As I think I have already said, one of the reasons we decided to sell up and buy a live-aboard boat was so that we could live our lives differently. We wanted to rub up against life and try to remind ourselves of what it means to be alive. We wanted to turn our backs on the comforts and conveniences of modern life. Not in a sackcloth and ashes kind of way, but just to be more aware of our surroundings and the impact that we have upon the environment. Well, we have made some steps towards that way of living, but only in a relatively sheltered way. Living in a marina means that we still have easy access to fresh water and electricity. We are safe in the knowledge that there are plenty of people around and that there is a security patrol through the night. We also still have our car with us so we can easily get to a supermarket to stock up on food. All of this means that we haven’t fully embraced the alternative living aspects of our plans. Having said that, we certainly are experiencing the elements of the weather today. Strong winds and constant drizzle/rain can dampen your spirits somewhat.
I guess one of the reasons that we haven’t made the full
plunge yet is that it has taken us a lot longer than we imagined getting to
this stage and with the winter months facing us we are better off in a safe
marina. We had thought that we would
have had the summer months to get out and practice sailing and handling Wendy
Woo but that hasn’t happened. We feel
that we need to do many short sailing trips to test the seaworthiness of our
boat before we embark on any longer passages.
We are hopeful that we can get out of the marina and practice, but every
time we look at the forecast there are strong winds and rain heading our
way. Some more confident and competent
sailors might say that we should just get on with it, but I need to be more
cautious. Also, because we live aboard
our boat there is lots of ‘stuff’ to stow or secure before we can get out into
open water. I feel that this puts us off
a little. We need to crack this conundrum
or we might find that we become stuck to the mooring.
Another, and probably the main reason we haven’t been out sailing in more challenging conditions is the condition of the keel bolts. Wendy Woo is 55 years old and the cast iron keel is held on by an unknown number of keel bolts. A previous owner had a couple of bolts drawn a few years back and they were found to be ‘satisfactory’ but that does not remove the nagging doubt in the back of my mind over the condition of the bolts generally. The only way to know for sure is to remove them for examination – no easy job! We have decided that we cannot put off doing this task for long and consequently we are looking at getting them done in the spring, before we travel too far. I imagine that we will end up spending a fair amount of money for peace of mind, but we have little choice. Let’s hope that they come out easily.
