An Englishman's boat is not his castle

It's raining again today so I am catching up on the blog I didn't manage to post yesterday. The reason I didn't post was quite simply a bad case of low spirits. I have mentioned 'incidents' here before and they come from two sources, one is basically nuisance value but the other is more sinister and potentially could cause major problems.

I had done a lovely job of cleaning the boat out in the morning and was having a morning cuppa with my friend T. We were both in very good spirits and were discussing projects for the future when it came to our attention that our duckling ramp had not only been removed, but everything had been slung in the bin. This was without so much as a 'by your leave' and is one of many similar incidents which have happened recently. We never got to the bottom of why this had happened because, not wanting confrontation, we thought that the line of least resistence was the best policy. Usually when anything like this happens (and it seems to be happening more frequently) health and safety is quoted, so we don't have a leg to stand on.

This is one of the downsides of living on a boat and it is seriously bugging me! When we lived in a house we were in full control of everything we owned, but here, despite owning our boat we still have to rent the berth so are basically little more than tenants. In the majority of cases this would not be a problem but potentially you can fall foul of petty beaurocracy and a peevish 'landlord'. This seems to be the case now where we are. We decided not to rent our berth from one of the many private marinas on the canal for this very reason because you are very much at the mercy of the vagaries of the landlord, who can turf you off at a moments notice if you happen to put a foot wrong or your face doesn't fit. There is more protection where we are, but here, it is more likely that we will leave of our own free will, because the atmosphere is becoming so unpleasant.

I feel angry that we are treated with such a lack of consideration and respect. There are many professional people living here who are just not used to being treated like that. The majority of us rub along very well and enjoy the life style but I for one feel very uneasy about the lack of control I have over my life all of a sudden. We all understand that there have to be rules and regulations when living in this sort of set up, but when they are applied with such rigour and apparent vindictiveness it spoils everything.

I have posted this just as a warning that there are some downsides to living on a boat and the 'renting' the mooring aspect is a biggie for me because I don't have full control of my life. T and I discussed becoming continuous cruisers, but that is a very hard life and I do need the stability of a permanent base while I am still working. The other berth holders and us are looking at trying to resolve this problem and I will keep you posted.

On a brighter note, we have finished planting at the allotment and here is our final virtual plan:

I took jack for a long walk which really cheered me up and he came and had a lovely snooze in front of our newly lit fire:

Today Phil has taken the trailer and is going to visit our builder friend who has a stack of wood for us - just in time as I have just used the last of our wood supplies lighting the fire this morning.

:)