Back to the future ... a rambling contemplative load of waffle!

 Now that we have a future, and at times in the recent past it did seem that there was nothing much to look forward to, I'm left pondering on where we stand and where we go from here

And my crystal ball looks more than a little opaque!

Clearly, all our best laid plans and schemes have been torpedoed by circumstances beyond our control. We're lucky compared to many people. Jane has a fairly well paid job with about as much job security as it's possible to get in this day and age and we live fairly cheaply as our contribution to home life with Dad is mostly non-financial.

My prospects of finding work are virtually nil. The combination of my physical limitations (( cannot cope with heavy lifting or standing for long periods) and having to be available to take Jane to and from work (there's no public transport and her hours are the very definition of anti-social) has so far ruled out every possibility I stood a chance of getting and those jobs I've found that I could do I haven't even had the courtesty of a reply to my application. To be honest, I pretty much gave up even looking a couple of months ago.

Happily we're able to trundle on with one income and we can still afford the boat. We can even afford to continue upgrading and improving the boat, albeit perhaps not as quickly as we'd like to (but in truth the money is likely to be there to do the jobs in the timescale we'll actually achieve)

So the plus side is that we have a boat we can afford to keep and we have the means to continue holiday sailing indefinitely ...

However ...

All is not entirely well in our particular rose garden. 

I seriously dislike the idea of Jane working the hours she works for another six years. The hours are a killer and the shift rotation pattern is bloody awful. And yet I see no other option unless we win the lottery. 

And assuming we don't win the lottery, we'll be confined to a few weeks holiday aboard for those six years assuming health etc. doesn't intervene in the meantime

And then I think about whether we are going to be fit enough and enthusiastic enough, or even alive (!), to set off on our three to five year Round Britain adventure, that adventure which we sold the house and bought this boat to do (because to be honest, for what we are now doing, Erbas would have been ideal and a lot cheaper to run!), at the age of 66.

It's been preying on my mind a lot lately, that conundrum.

I've seriously considered whether the most sensible option would be to bale out. Sell Pagan and buy, or rent, a caravan or motorhome or something to go off on touring holidays by road.

I've seriously considered whether there's any realistic way that I can generate an income. And I'm still considering that. A monetised VLog (video blogging) has been suggested and I guess it's a possibility but I'm far from convinced that it's something I really want to do nor am I convinced that we could generate the content that people would want to watch, and more importantly pay to watch. It is not an easy option, it takes a lot of work. 

I've been trying for some considerable time to write a book. I have the idea, clear as a bell, and I think it's got potential (it's a historical tragic romance story in the vein of Catherine Cookson and it's based on a real life story) but I just can't seem to get the words down on "paper" the way the story runs in my head. I haven't entirely given up on that idea yet either! And like Vlogging, the chances of it acutally making any money are pretty slim anyway!!!

So what to do, what to do?????

Well, for starters, we're a long way from being ready or willing to give up. So for now we're going to press on with doing what we want to do, and can physically and fiancially manage, with Pagan and let the future look after itself for a while.

As followers on Facebook will already know, we're due to go back into the water for the first time since 2018 next week and I've very nearly completed all the "must do" jobs to get ready for launching (I'll do a proper blog post about that next week)

Then it's a case of sorting the boat out back into decent order. She's been ashore for nigh on four years, she's been used as an on/off liveaboard for a good deal of that time and there's "stuff" everywhere! We seriously need to declutter!!!

And then we need to declutter some more because I've decided that our 20 foot container (which we rent and then share with a couple of friends) is going to have to go. Our share of it, getting on for half the space, is just rammed full of boat "stuff". That's way to much stuff!

It's got to go because it's costing us money we need elsewhere. The elsewhere we need it is on berthing fees. Which brings me nearly to the next bit of pondering we've been doing

Still with me so far? You're a determined reader, reader!!!

When we launch, we'll be going back onto a swinging mooring for the first time since 2015. 

We liked our mud berth at Fambridge Yacht Station. We liked it a lot! The huge downside however was that getting Pagan on and off it required a decent spring tide and those only come along, at best, every fortnight. And this year they hardly come along at all all summer long (we're in a long term tidal cycle of lower than average spring tides at the moment). Put simply, the mud berth simply wasn't an option any more. 

Whilst getting on and off the boat is obviously less convenient on a swinging mooring, it means we can use the boat any time we like rather than be stuck in the mud all the time. And it has the added bonus of being somewhat cheaper ... but that might be short term!

Short term because we're seriously considering making a move to a marina berth somewhere. On the down side, obviously that will cost significantly more than our swinging mooring (something like double, if not more). On the upside, it will make life a lot easier as arriving after a two and a half hour drive and then having to sort out a dinghy and outboard to get aboard is a pain in the bottom.

