I went down to the marina tonight for Maggie’s final wee and got chatting to a couple of our friends.
There are a lot of cars I don’t recognise, and a lot of new faces too, including a young family who were finishing off a BBQ with Maggie offering to hoover up (exit left in embarrassment).
It’s nice that people are still talking to us, even though technically we are no longer boat owners but of the creed of Land Lubbers, and some (older) people don’t seem to like that.
At the moment, we are more Inbetweeners, as we still own a boat (above in her current mooring on brokerage) but aren’t moored here and are instead living in a house we don’t own.
Christmas 2015 house sitting
The townsfolk are great though, and probably thanks to Maggie and her Maggienetism (she was a people magnet as a puppy which is why we called her Maggie), we can have conversations with many who may not know us by name, but do by sight.
We would love to be able to afford a property here, as we still feel ‘we fit’ and part of the local community. Time will tell, though it would be nice to have a ‘property crash’ which would bring exorbitant and unrealistic house prices down to our budget.
It would appear that there has been some disagreement in the new basin over where and how to secure boats, as one particular gentleman has got all arssy and daft over a cleat and not wishing to share. Bear in mind the boat fingers are 40 feet for both narrows and widebeams, and many are sixty feet in length.
Securing the ‘loose end’ (ie. that extending beyond the finger) is therefore a nightmare for the Big Guys, so it makes sense to cross over to opposite sides to provide the maximum support and strength when berthed. The result has been that Mr A undid his neighbours rope from the cleat on his side and secured it on the cleat alongside the ‘offending’ boat. In the wind, there was too much strain on the ropes and something went Ping.
It has been resolved by moving one widebeam two sections down, and Mr A now has all the cleats on both sides to himself, but is complaining he is too close to his other neighbour who is sharing the section, even though his ropes are nowhere near his own.
In the coming months, several residents are intending to move away, but so far, no-one seems to be coming to take the places of those already departed. There has also been some staff changes, and everyone we know is saying how much the atmosphere had changed.
Sometimes I feel we’re living in a Soap Opera.
