Posted by Visualize on Sat 19 Sep 09, 1:14 AM to Visualize's blog.
Just a quick update for my friends on here. If you don't know me then I suggested you just skip this unless you really have nothing better to do.
The last month has been really hectic and I have lost track of you all again 
I found a boat and after a survey bought it - a 55 foot narrowboat, moored a very long way from where I needed it to be. Bravely, foolishly, I gave myself a week, and with the help of a person too whom I will always be eternally grateful, (but won't name unless she chooses to reveal herself), started to get it home.
Having bought it, there was a lot of things to do before it was even vaguely ready to sail. Delays with bank transfers slowed things down even more but finally we were sort of ready to sail
We had an interesting time of it. The first few days there was a gale blowing, and sods law, the first few days were the most technically difficult of the journey home. Also nothing worked at that point except the engine, the cooker and the cassette toilet. Also, I hadn't sailed a boat in a very long time and not such a big one.
Each evening we we got it a little closer to liveable - lighting first, running water a little later, hot water and shower after that....
After that first week it still wasn't home and I had to go back to work - mad dashes from work to see the kids, followed by driving back to where it was moored to sail it along another few miles and then cycling back to the van to go back to the rented house for work the next day.
Little by little it edged towards the destination. Time was running out for the rented house - if I could get out of THAT one month early I stood to save a lot of money, but the boat was still many miles from the destination.
Still, in for a penny, I moved out of the rented house and into the boat - thirty trips from road bridge to the boat one night to move my stuff, then back again to clean the rented house, go to work, see the kids, do a hundred change of address letters, and sort the chaos of boxes, crates and other stuff I had dumped on the boat in the middle of nowhere - the boat that had abruptly become "home".
A few days later it was finally at its mooring and slowly now it is coming together. I still have a few small jobs to do like insulating it, mending the wood stove, moving the kitchen to the back, moving the bedroom to the front, mending the shower, installing a proper toilet, replacing all the electrics, painting.....but it is home.
and it has been a grand adventure 
Edited Sat 19 Sep 09, 1:16 AM by Visualize
| 19 Sep 09, 7:15 AM MarcusStrapp UK(CB), 7 yrs  |
Are you writing this wonderful experience up elsewhere? Are there photos? Will you be braving the harsh winter on your narrowboat? How many of you are on living on board? How's your sacrificial anode? How wonderfully romantic and exciting. I'd love to know more, I'm sure there would be others that would too. The very best of luck with your new adventure. -- Marcus Strapp P.S. What river are you on? Have you seen any kingfishers yet? The @Fetish_Photo_Album A free and private flickr group for IC members to share dirty pictures! | |
| 19 Sep 09, 10:16 AM Sunhillow 7 yrs  |
What you've achieved in the timeframe & with all the setbacks is nothing short of miraculous really! I hope your plans to fix her up & get her all 'ship-shape & Bristol fashion' go really well and that soon she'll be a nice cosy home.
I know it's taken a lot of courage, a huge amount of optimism, tenacity & damned hard work to realise this ambition for your new home. I am so chuffed for you Cap'n visualize Love L xx ~ If you must pick the lesser of two evils; choose the one you've never tried before. ~ | |
| 19 Sep 09, 12:28 PM rocket_wench UK, 3 yrs |
Congratulations! It's very exciting. Last night at dusk I watched a small boat sail past on still water, just the mast light and the starboard light casting stripes across the water - beautiful. | |
| 19 Sep 09, 2:48 PM Visualize 4 yrs £ |
I havent really had time to write it up elsewhere, but I have been keeping notes  so it will go on line somewhere maybe about christmas. I will let you know.Yes there are tons of photos which will end up online one day also.
There is just me on board, although room for the kids to stay over when I have kitted it out - the hull survey was excellent but the inside is a disaster. Still, that is the right way around
It is exciting, although expensive - at first anyway, until you realise that the word "marine" in front of anything triples the price and a colleague points you in the direction of "machine mart" lol lol lol. It is very like living in a static caravan, although a lot more fun - feeling the boat bobbing around is lovely, as is sleeping under the open hatch and gazing at the stars on a clear night. I can't recommend it enough
edit to add I am around Ashby Canal/ Coventry Canal area. Don't want to be too precise nope not seen any kingfishers yet, but seen lots of birds of prey, ducks, swans, moorhens and other birds I dont know the names of yet :--D
The past is history, tomorrow is a mystery, the present is a gift. Edited 19 Sep 09, 2:50 PM by Visualize | |
| 19 Sep 09, 2:53 PM Visualize 4 yrs £ |
Awww, trust you to think of such nice things to say - and yes I am everything you wrote, lol lol. Thank you for keep popping up on MSN and asking how it is going - it meant/means a lot to me that you have been such a good friend to me during the chaos of the last six months. To say life has changed beyond recognition is an understatement. Love to you and yours xx
The past is history, tomorrow is a mystery, the present is a gift. |
