It feels very strange tonight, the last night in the marina after four months. It’s been very comfortable. A car to hand, electric hookup, a watertap close to the boat. Not like proper narrowboating at all. It’s made me very soft and a little unsure of what comes next. Memories of walking miles to launderettes, no shops within easy access, cold and muddy footpaths to negotiate…..
Yet there’s an excitement that our adventure is really beginning. As from tomorrow we will have no fixed abode on the waterways system and there is a freedom in that, wondering where we will travel, who we will meet, what we will see and experience. I’m sure we will face challenges but at least we are coming into the summer months, our boat is small so easier than some to steer and should mooring be a problem we may find a tight spot that we can just squeeze into. Certainly there are so many more boats cruising the cut than we are used to but that gives us more opportunity for conversation and maybe help at some of the wide locks as we will probably go up and down the flights of locks in pairs. Not sure about overtaking though! Think we will be learning patience on most of our summer journeying and getting used to queuing before entering a lock flight. The pace of life is definitely entering a different gear.
We’ve made good use of this week though with all the facilities to hand. We’ve stocked up on essentials and nipped out to garden centres so I can cultivate a very small area of flowers in the boat bow! I can just about manage that! Last May my friend A gave me a beautiful trough filled with herbs. Imagine my joy when I found some had survived the winter and now replenished I have a wonderful herb garden on board. Hopefully not peeded upon by cats as is always an issue in our garden at home which somewhat puts me off eating them!
R is really chuffed. He managed to swop the rosehead in the shower for a snaky hand held head. At least he can wash himself albeit in a fairly tight space! The boat looks rather multicoloured, the result of me dabbing undercoat everywhere there looked to be a scratch or bit of rust showing through. We’ve had to order a tin of topcoat, supposedly arriving tomorrow, so hoping it will do so before we no longer have a car to enable us to nip to the chandlers!
My delight today has been making two new blinds for the boat. I found the material when staying up north with friends H and J so it’s been on my ‘to do list’ preferably before leaving here. We had a lovely sociable weekend with our bestman and his wife arriving with two bottles of red wine to toast the boat. It was Sunday lunch so we actually drank sherry in memory of mum and cracked open the red wine later having Mothering Sunday as the excuse to do so. Bittersweet to not have any cards but the children all contacted me in one form or another so they did what they could. Sometimes there are downsides to not having a postbox! On Saturday we entertained our first guests al fresco on the cruiser stern. I was slightly concerned about the parsnip soup. I had served some to my sister in law last week and we all had our heads blown off by the one chilli I had added for flavour!! I froze the remainder and brought it to the boat and then cooked a further big bag of parsnips in coconut milk to add to it. It did reduce the heat somewhat. Our guests had lived in Africa so I found out spicy food didn’t worry them! When I mentioned the blind project A immediately said she would come and help me make them and it made all the difference, two pairs of hands rather than one and two brains to work out what to do cobbling together new blinds from old. It felt good to be doing something creative and I think they suit the boat perfectly.
The end of our evening gave us an unexpected encounter with a lovely bloke, P, who came to buy our boat cratch board and ended up staying for a good hour or more once I offered him a cup of tea (he’d been delayed at work so didn’t arrive until nearly 2130hrs!). He’s had a fascinating life as an athlete and as a top triathlon who in addition to completing quite a few Iron Man challenges, has also run the London marathon countless time and came 89th in the British runners one year. You never know what lifestory you are going to hear in these cameo encounters of other boaters but he has told us where he’s moored and we are welcome for a cup of tea any time we are passing! I think I will take him up on that just so I can hear more tales of his life.
Delighted that he took the cratch board at a bargain price it has to be said! A triangle of wood surrounding a pane of glass that supports an upmarket tarpaulin to keep you dry in the bow area, it’s shape was not conducive to those over 6ft. We’re having a more rectangular cover fitted using stainless steel bars but it saddened me to see the beautiful wooden structure go, especially when I learnt they are in the region of £900 new. However I need to be practical and maximize space. If I have found a good home for the cratch then that is far better than taking it home and potentially seeing it end up in a skip. P only had £70 on him but he thought it was worth more than that so he assures me he is going to come and find me on the cut with a bit more dosh. It will be lovely to see him if only to share another cuppa!
NarrowboatTLC 