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!

episode 10000 of mooring saga!

I haven't posted a pic of Bonny for a while so here she is just before we left Barton Marina. She is 8 months old now and is testing her limits in every way. If I say come, she goes, say no and she does it, etc. But she is a wonderful boat dog; totally fearless and loves nothing more than chasing squirrels on the tow path.

The nice lady from BW came to visit this week. We looked at two possible alternative mooring sites for me at Fradley. The one I would be happy with is silted up and needs dredging. BW's attitude seems to have softened as Sandie was very apologetic about all they had put me through and said that she would do her best to make the mooring habitable. She said she would see if they could, not only dredge it, but cut back the rampant vegetation and put a couple of mooring pins in. Meanwhile she has said I can stay on the visitors mooring for as long as necessary. Of course 'seeing if they can do it' is a long way from actually making it happen, so more waiting...

Meanwhile yesterday, after 23 days, I finally managed to move my boat in order to pump out my toilet tank (Oh blessed relief) and fill up with diesel and water. It took a 5 hour round trip and so I need to factor that into my life. I was a little anxious coming back as, with boats moving again, there was no guarantee that there would still be a space on the visitors moorings at Fradley. There was on this occasion, but the sooner I have a permanent mooring again, the better.

Fradley pics

I've been using lots of words recently, but not so many pictures, so here are a few of Fradley in the snow. The first shows a little of how thick the ice is on the canal at present. The lumps lying on top are around 4" thick.

The second is the beautiful sunrise that Bonny and I see most mornings on our walk before work.

The last is the view out of my window at present!

Oh, and good news - thanks to boaters working together yesterday, we managed to join 4 hoses together, stretch it across the frozen canal and water all the boats in this pound. What a relief! I had my first shower on my boat this year to celebrate! (Note, I have showered this year - just not on my boat!)

arctic life and message to the snoop...

Well, I'm still alive! As anyone who lives in Britain will know, it has been snowy and freezing since before the New Year. In fact I last managed to fill up with water on 30th December. All the boats are now frozen to the spot and I am reduced to using two 5 litre containers to fill up with water at work every day. Diesal wise I'm fine at present and I can get coal and wood from a friendly boat moored at Fradley. My loo tank is getting full (I know, too much information), but I have a porta potty that I can use. I have had to start sleeping in the saloon as the back cabin gets too cold by morning, but that's OK.
I've had to alter my working hours to 10-4, rather than 9-5 as the road from Fradley is snow and ice covered and I have to wait for some of the 4x4's to use it before I can get through. I also don't want to risk the return journey in the dark, hence leaving at 4pm. I get paid less of course, but at least I feel safer.

I write this blog thinking that I am writing to my friends, but an incident today reminded me that anyone can read this - not all with kind motives! So... to the person who read this blog and then made an anonymous phone call to Barton Marina and complained to Lorraine that I am using the showers without paying (5the January blog), I have a message for you. Firstly, get a life! Secondly, I am actually using the BW shower at Fradley, using the word marina was a slip of the keyboard and thirdly, thank you, you did me a favour, as Lorraine and I had a good chat and cleared up a misunderstanding between us. We also expressed sympathy for the sad person who has nothing better to do than to report on other people's blogs and toiletry habits!! I wonder if you are the same person that reported my autumn conversation with friends about fences and rules to the marina office? If so, please come and see me in the shop and tell me in what way I have upset you.

Happy New Year!

I hope 2010 is a great year for all of you and I hope nobody is too cold at present!
It's icy and snowy here and it is impossible to move the boat to get water or diesal. However, I have bought myself a generator (thanks to generous Christmas contributions from my brothers James and Douglas), which means that I can charge my batteries and therefore have power even if I run out of diesal. I have coal and wood to keep the woodburning stove going, although I have been shocked to find that I am using over 2 bags of coal a week. Water has been trickier as I need to fill up every week. But until a better solution presents itself I have bought two 5 litre bottles of water from the supermarket and I think that if I fill them every day at work and take showers in the marina, then I should be OK as long as I'm careful.

