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About this blog

a narrowboat in a white bikini

Entries in this blog

the inner workings and lethargical enterprise

Now then, I seem to recall us being in and trying to get out of a recession. You'd think that this would spark off a little urgency in the working people, those who run small businesses and so on.   Well, ive been trying to get someone to come and have a look at a p bracket that needs 'a fixin' and blow me if they all can't be bloody arsed. Ive been told its because marine engineers dont take women seriously. I find thid hard to belive. My money and boat is no different to anyone elses is it

honey ryder

honey ryder

A life extraordinaire... Varekai

My new blog is finally being made public.   its growing from both ends at the moment. All of my notes and diary taking over the past year is being added at the same time as the new stuff. if you are interested in finding out how my boat search and buying process went or simply to know what its like to live on a yacht, female, alone, in the middle of a river, and still holding down a day job in London... then this is for you.   http://sy-varekai.livejournal.com/   or   http://syvarek

honey ryder

honey ryder

A life Extraordinare

fail to prepare, prepare to fail.   yet I had prepared so much, I couldnt possibly think of failure. failure was not an option.   it was all booked, a merry go round of people, flights, cars, car hire, marinas and phrase books.   My boat, Varekai, a rather saltier version than my previous narrowboat Honey Ryder, was based in Gibraltar and I wanted to bring it to the UK, to the River Crouch to be more precise. A quick look on google maps will tell you that its not just around the cor

honey ryder

honey ryder

You couldnt make this stuff up

(( Copied from other blog for anyone who is interested in following on from the Honey Ryder experience. ))   As if taking five months to complete the sale of my new boat wasnt enough of a mission and a story in itself, the mission continues.   I completed the sale of my SY Varekai in February, I drove to Gibraltar (where it currently lies) on a mini mission to get it prepared for sailing back at the end of May. During the mission I faffed around moving stuff out before I could move in. Th

honey ryder

honey ryder

She's back!

So she's back folks! the Honey Ryder story ended in August 2009.   the new life, the new boat search commenced in July, just before I said ta ta to the floating caravan cigar box (aherm narrowboat)   what started as an adventure turned into a saga and a whole new world of material, er materialised as the saga unfolded and is being added to the next book. The Honey Ryder blog is currently being turned into a novel (semi fiction)   I travelled to Poole, Ipswich, Burnham on Crouch, Brighto

honey ryder

honey ryder

And there she was

Gone   Honey Ryder cruised away from me, leaving Limehouse basin under new ownership at 1.30pm on Monday the 17th August 2009.   It was a sad weekend, finally packing all my things into the storage cupboard, packing my bare essentials and setting up camp in a friends spare box room. Seeing Honey Ryder with a completely clear roof and an empty insides made my tummy go all flippety flop.   Now I am homeless, Honey Ryder has gone, Mr X is in France, my dog is on holiday at my mums and so i

honey ryder

honey ryder

14 days

How is it possible I can have so much stuff?   I surely dont need it all. packing away the contents of the cupboards and drawers has revealed that I am infact less of a minimalist than I fooled myself into believing and more of a creative-tucker-away-of-things-out-of-sight. This will be rectified as soon as I have a moment to contemplate such ruthless skimming of "Schtuff". Most of my possessions are now tucked away in boxes, stacked 1.5 meters high by 1.5 meters square. each of these bo

honey ryder

honey ryder

room for a chicken?

With a little less than one month left aboard Honey Ryder, time seems to have gone into warp drive.   My mental packing has started, helped along by the booking of a small self-storage cupboard.   I'm currently looking at suitable floors to sleep on as an interim measure of avoiding sleeping out under a bridge, although I do have the advantage that after nearly three years on the canals, I know quite a lot of suitable bridges.   I've looked at four very different boats so far, but all wit

honey ryder

honey ryder

Exit stage left

Time to depart our dark and dusty dry dock cave like place and head back out into the bright world outside.   Heading back across London probably to see Victoria park and Limehouse for one last time from a narrowboat this summer. Five more weeks of canal time, five more weeks of packing boxes and emptying Honey Ryder. She is going to a new home this August and I am to be temporarily homeless.   Mr X is going back to France for a while, I am now starting my search for a new place to liv

honey ryder

honey ryder

I see a dry dock and I want to paint it black

Two and a bit years have passed since the last mammoth effort of stripping the hull back to bare metal and sorting out a loppy looking bottom.   it took three weeks of very very hard work back in March 2007. first Hull service part 1 first hull service part 2 first hull service part 3 first hull service part 4 first hull service part 5   Ive been holding back from booking the drydock for fear of the hard work to come, but there is only so long you can do that before you really do have

honey ryder

honey ryder

bike 1 - thieves 0

It was around 3am, when I awoke to a very suspicious sound. This is not unusual as even the merest leaf falling on the roof can wake me up. It was not a fox like the previous night skipping along the roof, it was the sound of someone trying to remove my bike. It was the sound of scooter engines ticking over right next to my boat on the towpath. As realisation dawned on me at what was happening just a few feet from my head, Mr X sprang out of bed, running to the side hatch. My mind was still