Furthermore, we have a fancy for a change of scenery. We've been moored here at Fambridge for 11 years now and we like it. However, nothing stays the same and whilst it's not a done deal by any means, we're going to start looking at alternatives elsewhere. I've contemplated the South Coast but it's out of our reach financially. I've seriously considered moving Pagan "oop North" somewhere which has the upside of being affordable but the twin downsides of being a long way from home and not having many options to go out for a short cruise or tuck up somewhere sheltered when the weather isn't great

So we're almost certainly staying in the Thames Estuary but the mystery is where that will be. I do hope, dear reader, you can contain the excitement and anticipation 'cos I haven't a clue at the moment! Doubtless we'll be coming back to this topic ...

There's other things excercising our thoughts too ...

Covid has wrought many changes, not many of them, if any, beneficial.

Two changes of critical import to us, both in the short and in the long term, are the rapidly rising costs of everything and the impact of Covid on marina attitudes towards people living on their boats.

The first item takes little explaining. Life is getting more and more expensive and our income is not rising to anything like the same extent. Worse, if and when we get to the point where Jane can retire and we can bugger off on the boat, the budget we'll have to live on will be little if any better than we anticipated but our costs will potentially be significantly more.

The second concern is a little more complex. Pre-Covid, whilst most marinas had clauses in theit terms and conditions precluding living on board your boat full time, provided you stayed "under the radar" these were largely ignored. Covid lockdowns brought to the attention of the authorities just how many people were living "under the radar" on boats in breach of planning laws etc. As a result, there's been a serious crack down on the practice.

For us, that has a potentially show stopping long term consequence in that our plan, once we escaped the rat race, had been to take up a winter berth somewhere each winter where we could quietly lurk on board. Pre-Covid, that would not have been a problem at all. Post-Covid, it may simply not be an option. A further issue is the rising cost of diesel and heating oils. Living on board the boat through the winter means, as I well know, running the heating for long periods, at times 24/7. And whilst it doesn't burn through fuel like it's going out of fashion, it does add up to a fair amount of money. Money we may not be able to afford.

So where the hell am I going with this particular bit of waffle?

Actually, to be totally honest, I don't really know! We're back to where I was several paragraphs above - we just don't know whether our long term plans to sail off into the wild blue yonder (as long as it's within sight of Blighty!) are actually going to come to pass.

What we have concluded is that if they are to come to fruition, we're going to have to be a lot more independent than we anticipated. Specifically, we're going to have to go into marinas even less often than planned (I'd worked on the basis of spending half our time at anchor and half in marinas) and we're going to have to sail as much as possible and only motor when it's absolutely unavoidable (again, I;d budgeted,based on experience, on a 50/50 split between sailing and motoring)

We're going to have to get used to anchoring off even when conditions are not, perhaps, ideal. It is going to have to be a case of only going into marinas if there's a pressing reason to do so, not simply for convenience and comfort.

And we're going to have to get right out of the habit of reaching for the engine start key whenever the conditions aren't 100% in our favour for sailing.

We're also going to have to look at retaining a base ashore for the winter. Beyone the fact that this has potentially signficant financial implications all I can say is that there are options there but they are definitely beyond the scope of this blog

We've said these things before but now we've got to really mean it!

And that is informing our choices and decisions right now. 

We've concluded that we need to change things up in various ways on Pagan and as far as our skills etc. are concerned.

We're already planning on new anchoring gear with an electric windlass, new chain, new main anchor and that remains a high priority item. The money is in the bank, time has not been available to do it for this season but it's the first big job when she comes out for the winter

We know we desperately need new sails. The current rags have had it. And I do mean had it. They were OK when we bought Pagan but getting a bit long in the tooth (that was fine, we knew that). Now they've reached the stage where they're blown out (they've lost their shape) and they're falling apart. The money should, all things being equal, be available for new sails for next year.

What then? We need to go as much "off grid" as possible ...

A critical item is battery capacity and charging. Staying out of marinas and using the engine as little as possible means we definitely need as much solar power as we can contrive the means to install. That's going to be a challenge on Pagan. There really isn't a vast amount of deck space where solar panels could be permanently fitted and the mizzen boom precludes the usual solar arch arrangement (of which I'm not a great fan anyway). I haven't firmed up any designs as yet but I think it's going to be a case of one or perhaps two permanent panels on deck, which will be relatively small, with a third semi-permanent panel on the spray hood (which we very rarely drop). Then we'll have a couple of roll up or fold out panels which can be deployed when we're at anchor

If, and it is a very BIG if indeed, we are going to be spending any signficant amount of time on board off grid during the winter months, we're going to have to consider adding wind power too. I am not a fan of wind generators. They're noisy nuisances and in terms of bang for buck nowhere near as effective as solar panels but they do generate power when the solar panels don't i.e.; at night and in the depths of a cold, dark winter.

