Fears coming out in dreams

I rarely remember my dreams but last night I had a humdinger of a nightmare. I was out on my cruise and had tied up at a lock landing. I left the boat to set the lock which took a wee while. When I returned I found my boat had sunk, right under the water. I ran off and found someone with a phone to summon help. When I went back, the boat had disappeared!

I ran up and down the bank asking anyone who would stop, where my boat had gone. A man told me someone had craned it out and driven off with it. I stood on the towpath in shock. My home was gone and with it, everything I owned in the world. Two young men approached and offered me a bed in their squat for the night. My dream ended with me lying on a ripped, stained mattress in a condemned building, wondering what on earth I was going to do come the morning.

Thank goodness Bonny hadn't featured in the dream, that would have made it so much worse! It doesn't take a genius to interpret this dream. I am obviously feeling anxious about this next stage in my life. Not so much the actual cruising but the vulnerable position into which my decisions are putting me. Quitting my job means no regular income, hence the dream of ending up destitute. Single handed cruising can carry it's own risks. And not knowing what my decisions will lead me to is echoed by the end of the dream.

Still, no reason not to carry on regardless. There was an advert a few years ago that carried the tag line 'Don't let your fears stand in the way of your dreams'. Quite.

Less than 3 weeks and we are ready!

Bonny and I are getting properly excited now about our coming cruise. She is trying out one of her favourite positions...

I have been deciding what to take and what to leave on the mooring. The roof is starting to fill up nicely, but I need to make sure I have a clear path to walk on it. I use the roof all the time in locks, climbing up on the roof and then using the lock ladder to get out of deep locks and vice versa to get back on the boat. 

We are so looking forward to setting off. I say we, Bonny may not know what the plan is, but she knows something is up. For the first time since she was a pup she has been showing anxiety when I leave the boat without her. I have also had to watch for over excitement on walks or on the mooring. Just a few minutes ago she suddenly took off, racing up the mooring and almost out of sight. I had to be very stern with her to get her back!

My sleep pattern hasn't been right for weeks. I have been waking at 2 or 3am either convinced it's time to get up or beset by terrors and imaginings that are always worse in the dark hours. 'What if I injure myself whilst in the middle of nowhere?' What if I drop my phone in the cut?' What if I run out of money?' 'What if I hate cruising and long for the pleasure of cleaning the marina loos?' Once daylight comes the fears recede and the excitement takes over. Just 12 working days left!

4 weeks today till freedom

This is the gateway to my new life! I finish work four weeks today. Then, after a few necessary tasks, I shall leave my mooring and turn on to the Coventry Canal for my longest cruise since I bought the boat just over 7 years ago. You might call it my jubilee year!

My current plan (open to utterly changing of course) is to pootle down to the Ashby Canal and spend some time exploring the Battle of Bosworth fields. Then back to the Coventry and down onto the Oxford Canal. This will take me via Rugby, Braunston and Banbury to Oxford. I have friends living along the route and hope to see them as I mooch past.
Then I will retrace my boat steps as far as Napton, where I shall turn left onto the Grand Union Canal and face my first broad locks! Hopefully I will then meet up with my mega friends Roger and Shirleyann and together we will tackle the miriad of locks between there and Stratford Upon Avon, where we shall visit with The Bard.

If it hasn't rained for the entire trip thus far, we shall then cruise on the River Avon to Tewkesbury and then on the Severn, through Worcester to Stourport. I shall then resume my lone cruising up the Staffordshire and Worcester Canal and that is as far as my plan stretches so far.

I am so excited! I have started stockpiling stuff to avoid a lot of shopping once I'm out. I have serviced the engine and the boat has been blacked, so all ready for cruising. I need to speak to my friendly post master and arrange for my post to be forwarded occasionally to post offices on my route. Both Bonny and I will be clipped before we go so we will be smart boaters. There are various other jobs I need to get done but that all makes this time of waiting go quicker. So roll on April!

Happy Days

Here in the sun is my newly beautifully blacked boat. Also showing is my new, super duper TV aerial. It is a Maplins DTV1000 costing £45. It is an amplified one running off 12 or 240v and I am so, so impressed so far. Firstly it can be stored upright, just below the cratch, as opposed to my old spiky aerial that had to lie on the roof, damaging both the spikes and the roof. It is only a few inches high and yet, so far, it has given massively better reception than my old one. I moored in the woods on my way back from blacking and usually about the only channel I can get is Gay Rabbit! If I do get more channels, I usually have to watch them from the galley, as if I go any closer to the TV, the picture disappears! But with this one I got 139 channels, most crystal clear. My only problem now is to find a channel I can actually be bothered to watch.

The second reason for the title of this post is because I have handed in my notice at work. That makes my upcoming freedom to cruise feel like a reality for the first time. I was surprised by my boss. I expected her to be pretty grumpy about my decision but instead she applauded my decision to seize the day! So all I have to do now is to work till the end of March, get the boat cruising ready and stockpile as many dry goods as I have room for! Oh and try to rid myself of the fear that something is going to happen to stop me going!

Arrived safe and sound.

Well I don't know what I was worried about! I had no problem with the weather today as I cruised into the marina for a long awaited pump out and diesel. Honestly, pumping out the poo tank when it's really full is a bit like having a dump after being constipated for ages; it feels sooo good.

I then had to transform from customer to employee and go off to clean the facilities. By the time I had finished and given Bon a lunchtime walk I was ready for a sit down, but no, off to the Wharf to await our blacking. One last obstacle was the incredibly silted up mooring space that I had to reverse into, I almost had to dig a channel to get her in! But we had arrived. Better than that almost was the fact that the lovely Matt from Phoenix Marine let me hook up to shore power for the weekend. It is the first time in over 6 years that I have been on mains electricity and it is very exciting!

Here we are at the Wharf and here is Bonny settling in!

She can even find something to hunt in a car park!

What a difference a day makes

I spent a very disturbed night last night worrying about the possibility of ice or the end of the world stopping me from cruising 'Don't Panic' up to Kings Bromley for her two yearly blacking. I was due up on Sunday, ready for the dock on Monday morning but this morning there was just a film of ice on Fradley Pool and that was enough to throw me into a panic. (Now you know the reason for my boat's name!)
So after work I threw Bonny on the roof, watered up and worked the six locks between me and Kings Bromley. I tied up in the woods around 3pm and the above picture is the view from my loo. Not a breath of wind and sunny all day. Now if the ice could please hold back for just one more day... I will go into the marina for a desperately needed pump out and diesel up, work and then pop round the corner to the Wharf. Matt from Phoenix Marine has kindly let me have a berth a couple of days early. Then off to Devon for some much needed R and R!

Blacking time

I am due at Kings Bromley Wharf for blacking beginning next Monday. However the weather so far this year has been somewhat challenging to say the least. This week we have had storm Imogen and now the temperature is plummeting, with snow in the forecast! So I'm trying to decide which day will be least bad so I can do the lock flight, cruise to the marina for a desperately needed pump out and diesel filling, before taking her next door to the Wharf for the blacking of her hull.
At present I am working on doing some on Friday after work and the rest on Saturday after work.
Once she is safely tucked up at the Wharf, I will be taking Bonny off to Devon to visit friends as we aren't allowed to stay on the boat while she is in the dock. Hopefully, if all goes according to plan, my next post will be from the West Country!