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!