My 3 month diary

When I get around to it, I'm planning to post some extracts of my diary, with a few photos but in the meantime, I thought I would just summarise how the last 3 months went and what I learnt.

My 3 month trip away was certainly enjoyable and I would happily do it again. The river was peaceful and quiet with hardly anyone else around and I learnt a lot about living on board, albeit with regular trips home. I feel confident that I could do extended cruising if the need or opportunity arose.

Living on board is really common sense and involves a bit of planning ahead, being flexible and having some consideration of others. For instance, I made sure I parked the Landy in safe, out-of-the-way places so I wouldn't upset any locals and I moved Skylark regularly for the same reason. I washed and dried clothes, towels, etc between home visits as needed and kept the boat clean and tidy as I went along. I was surprised how dirty and dusty the boat became even though I regularly cleaned it - something about living so close to the outdoors I suppose.

Without wanting to fill the boat with tons of boxes, bags, tins and bottles, I usually bought food on a daily basis. This just needed a little thought and meant I could have fresh food and drink and take advantage of late deals. I soon became an ALDI convert (like many others), recognising both the quality and cost-effectiveness of this supermarket chain. The staff were also very pleasant.

Planning the purchase of fuel, taking on drinking water and pumping out was not difficult and travelling solo was easy so long as I thought things through, planned ahead and tried to anticipate the things that could go wrong.

I think one of the most important things was to stay busy. It was all too easy to sit down with a cup of coffee and a bar of chocolate and turn on the TV. Not a bad thing in itself but I could find myself still there an hour later watching short snatches of Loose Women or How to Do Something Strange Down Under in between frequent bouts of Michael Parkinson advertising the best-ever Over 50’s life insurance and Carol Vorderman promoting very reasonable Pay Day Loans at only £3700% apr. Don’t go there! So, I would turn off the TV, and maybe turn on the radio, read, practice guitar and/or Uke, go for a walk or bike ride, visit places of interest, potter about on board, do some painting or whatever. This meant, what could have turned out to be a long 3 months of boredom, actually turned out to be varied and interesting.

While having to be content with your own company for quite long periods, talking to other boaters (mainly live-aboards) and passers-by was good. I could pass on a bit of information about things I'd noticed on the river, find out about what's going on or, as I did with a young lady standing on a bridge over the Ouse, try to talk her down. It brought a smile to her otherwise glum face and probably gave her something to tell her mates in the office. Seriously though, I was aware of the risk of becoming seen as that Billy-no-mates on the river who speaks to strangers about nothing in particular so made sure that didn't happen. I think there's a thin line between being friendly and being boring or appearing weird!

I may think of other things so there could be more to follow - if I can keep on the right side of Google and Blogger!