more patience required

I may have been a little optimistic in my last post. I really thought I was on the verge of moving to my new mooring, but now another week has passed and I am still moorless! (I don't think that is a word, but it's the closest to homeless that I could get!) I am trying to convince myself that the reason is that I still have lessons to learn from this experience, but my patience has run out like sand from an hour glass. Not that my running out of patience will affect anything one way or another, only my reactions to events.
I am sending weekly emails to British Waterways and Sandie, the moorings officer is sending lovely sympathetic emails back, but still no mooring. Still, when I pointed out I had paid a full 2 months now for a non existent mooring and would expect BW to either refund that money or add the time to my mooring permit, she did not argue, so I guess I should be grateful that I have been able to moor for 2 months for free. Well, I'll be grateful when I actually receive a refund!

Next week I'm off to get my bottom blacked at Shobnall (Burton on Trent). In case you think I have an extreme medical condition or possibly am doing a reverse Michael Jackson, I hasten to add that it is a protective coat of tar based paint applied to the bottom of my boat! With an engine service as well, it will cost me £500 or so. However it is so worth it, as, if you don't look after your bottom, disaster will surely follow!

I've just paused from writing as I have received a visit from a kind boater. He had heard I was looking to buy a wooden pallet to keep my coal off the roof of the boat (not good to have it lying directly on the steel as it can cause rust). He has found one exactly the right size, brought it up for me and won't take a penny for it. Isn't that kind? He is my second angel of the week, as Jan - she of the Hunt's Lock mooring - has also visited to tell me where I can buy a replacement toilet (don't ask) much cheaper than any shop. This is one of the best things about boating - there is still a real sense of community - particularly among the live aboards - and people, even strangers, help each other. It is a timely reminder for me that my blessings in this new life far outweigh the curses!

progress at last

The mooring epic, as it now is, might just be coming to an end. As last reported, there were two sites identified for me to make my new mooring. One was just below Shadehouse Lock in the woods and I loved the look of it, but it needed dredging. The other was below Hunts Lock (both at Fradley Junction) in a line of boats, only accessible by crossing the lock and going down a very thin path. I had set my heart on the first option and Sandie Dunstan, the mooring officer, said that it should be possible to dredge it, but it might not happen for a few weeks. So I have been mooching about on the visitors moorings on the Trent and Mersey and Coventry canals waiting for a dredger.

Then, earlier this week, I was informed by BW that the mooring would not be dredged because of a backlog of 'important' work. I was fairly gutted, especially since to access the Hunt's Lock mooring would mean several boats having to move up to create a space for me. I really didn't want to go somewhere where I had managed to upset the neighbours before even arriving!

So I moored up on the visitors moorings at Shadehouse to enjoy it while I could, whilst waiting for Sandie to contact the boaters and get them to move to make space for me. I was not a happy bunny. Then, yesterday, as I was pottering about in unaccustomed sunshine, a lady came past and stopped to chat. She was a lovely person called Jan and she and her husband have been moored at Hunts Lock for the last 6 years and love it. She made me feel really welcome and said the other boaters shouldn't mind moving up to make space for me as they only spread out after another boat left. She said people are friendly and helpful to one another whilst still giving each other space. She also has a little Westie dog and no one has a problem with it. Jan chatted to me over a cup of tea on my boat for most of the afternoon and when she left, I felt so much better about mooring there, I was very grateful.

Hopefully I will be able to move there soon as, come Monday, I will have been paying for a mooring I haven't got for a full 2 months. I have pointed this out to BW and have asked for a refund or an extension to my mooring permit. I guess how long it takes rather depends on where the boaters who will have to move their boats live and when they can come down to move them. I am so glad all this has happened in the winter, because had this been happening during the height of the season, I would have really struggled to find visitors moorings to stay on for this amount of time.

I am also grateful for the lessons I am learning through this - lessons of patience, and trust that it will all work out as it should. I am also getting better at understanding that my home is my boat and not the piece of land I happened to be moored to. This takes quite a mind shift as most of us are so used to our homes being a static point; a piece of land; a particular place. But as I grow into the idea that my boat is home, it gives me an increased sense of freedom. I can moor anywhere and still be home. I can hold lightly to the need to have a place that is mine and instead I can regard the whole canal and river network as being, in some sense, home. It also means letting go of another security; another thing that I thought I needed to keep safe and secure.
It's scary but liberating!