Naughty Cal

On this day 2018 Burton Waters

All boats in the Marina have to have a mooring licence even if it is on the mooring at the bottom of your garden. To obtain that they need proof of ownership, insurance, CRT licence and BSC.

You cant just have any old boat on "your" mooring. They have to vet the boat first and make sure it is "suitable" (I Kid you not. Same in the marina if you want a long term berth)

Nope you can't sub let. ETA: We have several good friends who lived on the houses there. Most have now moved away but a few do still live there. We did consider it at one point and had first refusal on a penthouse apartment a friend was selling but the mooring fee, grounds maintenance fee, security fee and service charge made it unviable. Which is a shame because it was a lovely flat. Sums them all up nicely.

It was Sea View International the first time we stayed there. The second and third times it had changed to South West. We stayed in one of the lodges the last time and it was really very nice. But it is a shame that almost the whole site has now been given over to them. Mind you, I don't think I would fancy driving the motorhome up to Sea View. It's a bit tight in places that lane!!

We were at Sea View. Probably won't go there if we do go that way next year. The park has changed a lot since we first went about 20 years ago and is now more geared towards static vans and lodges than touring.

We had a week in the Lakes in July. Before we set off we got all of the usual the place is packed, it will be too busy, you won't enjoy it comments. So we expected it to be difficult to find places to stay and places to park during the day. It was the complete opposite. We managed to get parked up every day where we wanted, booked onto a couple of sites last minute for the night and never struggled to get into pubs or restaurants when we wanted them. We had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed it despite the weather not being great at times. Syd wasn't bothered about a bit of rain though. He thoroughly enjoyed himself.

We love it in there. Did the landlord let you have a look in the jail house? (The site we stayed on a few times is just up the road from St Ewe in Boswinger)

Rents are only going one way, and that isn't in favour of renters! Renting a property in retirement can only be a bigger financial burden than owning a property outright. Yes there is maintenance on an owned property but that isn't going to add up to the same as renting, unless a property has been really neglected in the past.

On this day 2017 Lincoln https://www.facebook.com/100001279506755/videos/1618374478215187/

I absolutely agree. But you would be surprised how many do it or are doing it. Crazy.

They are still operating two boats for hire, although most of the yard is now private moorings. https://www.summercraftboats.co.uk/summercraft-boats/

We got chatting to an older couple who lived in a converted Mercedes Sprinter panel van and have done for the last 10 years or so the last time we went to Saltfleet Haven. They are usually off on their travels around europe and beyond but due to Covid had spent 18 months or so in the UK. They had sold up everything to buy and convert this van and all of their belongings, everything they owned was in it. Their funds are now starting to run out, their van is being scraped through every MOT by the skin of it's teeth and was ready for the scrap yard years ago and their health is now starting to fail them, they are really starting to suffer during the winter months due to their living conditions. They are completely stuck. When the van does fail they have absolutely no idea what they will do. We found it quite sad talking to them as their dream had turned out to be a living nightmare for them with no obvious way to improve their situation.

We are still undecided if we are going to head to Devon and Cornwall this time next year for our two week trip or head across to France instead. We have a week booked on the Isle of Wight earlier in July and a few of the bank holidays are booked for Burnham Deepdale in Norfolk and Southwold, Suffolk, and a trip down south somewhere (location not decided yet) to meet up with some other ex Sealine owners who have sold up and gone across to Motorhomes, so we have plenty of trips planned in the UK already.

On this day 2018 Catching up with friends. This was the last time we were all on the water together. On this day 2012 Sunny Lincoln

That's what we got utterly fed up with. Cruising the same waterways again and again. We had realistically done everything within a two week cruise of where we were based time and again. It wears thin. Our last proper trip on NC up the Trent made our minds up for us. We were no longer enjoying it and at that point you can't justify the costs. There was nowhere else we wanted to keep it so as time wore on we used it less and less. We are very much enjoying the freedom to explore new places that the motorhome is bringing us. Even for short weekend breaks we have an almost infinite number of places we can be from here within an hours drive. We were very limited with the boat for weekend trips. It is also costing far less to keep. No mooring fees as it sits on the drive, we swapped the tax and insurance from my car to the van, the van despite its much higher value is cheaper to insure than the Nissan was, tax is £20 more for the van. Fuel costs will be far less than the boat despite it being full price white diesel. The cost of replacement parts are a fraction of the cost of marine parts, not that we have had to replace anything yet which is novel. In a couple of weeks we are heading up to Scotland for 16 nights. It will be a damn sight cheaper trip than when we took the boat up there and we will see far more of the country along the way in the comfort of the van. We are finding it far easier to live with than the boat was.

I don't think we had realised quite how much we had fallen out of favour with the boat and boating until it was gone. We were expecting it to be a sad day when she was taken from our mooring to her new home in Norfolk but actually we both had a sense of relief which we were not expecting. It was definitely time for a change and truth be told probably had been for a couple of years or more. We will be joining them in a few weeks

Don't believe that. We fully expected to have a nightmare year with the van this year with everyone saying how busy it is. Well if this year is busy then we can only look forward to quieter years. We have had no trouble parking where we want and when we want and in the odd occasion we have decided to book a site we have got in where and when we have wanted. Only once have we hit traffic and that was August Bank Holiday Monday when every man and their dog was on the road. We had expected it so it wasn't any great surprise.

We had quite the opposite with our refund. It was in our account the day after we cancelled the license 🙂 About the only thing CRT got right🤔 For much the same reasons we are finding the van far less stressful. We know we are going to get home every time. I think we are using the canals as much now, just for other purposes as we did when we had the boat 🙃

Ah. She's smiling 🙂

On this day 2011 Extracting a rope from the props (not ours) before heading from Torksey to West Stockwith

We had done all that we wanted to do with the boat. It was time for a change of scenery. We had become fed up of chugging up and down the same waters and had become increasingly disappointed in the rapidly declining state of our local waterways. We had also become increasingly aware that NC had done a lot of hours for the type of boat and although well maintained if we were to continue using her in the same manner there would be some very large bills on the horizon. We took the desicion that while she was still in good order now (February this year) was the right time for us to sell. We have every confidence that she will be a good boat for her new owners in her semi retirement on the Norfolk Broads. We do of course miss her terribly. She was a massive part of our lives for 13 years. But equally we are very much enjoying our new venture with the motorhome and are very much enjoying exploring new places that the boat couldn't physically take us as well as visiting favourite places in a different mode of transport. We were, perhaps understandably, very concerned whether we had made the right choice or not. I think any fears have now been disproven as we are very much enjoying our new passtime and with every passing journey and place we explore we are growing more and more fond of the van. I think she will be well travelled by the time we have parted company 😃