Up the Creek (Searching for a Paddle)

How did we get here?  It’s the middle of December, the weather is cold and wet, and we are ripping apart a 55 year old sailing boat that is to become our home.  We have sold our house and are living in temporary accommodation in order to fund this crazy adventure.  So why do this?



We had been living in a rural village in West Wales.  Our two sons had left home to follow their dreams at university and we were beginning to imagine whether we could see ourselves living out our days hoping for the occasional visit from children.  Don’t get me wrong.  We had a beautiful 200 year old stone built house on the edge of the village with no immediate neighbours, a lovely garden, and a substantial garage cum workshop.  In many respects we had a great life...……..but we both started to feel that we wanted to live life differently.  We could have moved to a different house, but this would not have given us the 'different life.'  We then stumbled across a few YouTube stories of people living onboard boats, and we both thought, yeah, why not?

We have both always been drawn to the coast and seas.  I have done some offshore sailing but my wife has never sailed.  In fact, she always had felt seasick when taking the ferry to France.  But the seed had been planted and we soon found ourselves looking at countless boats for sale on the internet.  But, what type of boat?

We initially toyed with the idea of a canal boat and went looking in marinas and canals near to us.  There are some beautiful narrowboats and the ingenuity and imagination of their owners is clear to see.  Living onboard is a well-trodden (tow)path and we could have gone this route.  However, we felt too land-locked and, although you can access the coast and sea from some of the UK's inland waterways, it was not right for us.

We then looked at sailing boats.  Again, there are literally thousands of boats for sale but we quickly agreed on what we didn't want.  We wanted something made of wood, preferably with some history, and with enough space in which to live and to be able to have visitors stay with us.  And so it was that we came across Wendy Woo.

Wendy Woo is a David Hillyard 20 ton Ketch, built in 1965, and is 42' in length.  She has accommodation for 4 and sufficient space to live comfortably onboard.  We arranged to view her in Dartmouth on a beautiful autumn day and we immediately fell in love with her.  The broker made it clear that she needed some work and that he knew of a place nearby that could carry it out.  More importantly, we would be able to work alongside the shipwright in order to keep costs down.  And so the adventure began.  A price was agreed and she was hauled out of the water at the beginning of October 2019 for a full survey.

Next instalment tomorrow...…..