Two years on - some top 10 lists
“There are only two
lasting bequests we could hope to give our children. One of these is roots; the
other is wings.” Hodding Carter
We’ve now been living on board for two years, with so many
experiences it seems a good time to list some top tens.
These are in no particular order just in case you wondered.
Top 10 things that were so useless or impractical they
were sent back or binned
- Model railway stuff – it was worth a try but turned out to not be practical so it is now in storage waiting for the eldest deckhand to return to land
- Wooden and/or cardboard storage boxes of various sizes – ideal for growing mould gardens
- Sadly an office chair had to be re-homed as its size and wheels rendered it impractical on board
- The dogs bed. A nice soft padded bed with sides kept getting damp underneath and collecting all sorts of things, she now has a flat comfortable water resistant mat which she loves and is much more practical
- Our original plans. Yes, we had thought we would travel much further and despite hearing so many people say that they had shortened their journey or increased the cruising time we didn’t believe it until it was obvious that we faced the same choice.
- Tangine – such a good idea but too tall for the oven along with several other cooking tins which were too big
- Anything made of leather, it just can’t survive in the dampness of a boat
- A cactus. Never, never have a cactus on a boat. Unless it is kept in a locked box where it can’t stab anyone.
- A windsurfing board with no mast
- Various mats, carpets and rugs – between slipping, rucking up, not being able to lift the floor boards to get into the bilges easily and trapping damp, they are just not good on our boat
Top 10 things we really appreciate on board
1. EPIRB,
liferaft, VHF DSC radio, flares – never needed (apart from the radio
obviously), don’t want to use them, don’t want to be without them
2. Support
of our family and friends
3. Advice
from other cruisers that we have met or chatted with on forums
4. Lego
– lots of it
5. Proper
crockery/mugs/cutlery etc.
6. Hot
water bottles
7. Stove
top espresso maker
8. Pressure
cooker
9. Kindles
10. Pilot
books, stuffed full of really useful information, all of ours are now very well
thumbed
Top 10 lowpoints
- Finding unexpected rot whilst preparing at Topsham
- The terrifying and confidence knocking journey round Portland Bill
- Family bereavement
- Serious
illness of the youngest deckhand – a worrying few days in
- Finding more rot at L’Aber Wrac’h the hard way and facing the possibility of losing the boat
- Long nights spent fending the boat off of quaysides or buoys whilst being tossed around by wind and waves
- Frustrating waits for weather windows
- Sinking
off
- News of family health scares
- The times when the motion has been so bad that we have all felt ill
Top 10 highlights
- Carnival
in
- The
3 Kings parade in
- Opening
of the trams at
- Seeing dolphins playing around the boat
- Caves at Ribadesella
- Markets
and Night markets in
- Successfully
crossing the channel and arriving in
- The people and kindness we have met
- Coming ashore in the dinghy – anywhere it’s always exciting!
- Actually seeing the milky way spread across the sky without light pollution - when offshore the array of stars is breathtaking, even when camping in remote places we have never seen anything like it
The ‘things we appreciate’ and ‘highlights’ lists were
almost too easy to write and it was difficult to get them down to just 10 each
whilst the other two lists – the negatives -were harder to think of, maybe it
is looking back with rose tinted glasses but I would suggest that there are
just far more positives than negatives in the cruising life J
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| Boat boys on the first passage 2011 |
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| Boat boys 2013 |
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