It has been a very long time since my first post, and so much has happened, and I almost feel I should have started a brand new blog, but it makes sense to pick up here, if anything it shows that life does take over quite often.
We returned home at the end of 2016, complete with our menagerie: Loki our cat, Branwen our Siberian Husky, and Oliver our English Setter.. My mother who had Alzheimers for some 5 years, and we made the decision to move back to Wales to be near to her for regular visits. Sadly she passed away at the end of October 2017, prior to this, Loki passed away in June at almost 19, and Branwen passed away suddenly in November, it has truly been our 'Annus orribilis'!
There is now nothing to hold us in Wales any longer, and thus our search for a Narrowboat is on in earnest and in reality finally.
We now have to consider the distance to my in-laws on the south coast, which makes Northampton a practical option. Also, something I have yet to mention, is that we have rejoined our Sealed Knot Regiment, which are located in Basingstoke, and Northampton becomes even more our primary choice.
Since we both will still need to work, we believe that we cannot be continuous cruisers as originally thought, and thus we are also looking for a Residential mooring on a marina. Currently focussed on Northampton, although work may pull us further north to Nottingham, but in many ways that would make it harder to get to the south coast.
So our discussions continue about our future narrowboat. I thought this was a good time to summarise those decisions, as something to refer to as we look at narrowboats for sale.
Re the design of the Stern of the Narrowboat, we decided early on that a semi-trad or trad, was our best option, but now realise for a live-aboard that we must focus on a traditional stern to save living space.
As to length, we have always said the longer the better and were focussing on close to 70 foot, but now we realise that this may not truly be feasible, so that is now 50 foot up to 62 foot which will be more practical. If it is 50 foot then we could not have a separate engine room, but closer to 62 foot then that would be possible, and be somewhere for storage and drying of clothes.
We are also learning about options for heating and hot water for the narrowboat, and what would work best for us. As much as I miss the woodstove in our homes in Nova Scotia, I also remember the work involved in carrying and moving said wood. Consideration must be given though, if we end up with a diesel stove, what those costs might be when comparing them to wood. If we do buy a boat that has a multi-fuel stove, then coal would be more practical, and there are working boats that can deliver to your boat.
Will update as our search for our new home progresses !
No comments:
Post a Comment