The mooring saga has entered a new phase. I have moved off the chains as on my second day there I slipped trying to board the boat and bruised my leg quite badly. The other boaters here say the mooring is not safe and that's why no one uses it, except as an overnight visitor mooring. I have moved on the visitors moorings opposite and it is bliss. I can now step, in a lady like way, on and off my boat, rather than launching myself into space and hoping I land in the boat. I am also back in daylight which is nice and since I am now above ground, I don't have dogs peeing against my windows!! Bonny loves it too, a bit too much as she has discovered how easy it is to get off the boat! I have had to chase her around the nature reserve on a couple of occasions.

British Waterways know I have moved off the chains and 'Rob' has said that they will see what they can do to sort the problem out. I obviously can't stay on the visitors moorings forever as there is a 48 hour limit on them and even if I was allowed to stay permanently on them, if I moved the boat to get water or diesal or to go on a trip, the likelyhood would be that there would be no space for me to moor on my return.

Spiritually, the experience has been very good for me as I am learning to let go of the security of having my own space to be in. I am also practising enjoying the present moment - ie the pleasure of being moored here today, without worrying too much about where I'll be moored next week or next month. I say I am practising - that's because I'm not that good at it yet! There is also something quite elemental about my major concerns being heat, water and power. It is putting all the other things I fret about into perspective. It is also amazingly beautiful here- especially in the frosty mornings, and so peaceful after having been moored next to the A38.

So, today, all is well! I hope it is also well with you.

another new beginning

On 28th December, amid freezing fog and icy towpaths, I moved Don't Panic from Barton Marina to Fradley Junction. Not to the mooring I actually bid and paid for, but to a mooring a little way up, tying to chains rather than mooring rings. That makes it interesting in a lock flight, since the water level is constantly changing and so I could come back to find the boat hung up on the wall if I tie her too tight. But having the ropes loose means that every time I move about on the boat, she rocks and thumps against the side. It is also dark on board because the wall is quite high which makes getting off and on interesting! However I am at least here and not in the marina any more and Fradley is lovely - even in freezing fog.

I managed to speak to the senior moorings manager, who has visited the site. It was like pulling teeth, but eventually he did admit that the description of the mooring site 'contained inaccuracies'. He refused to admit that it was actually a different mooring they had been advertising, and when I pointed out that the boat on that mooring had an expired mooring permit, he said he wouldn't know anything about that! Strange, considering he is the 'senior moorings manager'. I won't bore you with our tediously drawn out conversation, but the result of it was that I will be provided with temporary free parking while I am on the chain mooring. If I don't feel safe there, I am allowed to go onto the visitors moorings opposite, on a temporary basis. Then he has agreed to look for a more suitable mooring in the New Year. I was happy with that, until he said that if they find another mooring, I will have to pay the guide price for it, rather than the amount I won the bid with, which is likely to be more money. I pointed out that it would effectively mean I would be paying for British Waterways' mistake. Still, one argument at a time. I will wait to see what, if anything, they offer me and then negotiate the price. They are amazing though. He wouldn't budge an inch to start with - even trying to make out that they couldn't give me free parking as they weren't in control of the car park. When I pointed out it was a BW car park, he said 'Oh, well I mean it's not my department'.

So I am off the umbilical cord of the Marina. It's quite scary really. If I run out of diesal, I won't have any power (because I wouldn't be able to charge the batteries) In normal weather that's not really an issue, but we have had frozen canals here recently and if I can't move her, then I would be without water as well as power. It also crossed my mind that if I slipped and injured myself - or worse - nobody would know and it could be days before anybody noticed! So I need to keep reminding myself not to panic and to remember one of my favourite sayings - 'Don't let your fear stand in the way of your dreams'.

Having calmed my fears somewhat, I commuted to work for the first time today and my car broke down!! That hadn't been a worry of mine until it happened. Fortunately I had reached Barton when it happened, but I had a horrible picture of Bonny and I having to walk the two hours home in the dark and pouring rain. But helpful people helped me at Barton and it turned out that all the water on the road had temporarily drowned my engine. At least I hope that's it - I'll find out in a couple of hours when I return home.

Despite the difficulties and anxieties, I am still sure this is the right next move for me. It is refreshing in a way to worry about such basic requirements as warmth, power and water. It puts other anxieties into perspective and in a strange way it makes me feel more alive!

So, at the dawn of another new year, I face another new start. I hope for all my readers that 2010 will be a great year of challenges overcome and hopes realised. Happy New Year!