Last night was our first night on Discovery (my boat) since moving in and it was a very eventful first night!
Firstly, I got a bit carried away with the wood burner and before I knew it, it was getting hotter and hotter. I finally checked the temperature, the Carbon Monoxide alarm has a room temperature on it – it was 43 degrees centigrade! So I opened all the doors and Honey and I went for a walk to cool down! We then moved further down the boat and sat on the bed. By the time we went to bed, Discovery was down to 29 degrees!
Pierre had done some work on the wood burner yesterday (Day 224), tightening the seals, etc…maybe that was part of it?
It was a super windy night and she was buffering around a lot, every so often hitting the shore with a bang. I was just drifting off to sleep and then BANG! Then again, nearly asleep and BANG – it was going to be a long night.
Honey was getting distressed by the banging, so at 2.30am I got up, put on my clothes and headed outside to try and find a solution. It was raining heavily, so soon I put Honey onto the boat as she was getting wet. I’m sure the super hot temperature warmed her up 😉
I found a car tyre, some rope and tried to work out how to attached the tyre to the shore. I tied the rope to the tyre, then onto the shore, it was at this point, I wished I had learnt some boat knots before moving on! But I think I tied a boat knot in the end. I then jumped on the tyre to wedge it between the boat and the shore, pushing Discovery out of the shore whilst jumping on the tyre to push it down. The tyre wouldn’t go very far, but it seemed to work.
Discovery was tightly wedged between the shore and the tyre, so I returned to bed. There was lots of creaking, but she didn’t move at all and we slept deeply from 3am to 8am when my alarm went off. Phew!
Photos taken this morning of the tyre, this is as far as I could get it down in the middle of the night.
So for the time being, this is the temporary fix! I managed to get it further down this evening, now the wind has dropped.
Welcome to Boat Life 🙂
This morning after Chi Gong, Honey and I headed to the bus stop to head over to my flat. The buses that go straight to my flat are on Diversion and I couldn’t find where they went, so we walked a lot of the way.
I went past McDonald’s on Princess Street and was horrified to see people sitting at tables eating hamburgers, but then realised that the restrictions have changed – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-54771868
Level 3 (which the Central Belt is in) – Restaurants, pubs and cafes are allowed to open until 6pm to serve food and non-alcoholic drinks.
I’m out of touch, due to not doing my Blog Research for the last week.
I also spotted some social distancing signs, for queuing at a cash machine.
I did some work at my flat and did some tidying of it.
At 4pm, Charlie the Plumber came round to look at some bits of work needed.
Then Honey and I headed back to Discovery and went for a walk along the towpath. There was a lovely clear sky and on the way back a bright moon and some stars too 🙂
Face-Mask Corner
Today we have Pierre, who came to do some work on Discovery yesterday (Day 224).
This is Pierre’s work face-mask that he got from Screwfix.
Thanks Pierre! I would never have thought to go to Screwfix for face-masks, but makes sense, as trades people are going to people’s homes all the time!
Readers Corner
Today we have four posts!
Eilidh
Eilidh runs her own independent gift shop on the Isle of Berneray, called Coralbox. Although people can’t visit Berneary at the moment, she offers an online shop, including t-towels, 2021 calendars and gift cards, with stunning photos of Berneary. We usually head there in July for the ‘Berneray Week‘ (its like a mini festival), but this year didn’t make it because of Covid.
Eilidh messaged me today saying:
“Hi Jim, how are you? Just a little message to say I’ve been reading your blog posts during Lockdown, it’s been really interesting and great to hear about you and Honeys day to day stories and what you have been up to. And how exciting you are living on your boat now! I hope it all goes well. Berneray was busier for a couple of months from July, but I missed seeing you all at the hostel or ceilidh dances. Hopefully see you again soon on the islands x”.
Thanks Eilidh! Glad to hear you are enjoying my blog, its great to hear more and more people are reading it. We missed seeing you and Berneary too. Hopefully next year!
Jim
Jim left a comment on yesterdays blog (Day 224) saying:
“Hi Jim, I have read all of your blog, the boat looks great and all your pictures are fantastic. Glad things have worked out for you, although I realise it was very tiring work. Look forward to seeing you on zoom tomorrow.”.
Looking forward to seeing you at Chi Gong too, tomorrow morning 🙂
Penny
My mum left a Facebook Comment on yesterdays blog (Day 224), saying:
“What is the name of the boat”.
Thanks mum! She is called ‘Discovery’.
Pierre
Pierre sent me a text this morning after reading yesterdays blog (Day 224) saying:
“Hi Jim. I just read yesterday’s post of your blog and its very nice…It takes a lot of dedication to write every day! Well done and keep up the good work. All the best for settling in on discovery. Take care and see you soon. Pierre”.
Thanks Pierre, glad you enjoyed the blog! It does take a lot of time to write and at times I really can’t find the energy. But I have made a commitment to write one every day for a year!
Music / Podcast Corner
Today, we have a Two Part sharing from Helen.
She wrote:
“Hi Jim, something a bit different for music corner? It’s an interview with Tim Minchin.”.
https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/features/interviews/tim-minchin-nine-favourite-songs
Thanks Helen, I will check it up when I am not using my Mobile WiFi.
As I come to the end of this blog, I am totally exhausted! Honey has been fast asleep next to me for most of the night too. Learning this new boat life is totally exhausting! I think Honey is finding the lack of a familiar routine confusing and we didn’t get much sleep last night.
After speaking with Pierre yesterday, I realised that I keep writing and saying “my boat” and “it” – rather than using her name ‘Discovery’ and her gender, female. You will have noticed that I have been doing the new way for this blog, which I will continue.
You will be pleased to hear that tonight, I have managed to control the wood burner some more and Discovery is at a mere 23 degrees centigrade. The wood burner is very small and the logs get wedged on the roof, which often results in the fire going out. So today, I bought an axe and was chopping wood this evening. As I chopped away, I thought to myself – this beats going to the gym!!
I am very conscious that I only have 40Gb of data this month, so I am being very careful on what I watch and download/upload. I have spent the evening listening to the radio rather that Spotify or Netflix – it feels that something is missing in my life!
Hope you’ve had a good day.
Stay Safe!
Jim xx