Three years MIA (Missing In Action)

 It is astonishing when I stop and think about it ... just a month or two shy of three years since I updates this blog. And that's because it is just a month or two shy of three years since I had anything to say that I wanted to share.

So what has happened in those three years?

Well after our last local cruise in August 2018, we had Pagan hauled out for the winter as we intended to refit and refurbish the forward cabin and tackle various other tasks before relaunching the following spring. 

However, our finances were becoming a bit of an issue. I'm not going into all the reasons in public but the marine electrical business was simply not working out. For reasons outwith my control I simply wasn't getting sufficient good work and I wasn't keen to get involved in an all out war for business ('nuff said on that front). There were other personal reasons too and to cut a very long story short I decided to knock that particular cunning plan on the head and attempt to find a proper job.

By early 2019, things were getting really dicey financially and no work had been forthcoming. There had been only a handful of jobs advertised over the winter that I was both physically capable of doing and/or even vaguely qualified to apply for and I hadn't got any of them.

We simply couldn't afford to launch Pagan that spring. In fact, we were close to the point where we couldn't afford to keep her. The temporary save was the offer of regular work as a self employed courier using my own van from a friend on the YBW forums who owned a courier company based in Essex.

That meant moving back aboard and once again potentially only getting home every couple of weeks on average. As it turned out, I could often get work that took me North on a Friday and even, occasionally, work on the Monday that paid me to go back South!

I enjoyed the work for the most part, excepting days in London which were no fun at all. I much preferred the long runs to places like Scotland and Cornwall. However, the money was frankly pants and the hours were at times ridiculous. There were certainly times when I was driving when I shouldn't have been due to fatigue. Never the less, it brought in sufficient pennies to clear our debts and get ourselves into a good position financially - indeed by early 2020 we were, for the first time in our entire married life (and we're only a couple of years away from our 40th anniversary) completely debt free.

The plan was to carry on with the courier work full time for a while to generate the cash needed to sort out Pagan and then wind it back to something a bit more part time. It wasn't ideal but it was "do-able" and we could live with the situation for another year or two

And then ...

Along came Covid. And lockdown #1

The rules and regulations were announced on, if I recall correctly, a Monday evening to come into effect 48 hours later. It quickly became obvious that I could not, legally, continue to use the boat as a base of operations (I was not, bear in mind, legally resident on board and only residents were permitted to remain in marinas, caravan sites etc.). Furthermore, the work was obviously going to dry up especially the lucrative long distance aircraft parts transfers which were the jobs that made it worth doing.

A further concern and consideration was that the bus service that Jane used to get to and from work was to be suspended. As what became known a a "key worker" (she works at a major supermarket distribution centre) Jane would not be furloughed and her income was not under threat but she had to get to and from work. Taxis cost a fortune and whilst there was a possibility of her employers allowing her to vary her hours to suit the limited bus service available, the advice from the health experts was very strongly to avoid public transport. 

So we took the decision that I would suspend my courier activities and come home to be a "house husband" and family taxi provider for a while. And I still am! Albeit that during the latest lock down,, we moved in with my elderly father for the duration as he really needed the company and some help with shopping etc. His entire social world had ceased to exist overnight and loneliness was a serious mental health issue. Our presence at least gives him something to grumble about :)

As it has turned out, we have found that we are not a great deal worse off than we had been towards the end of my 15 months working as a courier. The loss of earnings is largely offset by the reduction in living costs. Even so, we could really do with a boost to the boat fund!

So what now?

Well Pagan won't be back in the water this year, there simply isn't enough time available to sort her out and then get some sailing in. So it's a third year out of the water which isn't what we want at all.

However, the forecabin refit I started in on nearly two years ago has now progressed at last! When Covid kicked in, we'd got as far as stripping the old headlining out and cleaning up the GRP. I'd then epoxied plywood pads all over the place to give me something to attach a new internal plywood lining  to. And that's where the job sat for a very long time until Jane and I were finally able to spend some quality time aboard earlier this month.

We've now glued foam matting over the whole cabin deckhead and sides and we're ready to start lining out. The materials are all ready and waiting in our container and we're back on board for another 12 days or so in a couple of weeks with the aim of getting that stage complete. Then there'll just be trimming and finishing left to do!

There's an awful lot to do before we go back in the water though. The engine needs a major service, the hull needs antifouling and something doing with the terrible state of the topsides paintwork (very disappointing but hey ho). We desperately need new sails but whether we can afford them any time soon remains to be seen. The poor old boat needs a whole lot of love she hasn't been getting for far too long but things look to be getting better.

We absolutely have to get back in the water next year come, er, hell or high water! If for whatever reason it doesn't happen, that will be the end of our sailing. We always said that if we failed to keep it up for two successive years we'd give up and it will now have been three. We'll make allowances for Covid and give ourselves one more chance ...

And what of this blog? I rather lost interest towards the end of 2018, never finishing the reporting of our final cruise that year, and I haven't touched it since. I'm undecided whether to pick up the traces and kick it back into gear or give up and not bother!