Tiny Living (part 2) Afloat
By the 9 May I had somehow managed to carry my entire tiny life down to Ralph’s boat on the Marina and was delirious at the prospect of finally trying a floating life out after many months of fantasy. Ah…here I was a liveaboard.
I had some rather large expectations as an aspiring pirate. It didn’t quite go as smoothly as I hoped. The first night I dreamt the boat tipped down at the bow and began to glug it’s way to the bottom of the sea. Gasping for breath I woke flailing and banging myself on the head and then the shins I realised everything was fine. Being sleepless for the first three nights made me sob regret. I also looked like I had been in a few fist fights having an amazing assortment of bruises from clambering about an unfamiliar space. It took days of hard scrubbing, a challenging attack on the prevalent mould and a never ending four month stint at trying to eradicate the relentless smell of…and I won’t mince words here, urine. Scented candles were lit. Many of them. The loo didn’t really work at all but my kind ex-landlady offered me the use of the shower and loo up the hill so each morning (regular like clockwork) saw me heading up the steepest incline in Kinsale with determination. However the dog didn’t panic at our new life aquatic and once I had a semblance of home on the go (plants all over the place and colourful flags) I began to appreciate the unusual situation I was in.
Here I was plonk on the waterfront of one of the busiest little tourist towns in Ireland but…with no traffic, no American’s and a balmy summer started to unfold. The motion of the boat began to instill a deep happy sleep pattern and I was able to keep visiting the college polytunnels to harvest veg and start gathering seed. The local boat owners were bemused by the jolly hippification of Ralphs’ boat and were kind to me and my hairy beast. There were dogs a plenty up and down the marina and I made some new friends who were delighted that I wanted to learn to sail and I began to wrestle fenders and coil lines and be teased about my horrible balance on regular short outings a few times a week. I made not have smelled lovely but I had a huge grin on my face as summer unfolded.