Coupled with all that, we need to significantly up our battery capacity. We currently have 240a/h of gel batteries on the leisure side which, from experience, will last us about 3 days at a pinch. We need to double that, at least, and I'd like to go LIon because of the weight saving if nothing else. At present though the cost is way too high so I plan to add a couple of el-cheapo sealed lead acid leisure batteries under the port settee with a view to upgrading to LIon in a few years time when the cost has, hopefully, dropped.

And one of the key reasons for bumping up the power capacity of the boat is changing the way we cook. Yet again, the cost and availability of bottled gas is becoming a serious issue and whilst we don't go through vast quanties of the stuff, anything that reduces our consumption is not to be dismissed out of hand. 

I haven't totally done the maths yet but I am wondering about the viability of ditching the gas cooker c/w oven and grill and replacing it with a two burner gas hob. That would give us basic cooking facilities on gas because I don't think going all electric is viable or feasible.

To that, I would add something like a Ninja Foodi which whilst drawing well over 100 amps via an inverter will only do so for half an hour to an hour and can do vitrually anything (Pressure Cook, Air Fry, Slow Cook, Steam, Bake/Roast, Sauté and Grill!) and a single electric hot plate

(An all electric cooker simply isn't an option. There's no practical way we can generate and deliver that much power on board. Others have tried it, on bigger boats with bigger budgets, and run into all sorts of difficulties. Retaining a basic ability to cook on gas whilst using electric when the power is available seems to be the way to go to me)

We wouldn't be able to use the Ninja and the hot plate, or an electric kettle either for that matter, at the same time but that's why I plan to keep the gas hob. We can certainly contrive a system that will aloow the use of a single appliance at a time running off a 2kw inverter and probably generate sufficient power to do that most days. With a bit of management and planning, and that's what boating is all about, planning and management, when you get right down to it, we can make that work and be nicely green (as well as cheap!) too!!

There are also a lot of general maintenance jobs and repairs needed which will have to be tackled over time. 

The v-berth refit is getting there slowly, it's held up for the time being by the need to run the power cables for the electric anchor windlass behind where the last lining panel is to be fitted and then there's a lot of detail finishing work to be tackled but I'm happy to take that forward as and when.

The saloon upholstery desperately needs replacing. That's likely to be the third big expense after the anchoring gear and new sails. 

After that, we're getting to the stage where we ought to consider replacing all the standing and running rigging. It certainly needs doing before Jane retires as it would be an expense we could well do without once we're on a severely restricted income

There's lots of other jobs that need doing but none of them are mission critical so they will get done as and when if at all!

And I mentioned that we need to upskill (to use the modern buzz word). We'll come back to that another day but suffice it to say for now that we've often talked about improving our sailing and boat handling skills but we've never really done anything about it. We're pretty good at making like we know what we're doing but half the time, to be honest, we haven't really got a clue!

And that brings me to a final bit of waffle which links back to the beginning of this epic, and probably epically boring, tome.

I have trouble deciding whether to keep going with this blog or not. It rather fell by the wayside towards the end of 2018, I just didn't keep it up to date. To be honest, it had become something of a chore that I increasingly couldn't be bothered with. To be equally honest, I now regret that because it defeated the original purpose of the blog from the very start way back in 2011 which was, and ought to remain, primarily to keep a record of what we've done. where we've been, and what the hell we were thinking (because that's often a mystery even to me further down the road!) for ourselves

So I guess I've already answered the question I haven't even asked yet ... whether to keep the blog up or not. I should, shouldn't I? I'll try, dear reader (are you still here????), I'll try.

That begs the question of whether to go further and try Vlogging or not? And I just don't have an answer to that question yet. I don't think as things stand we can generate the regular quality content. Certainly not of us sailing as we're only going to be able to get aboard for maybe six to eight weeks a year for the forseeable future. And Vlogging boat maintenance and repair tasks is frankly more effort than, at this stage at any rate, I'm prepared to contemplate. I have enough trouble getting the actual job  done without faffinf about with cameras and then editing videos.

But maybe, if and when we are ready to GO, just maybe people might be interested then? A geninely impecunious couple in their sixties bimbling their way around the UK on an elderly yacht would have the merit, I guess, of being something different and what's more we're a long way from being the typical Vlogging couple. Would people actually watch it? I have no doubt that if I put the effort in I could produce reasonable content (I am, after all, a creative person) but it's not far short of a full time job and inevitably it impacts on your experience of the, er, experience! And more than whether people would watch it, would people pay to watch it? At least pay enough to make a material difference to our financial ability to GO?

Because there's the rub. When I think about it, I do actually quite fancy Vlogging, if I have the content vehicle to do a half decent job of it, andif it was even moderately sucessful it could potentially be the difference between GO and NO GO. Hmm, this train of thought is a very long way from the terminal station yet!

I guess I ought to stop now. There's jobs to do on Pagan to get ready for launching next week and if I waffle any longer this will turn into a not very interesting novel instead of a not very interesting essay!!!

I would genuinely welcome any comments on the thoughts above (and before you say it, I know this post is too long and boring! But other than that, comment away!)