honey ryder

honey ryder

falling down water

I had to let the dust settle a little on this entry as time, being the great healer, needed er, time. It was not funny at the time, but heindsight is the funniest thing.   It is common knowledge that a true sailor is a hardy drinker. One who embraces Rum with both anchor-tattood-forearms.   My fellow co-habitant, Mr X has been known to practice the art of Rum appreciation throughout his younger adult life. Though he doesn't have the sailor tattoos he has other credentials that make him a s

honey ryder

honey ryder

sunshine 38

A few days trolling around harbours in France, along the Brittany west coast has wet my appetite further for the next boat. I was on holiday and couldnt help myself, I always end up near water.   I already have a good idea about what I want and where I want to put it and where Id like to go with it, it seems its a buyers market out there.   Honey Ryder is still for sale, I should probably do a bit more effort to sell her before the summer is over, but for every month I live on her, I save l

honey ryder

honey ryder

pages of waffle

I received a letter from British Waterways. Three pages of waffle about how London boaters shouldn't empty their toilets into the canals and waterways around London and how inspections will be made on boats to make sure they comply.   Three pages of single sided, single minded drivel.   one page would have been plenty, in fact four sentences would suffice. ---- Dear Customers,   We have removed elsan, rubbish and water points along Grand Union and Rivers Lee and Stort because they we

honey ryder

honey ryder

Wigged out with the neighbours

Mooring in Limehouse for the past week has been most entertaining. we arrived on a Sunday evening, and squeezed into a spot a meter too short. So having knocked on the neighbours boat without a response, we shuffled the boat along a little bit so we could fit along the wall. Just as Mr X was about to tie the boat on again, a bald mans head popped out of the boat wondering what was happening. We explained, he shrugged and left us to it.   thereafter, for the remainder of the week we listened to

honey ryder

honey ryder

Travel Power 2

A trip to Cox electrical...   reveals the damage. black box, damaged and repairable if they can source the parts. £350 alternator needs servicing with new winding and copper core £270 postage return £30   =   empty pockets on Honey Ryder... and another month or so until I can consider buying some new wheels.

honey ryder

honey ryder

Travel Power and electric toothbrushes

Honey Ryder is fitted with the best system I've ever known for supplying power. It's got electrical power coming out of its ears, not literally, but metaphorically.   2kw Inverter, Charger, shore power, comprehensive battery management, small suit case gennie for just in case, solar panel awaiting fitment, ELECTROLUX TRAVEL POWER...   When I bought the boat I didn't know what IT was or how it worked. after asking the questions on the canal forum I got answers for how to make it work,  

honey ryder

honey ryder

the brighter side to life

It seems the media is a worry wart, doom and gloom surround us. What is there worth getting up for when all around us the bank are losing our money, the companies we work for are ditching us to stay in business, our savings gather no interest, pensions are worthless and house prices are falling through the floor... yada yada yada..   well, quite frankly, I don't pay any mind to this endless attack on my sensibilities. Ive got far better things to think about, Im a positive thinker, a survivor

honey ryder

honey ryder

the world is my ocean

I do like a good holiday.   It seems odd when I sit and think about it, that I have never taken a holiday on my own boat. I live on it, I move it around frequently but Ive never really thought to spend a whole two weeks of my holiday allocation cruising it nowhere, anywhere, just for the sheer holiday of it.   It also seems odd when I carry on thinking about my choices of holiday, that when I do make the effort to go away, I am magnetized to water. and very often, despite actually not liki

honey ryder

honey ryder

look the waters gone stiff

at first it was a novelty, after it was a good photo opportunity, then it was a good cruise and funny smashing noises, followed by a learning curve of how to steer (or not) in the ice, then it was fun smashing the ice to be able to open lock gates, after that it was an interesting talking point at work. Now Im bored of it.   Yes it was exciting to draw the curtains and see the ice formed on the INSIDE yes it was fun smashing through ice with the boat yes its lovely and cosy with the fire lit

honey ryder

honey ryder

does it get cold in winter?

NO it bloody well doesnt.   what brick house have you ever lived in where its icy cold outside, theres an icy wind blowing and yet you are walking around in the buff inside, with the windows open sipping a cocktail and thinking of palm trees?   this narrowboat has to be the hottest place ive ever lived. mainly because Mr. X is nesh and likes it tropical. without him I probably wouldn't light the fire most of winter. So now hes added an ecofan to make the bedroom hotter and to avoid me we

honey ryder

honey ryder

ice breaking

Ive never been on a boat capable of breaking ice before and had ice to actually break.   thats quite fun.  

honey ryder

honey ryder

hot n cold and running in water

this is the third winter I have been living on Honey Ryder, it feels like more.   The first two winters we had hardly any condensation at all, but this time, we are running in it. every window and unprotected cupboard. We have the fire lit every day, its dries out some of the windows but it comes straight back the moment the temperature drops below tropical.   last winter I made the mistake of filling a cupboard and closing the door, when I decided to tidy the cupboard and find something o

honey ryder

honey ryder

flashing by

As we get older life seems to speed up, it accelerates, and with each extra day that passes by the momentum gathers pace. My work life is busier than ever and my home life is passing in a blur.   That is until we set off on another cruise.     it all suddenly sloooooowwwwwssss riiiiggghtttt doooowwwwnnn, and I feel like Im in a slow motion replay. Ive seen these canals before, ive been through these locks before, Ive done all this before and its all the same as before at the same

honey ryder

honey ryder

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