I've been living in Brighton now for enough time to bake a baby, but I've only just started to feel settled. This could be for a few reasons: partly because of the transitory nature of living on a form of transport but mainly because it was such an epic journey to get here in the first place! I thought I would try and recount it here,
We started looking for live-aboard boats in the autumn of 2011. We were unemployed, in our early 20's and looking for somewhere to live in the South of England. It only took a week or two of searching, and one failed flat contract in Bristol for us to realise what a thoroughly depressing prospect this was. We were walking along the banks of the River Avon, brooding over our unfortunate lot in society when we came across a gorgeous line of narrow boats, a few of them had 'for sale' signs in the window. Alex had considered buying a boat before, so we couldn't resist just calling a few numbers and seeing what the price was.
Most of the boats in Bristol city centre were out of our price range. But it was here that the idea sprouted, a few days later after some very good canvassing by Alex and a few internet searches, it was in full bloom.
We started by looking around the Bristol area. It didn't take long for us to find and fall in love with a little narrow called the 'Dora Rosamund'. This was before we knew much at all about boats, but I did know one thing for sure and that was that large patches of damp and mould are usually to be avoided. People will say to you that boats are always damp, as they float on water this is to some extent true, but there is a difference between a slightly damp atmosphere (which can be avoided by using a dehumidifier and opening your windows) and a buckling ceiling and small rivulets running down the walls. Dora had both of these in abundance, and we didn't have the knowledge to fix these problems. Despite her exciting kitchen surfaces, we decided she wasn't for us.
After this set back we made our minds up to look further a field. After many long nights spent on Apollo Duck (best place for boats online!), Alex borrowed his Mum's Volvo and I baked shed load of pies (because I refuse to spend £4 on a sandwich from Take a Break), and we were ready for our week long boat finding road trip!
I don't know if any of you have driven from Devon to Bristol to Bath to Chertsey to London to Milton Keynes to Ely to Essex to Maidstone and then to Brighton before (of course you haven't, why would you?), but the epic nature of the journey meant that we were properly living on the road. Sleeping in the back of a Volvo in Milton Keynes is actually more exciting and glamorous than it sounds, we went to the cinema and had Parasol Pie for dinner. Volvo's are quite spacious and comfortable and believe it or not if you drive to the outskirts of Milton Keynes there are some nice country lanes to park up on. On top of that there is the fact that every city looks nicer from the water ways. I found going to all these secret hushed communities fascinating. Watching the sunset to the sound of lapping water and ducks swimming just outside your window, river dwellers definitely live the high life.
We saw some very long boats, some bare, some painted beautifully and some that looked about ready to sink. In the end we found two boats that we really wanted near Ely, and it was hard to decide between them. We were struggling between Enid and a really pretty narrow boat called 'Montie'.
Driving down to Brighton helped us make up our minds. We arrived in Brighton during the super heatwave in September, the lanes and beach were buzzing. Alex saw the marina and was really keen to be on the sea, we needed a boat that didn't mind being rocked and Enid fitted the bill (although she was still a river boat, so it was a slightly crazy scheme).
We put in our offer and it was accepted straight away. We had a boat!
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