. I'm also going to make some lovely warming red pepper and sweet potato soup for our lunch. If I time it right, I can get it in the slow cooker and run the engine, so we get the batteries charged, hot water and a meal cooked all just for a bit of red diesel!! A result!!
And on that note a little quote about happiness and frugality! -
How simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. . . . All that is required to feel that here and now is happiness is a simple, frugal heart.
Nikos Kazantzakis
Al :)
1 comment:
Can't imagine anything worse than a spider on a boat!
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