Boat stress

[galadhir]

They say 'be careful what you wish for' and I should have known better than to make a goal to learn to hope. How do you learn to hope? You get put in many situations where you have to practice hope...

Friday, I was peacefully going through my morning routine when DH texts the family group chat to ask if Son is okay, what with the flood warning.

• Son is like 'oh heck! I'm not actually at the boat. Would I lose the boat in a flood? Should I buy enough food to survive if I'm marooned on the boat and go and be on it?'
• I'm like, 'no, you shouldn't! You should stay somewhere where you'll be safe.'
• DH is like, 'maybe you should! If you were on the boat, you could lengthen the ropes if the floating pontoon reached the top of its range, and at least it wouldn't risk tipping sideways and filling with water and sinking.'
• Son and I are like 'Yeah, but what if it's swept out of the marina onto the river and Son ends up unable to find anywhere to moor up and can't sleep because he has to be on the tiller or the boat sinks with him on it? We don't fancy that!'
• And I'm like 'well, I suppose you do also have an anchor. You could drop the anchor to keep you in the marina until it subsided again.'

So eventually it was decided that Son would go back to the boat on Friday night. The flood warning said the water would be at the highest on Saturday, and should go down after that, and we decided to hope that the floating pontoons would take the high water in their stride.*

That was an intensive day of active hope, but it did indeed turn out that (so far) the pontoons are coping.

DH and I went over there today to add clips to the solar panel boxes to prevent the solar panels from being blown off again, and Son was like 'Ugh, this door lock is getting stiff.' But we got the solar panels latched down, and the final window covered in window film, and came home.

Then at 10pm when we're sitting watching TV at home, Son texts to say 'I've just arrived back from work and I'm locked out. I can't get this door lock open at all.'

Further panic - we're nearly two hours drive away and we don't have a replacement door lock. Now what?

DH orders a new door lock from Screwfix. Then Son texts back to say 'I bought some WD-40 and sprayed it and now I'm in!'

So now we're going back tomorrow to put a new door lock on.

I know I had the temerity to think there would be less boat work this year, but that was before I remembered that there was still this list of things to do:

• Take the wall panels off the inside (possibly one room at a time)
• See how terribly rusty it is behind them, and sand the rust back to bare metal
• Paint the inside hull with rust resistant paint
• Add insulation
• Put the panels back on.
• Disassemble the current bed and underbed storage, and somehow get it - and the mattress - out of the cabin. Son prefers his sofa-bed in the warm sitting room by the stove, and the bed is taking up so much room. He could use that room as an office if it was gone.
• Cut inspection hole in the floor, so the bilges can be pumped out with a hand pump.
• Do something to stop the front window wooden surround from rotting
• Get the hull re-blacked below the gunwales
• Somehow plug the holes in the doors/hatch arrangement which currently allow rain into the engine room
• Get an engineer out to fix the engine idle rate and check the engine mountings
• Put a better hatch/door lock on.

It will be years before this is all done!

*Son's friend also has a boat, moored in a marina closer to London, and they received an evacuation warning. So that confirms my initial thought that the correct thing to do - if your boat is in the way of an oncoming flood - is to leave it and go somewhere safer. Next time we will know :)

Comments

[vriddy]

Wow, that is quite the list! Glad the flood warning passed by peacefully.

[galadhir]

Thank you! We'll probably start at the bow and work down over several years, I imagine, but today is a lying on the sofa day after wiping myself out yesterday.

[xancredible]

I'm glad your son is safe. Living on a boat sure is an adventure even when it's moored!

[galadhir]

It certainly is! Everyone says what an idyllic, peaceful life it must be. If only they knew!

[xancredible]

Maybe once everything is settled in and no longer in need of repair, it might be, but even then regular maintenance and unforeseen issues might crop up, just like living anywhere else.

[galadhir]

Yes, exactly. I think it's going to be a bit of a Forth Bridge situation even when we've brought it back from the sad state of neglect that it had been in. So we just need to get into the mindset that something will always need to be done and that's okay.

[mistressofmuses]

Oof! That is quite a lot!

I'm glad he was okay (as was the boat) through the flooding. That is a scary situation, and I think I'd have been similarly torn between "get somewhere safer" and "do what I can to prevent disaster."