First Weekend On Board

Moved onto the boat Friday after a week of clearing, cleaning and sorting stuff out, there’s lots of storage but it’s not like a house, it’s all tucked away in every useable space, so being organised is a requirement and remembering where you have put things is a necessity, already discovered that when trying to find where I’d put the laptop power lead. All’s good though, Friday evening I looked out of the side hatch to see total blackness, the very faint rumble of traffic a few miles away, possibly the M3 or my tinnitus, not sure which. I would love to say I slept like a log but I did not, I slept the same as usual, waking every 2 or 3 hours, but I did sleep til just before 8am, that’s an improvement!

Saturday I decided to clean the roof and gunnels (little strip along both sides of the boat about 10cms wide where you walk), as the boat hasn’t been used for some time they are slimy with a sort of moss type covering, not too visible but very noticeably slippery when wet, so I did the starboard gunnel (impressive what, picking up the terminology already) and then started on the roof, well it’s a bit bigger than a car and having got half way along one side and running out of energy I decided to walk along the (uncleaned) gunnel between my boat and the boat moored alongside me, to finish that half, all went well, but as I was finished and walked back towards the stern (just showing off now) the inevitable happened, slipped on the uncleaned bit of gunnel which was covered in wet leaves and my right foot discovered that canal water is cold, catching myself before falling in completely, and rapidly looking around to make sure that no-one was watching, I thought I had got away with it, but by late evening my left knee was melon sized, in case you don’t know me it’s normally coconut sized, so I either banged it or twisted it while I was averting the disaster of going headfirst into the cut (more boaty vocabulary). So a big note number 1 to self, “no hurry, look, think, look again, if in doubt, don’t”

Sunday awoke at 8:30, I like this improvement, nobody around, just the odd walker on the towpath, hobbled off to empty the cassette (you don’t need to know) and relaxed for the rest of the day.

Monday morning I woke up to a chilly boat, I had deliberately allowed the stove to go out, note number 2 to self, “always check the weather forecast”, evidently it was -4 degrees here last night, ice inside the Houdini hatch made me look outside to a lovely sight of mist over the water and frost all around, (when I find my camera I will start posting some pictures, I know, get organised Alan) so boiler on, light the stove, and then all is well, I have lots to learn, but that’s all part of the fun. I just pottered around really the knee is better but not enough to work on the boat, lots to do, but no rush,(see note to self number 1)

Now where did I put that corkscrew? As if.