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a narrowboat in a white bikini

Entries in this blog

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

1

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

2

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

5

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

2

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

1

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

1

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

1

lucky escape

this is anecdotal and I dont have eyewitness levels of accuracy about this next entry but stick with it...   It was Sunday, I was expecting some friends on a boat who I met last year on the river Lee, they are a lovely couple and perhaps the only real boaty friends Ive made apart from the french yaching couple I met in Limehouse basin over the winter.   Anyway, this couple, I shall call them Mr n Ms Axe. They are heading up to a dry dock somewhere past Watford, so planned to meet up with me
honey ryder

honey ryder

6

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

1

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

3

the sound of silence and extra ballast

Dear readers out there, you may have read about my crime ridden 2007, having a push-bike stolen off the roof of the boat last april was the start of it, followed by having another push-bike stolen from where I work.   followed by, and not necessarily in the right order: having my car broken into at Tottenham, having a friends car broken into next to mine at Cheshunt, watching kids rifling through a stolen handbag and reporting it to not very interested police, my flat was burgled in Croydon,
honey ryder

honey ryder

4

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

1

Bye bye tangarine speedo

Ah, the little orange dream that has trundled behind Honey Ryder over the past year has got a new home to go to.   its carried our water from obscure water points, its carried me to the supermarket, its taken me across limehouse basin to visit friends in the marina, we've rowed in the oddest of positions, weve slipped about inside when its icy cold and Ive bailed out gallons and gallons of rain water. Its been home to a stray cat on the roof, ducks have cadged a lift in it and its been used
honey ryder

honey ryder

2

farty

I came back from a weekend away, stepped on board to unlock the doors and the action of me tipping the boat a bit to one side allowed one "cheek" to come up a bit and release a whole barrage of bubbles from the nether regions. It rather amused me, though I am a fan of toilet humour.   the other fun stuff this week is that I accidentally bought a new motorbike. I was just bidding away on ebay, you know how it is, drop in a silly bid occasionally and try your luck at getting something for not
honey ryder

honey ryder

9

welcome to the zoo

I am fed up of being treated like a freak show, I think I shall put a message for all to read upon my roof ( apart from a for sale sign that is)     If you want to have your picture taken on someone's boat, first make friends with the owner. Don't just climb on while Im having my breakfast and let you mate snap away from the towpath. Cheeky bastard.   If you want to have a look around my boat, my home, then get to know me first and wait to be invited. Don't peer through the windows and
honey ryder

honey ryder

2

could be worse...

just when I think I'm having a miserable time on the canals, I am always reminded that in fact some people have it far worse.     still doesn't stop the really funny young people who knocked on my boat at 6.50am this morning, just because they thought it would be funny to wake us up. The man was just ready to leave for work so they got a suprise when he popped his head out of the doorway asking if he could help them. Stuck for anything interesting to say, they wished him happy new year.
honey ryder

honey ryder

2

where's the punchline?

Living aboard a narrowboat on London canals just gets more an more exciting, the adventures never end.   Constantly cruising and trying to adhere to the rules as much as possible means we move. We move frequently. While the rest of the world (it seems) hides inside in a warm cosy place and rides out the winter only emerging in Spring, we continue the battle of finding somewhere new to moor each week or two. Knowing we have to move means a few days before casting off I mentally prepare to mo
honey ryder

honey ryder

1

the magic sponge

As with most modifications, they come about because of an urgent necessity through breakage.   Our travel power has been out of action for just over a week now, ok, it's 2 weeks but I was trying to think positive.   The first symptoms of something wrong happened, er, last year on our maiden voyage away from our marina at Easter. squeaking ( read squealing) bearings in a jockey pulley that stops the large travel power belt from flapping about.   We changed the travel power belt because i
honey ryder

honey ryder

1

the TO DO list

once again it was time to move on, having spent two weeks at Victoria park in London we needed to move to a new mooring spot.   Living on a boat is never dull and rarely boring, there is always something to be done. Whether that is something you actually want to be doing is another matter. Quick frankly, I was all up for a nice cosy weekend of cooking, faffing and sifting. Downsizing my stuff once again, because you can never have too few things. Minimalist is going to be my middle name. Ho
honey ryder

honey ryder

5

The Victoria park posse

Life in London, moored on a busy towpath is never short of activity, gossip and curiosity. Not to mention unruly dogs and children.   This week, life in the nut house involved several events of note, hardly note-worthy on their own, but as a group, collectively they turn from curious to just plain odd.   So it all started on the Saturday morning when both myself and the Man set about a bit of bike fettling, the man was outside tightening up his bottom bracket (fnar) and I was inside struggli
honey ryder

honey ryder

3

name that tune....

The tune we are humming is one of a Beta Marine BV1505 engine with travel power on the side.   Since the Man arrives home before me it's generally down to him to fire up the beast each evening to charge the batteries and heat the water. Last night I arrived home and He tried to describe a new problem he had with the engine. First of all he says, "oh, the engine did a funny thing tonight" I reply warily, "what kind of funny thing?" "well" he says, "it was going along nicely then suddenly t
honey ryder

honey ryder

1

Giz a Job

Before life on board the good ship ( read: metal tube) Honey Ryder, my day consisted of, drag myself out of my flea pit at around 9.50am, splash some water on my face, have some breakfast and then hop on my pushbike and arrive at work at 10am. My work happens to be my "dream" job of working on a motorbike magazine. It doesn't pay well, but the perks stack up high. This is what is often called Golden Handcuffs and I've been wearing them for nearly seven years.   yes, life wasn't at all bad back
honey ryder

honey ryder

7

double yellows

I never thought I would see the day when the river has a "no parking yellow line" painted on the side.   until I got home my impression was that the bend with the yellow line painted on the pilings was so people could see the bend more easily. In fact I got home last night to find a message taped to my door telling me to move my boat.   There is nothing at the side of the river saying I can't moor there, no written sign I mean... so I was quite surprised to see the message on my boat.  
honey ryder

honey ryder

3

literary genius in the making

Narrowboating might be the death of me if I don't sell it soon.   Ok, so it's not actually for sale at the moment but it will be. I've had enough of this "living the dream", "life on the cut", "river gypsy lifestyle", and several other clichés.   Narrowboating, it's definitely not cricket. it's definitely not boating, it is definitely narrow though so I will give it that.   Im currently thinking of titles for my book, Ive searched and searched and I still cant find a book about the subje
honey ryder

honey ryder

5

Just like marmite?

finally me and the man agree on something, we are definitely selling the Honey Ryder next year. Well, I say selling, I mean trying to sell it next spring time ish.   First we have work to complete on the exterior paint, and an engine service or two to complete before then, plus fitting a new solid oak kitchen floor, renovate the kitchen and spruce up the showerroom.   That's where the agreement ends though. we need to complete the work, sell the boat and find a new living arrangement.  
honey ryder

honey ryder

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