Life with our feet under water

It's finished. Apart from dealing with all of the stuff that Grace, my copy editor and proofreader, throws up. And that could be a lot! She's very picky, and rightly so. But I have little or nothing to add to it. I'm fighting hard to avoid thinking about it now. I think there will always be the temptation to add "this little bit..." "...there", and that could go on indefinitely.

So, it's finished. I'll put it on Kindle as soon as I can. If I get it out by Christmas, there may be kind souls out there who'll buy it as a present. Hopefully, even more will buy it for themselves! It's 300 A5 print pages long, and lavishly illustrated with over 2,300 photos on a linked Flickr stream. Kindle doesn't deal in page numbers, though, since readers set their own page size. I haven't worked out yet how much to charge for it, but really, dear reader, it'll be the best read you've ever had for under a fiver. Possibly under a fourer.

Whaddya think? Promising? I'll be sure to let you know when it's available to buy.

Now we REALLY start!

We could actually have hoped for a colder day yesterday, the day Kantara was handed over to us.  We allowed two hours for a one and a quarter hour journey, and it took three hours, a large chunk of which was spent sitting in a jam on the road from hell - the M1 - in very hot weather.  So we arrived late at Crick, to meet Bob, the last owner of Kantara, a lovely man who had lived with his wife full-time in the boat until poor health had forced them to sell.  He clearly loves Kantara, and his greatest wish now for her was that someone else would love her as much, and be as happy in her as he had been.  We think that describes us well.

Bob spent a good deal of time with us, explaining all sorts of details, and making sure that we had all the information we needed to get the best out of Kantara.  After he left, having given us his contact details and assured us that we were to feel free to get in touch with him if we needed any help, we drove to Yelvertoft Marina, left the car there, and walked back to ABNB in Crick to collect Kantara and sail her back to the mooring we had booked at Yelvertoft. It was a good feeling, knowing that she was now actually ours.

Then began the process of unloading the car, and getting things into the boat, listing the things we had overlooked and would need to pick up from home the next time we return. Time flew, and we realised we had not eaten since we munched a sandwich on the M1, so we had to stop to prepare and eat a meal, drink a bottle of wine Bob had so kindly left for us (along with some port and a bottle of a fiery spirit we had never seen before), before falling into bed, exhausted.

We awoke late this morning, to a dreary and windy day, but still warm, and the day was spent shopping for food, tidying our things properly into the many cupboards in the boat, and sorting out a few technical problems, most of which were due to our ignorance, and were solved by reading the manuals. One needed Bob's help, and he was onto it like a shot.  We are so grateful to him for his promise of support on such occasions.

And here we are, 10:20 on Saturday evening, sitting in the moorers' lounge in the marina - the best place to connect to the wi-fi - a lot closer to being ready to cruise a bit. We are in no special hurry. We want to be as comfortable as possible when we start to cruise, and not be irritated by some detail we have overlooked. The biggest challenge at the moment is getting our 3G router and antenna set up properly, so that both of us can get the best possible Internet connection for our laptop computers. I tried this evening before we ate, but I think I was just too tired, and I had to give up. But there's time to do that - I don't go back to school on Monday! 

Here's Kantara in her new setting...

And this one's for Rhea and Kate, who will find the name very much funnier than the rest of you.

The adventure starts here

From Roger
OK, this isn't the Sail the Seven Seas adventure, the Cross Africa on a Camel adventure, or even the Pub Crawl Across Europe adventure, but it is the fulfilment of a dream Grace and I have had for many years, and, since we're not going to embark upon any of the previously-mentioned ones, this is our adventure.  I'm leaving behind me 37 very enjoyable years as a teacher, while Grace has spent most of that time being home-maker, mum and carer, alongside an assortment of diverse jobs, both full and part time, mostly involving designing things.  We both need a break, and to live a dream. Kantara is that break, that dream.

Having just put down a deposit on Kantara, a 59' 1" (was that 1" accident or design, one has to ask) semi-trad narrowboat, we have to wait until the beginning of September before we can sail her away to a nearby marina, where we will work to make her ours, before embarking upon a life on the cut.  We intend to be on Kantara for eight to nine months of the year, returning home over the winter months.  For how many years?  We have no idea!

According to ABNB through whom we are buying Kantara...

"Kantara was designed and has been used & updated as a liveaboard from new, with many back-ups and extra features some might see as a luxury. Firstly, central heating is from two sources - economical diesel stove and convenient gas boiler, with the stove fed from a dedicated ‘low-duty’ fuel tank. The heating system also provides hot water, along with the engine and an immersion heater. Then there’s the 230V supply, which is from three sources - landline, 2500W pure sine wave inverter or 5000W generator. Battery charging is also by three sources - landline charger, alternator or four swivel-mounted solar panels. There’s only one type of window, mind you, but that’s doubleglazing to help keep the warmth in! If you can’t decide between semi-trad or trad, then Kantara has the answer as there’s both - a large aft hatch with a smaller one within. With a gutsy Barrus engine assisted by a bow thruster, cruising should be a breeze, and when locking or popping to the shops there’s a carrier for a bike or two. The washing machine and an extending permanent double berth just add to the list for a liveaboard boat that has been well maintained."

We love her already.  There are a few little things that need to be done to lose the stamp of previous owners and make ours there instead, but they really are minor.  We already have a list of friends and family who want to spend time with us on the boat, and we're looking forward to introducing them to this way of life.
We hope that you enjoy following us on our adventure, and that this blog will be both interesting and entertaining.  If it is not that, then at least it will be a record for us for future years.