So as the year turns the blog is morphing slightly from its intended use a year(-ish) ago. While we’d hoped to be living aboard for at least a year before ‘big school’ beckoned the timing wasn’t on our side so we’re weekend sailors until our situation changes. What was expected to be a description of the house-to-liveaboard process is now more a diary of part of that process and anything else I happen to find interesting, which may keep me warm in my dotage.  That mainly comprises the boat stuff and various techie-lite experiments (like Twitter) which may turn out to be a complete waste of time. There’s not much happening in the cold and wet, but I’ll fight the temptation to avoid ‘dead air’ and post for the sake of it; I will be back, but hopefully when there’s something worth saying.

As 2009 beckons we’re in the process of buying a new house (much smaller than the old one, so hopefully less stressful), the girls are both in the new school and the Maggie Winn is waiting patiently for better weather to return. As indeed are we.

So, here’s hoping Christmas was all you wanted, and a Happy New Year to one and all.

Just got back from a brief post-Christmas visit to the boat to make sure that it’s still there & starts OK (it is & it does) & thought now might be a good time to note somewhere what we hope to achieve with it this year. Nothing major, & no resolutions in sight, but a ‘to do’ list. So, in twelve month’s time we hope to have:

Made it up the Erewash to the Basin;
Completed the Leicester Ring;
Changed the permanent bed into a fixed dinette;
Painted the decks & the brown ‘skirt’.

Nothing too onerous there, so shall we agree to meet back here in year & see how we’ve done?

Looking forward to it already.

The usual Friday lunchtime routine is a walk into Ruddington to get a bag of chips to eat on the way back to work. By way of a change I offered to drive my usual companions to the McDonald’s around the corner from the mooring so that I could make a quick diversion to run the boat’s engines for a few minutes & make sure that all was well.

This offer was received with more excitement than I anticipated & it turned into a bit of an occasion and a bit of a firm’s outing with lots of appreciative noises.

I was quite proud.

There was a very thick envelope waiting for me when I got home today, which contained all the gumph that a solicitor sends to a house buyer nowadays. One thing of note was the ‘vendor’s declaration form’ detailing what’s included & what’s not, & whether fighting with the neighbours is a regular thing. Having completed one myself in the recent past I did sympathise, but I suspect that our solicitor will be going back to them asking why they have no details of any planning permission for the extension.

So, unlikely to be in before Christmas I think.

I think the winter reality is kicking in. With the best will in the world I don’t think it’s realistic to plan cruises with the weather like it is – apart from being cold we were snowed in for a while this morning & I don’t want to get us stranded at the arse end of nowhere or put us in an ‘uncomfortable’ situation – I have no idea what snow will do to safety margins on the water.

So for the next couple of months we plan to batten down the hatches, keep the boat as healthy as possible (starting the engine regularly, running water through the systems) and maybe begin some of the maintenance tasks like painting that we haven’t looked at yet. I could also do with sorting the TV once & for all. I’d like to do something with the spare Mac & the iSight to prepare for the timelapse mini-project, & I’ve got the iPhone tracking journeys with GPS (more of which later) which I plan to post on the blog periodically. I have managed it but only as a link from text – I think having the map visible as a post would be better. I feel a WordPress widget hunt coming on …