BLOODY BOATS

I am living, breathing, dreaming, nothing but boats at the moment.

What we are about to contemplate, living aboard on an ocean going cruiser, is mind boggling, but we are determined to do it. The pros far, far, outweigh the cons, so that's alright then!

The boat mentioned in the first post (68 feet ex trawler) is now not an option. Why? Read on.

It all sounded very exciting but I couldn't ignore, the more Him Indoors negotiated with the owner, the sick, tight feeling building in my guts. I'm a great believer in guts and what they tell you. However the worried pinched look on Him Indoor's face and strange mutterings of "F***K 68 feet is big, and Oh my God that would be some momentum when you get moving", did give me a hint or two that he was having his doubts about this particular vessel which was taking on the proportions in our minds of the QE2.

Too big, too daunting, too expensive - price is ok (£55,000) but charges for berthing are by the metre, (£83) plus we need to buy the extras like safety equipment, marine electronics - helps to stop you getting lost, grounding the thing and generally dying at far too young an age, which is not the object of the exercise. So like the adults we are (occasionally) we both admitted to our feelings of doubt, thrashed out the reasons and agreed to agree. Oh, I do like it when a plan is coming together.

So, the search is on. We need a 38 - 40 foot boat, 50 would work too, which is ready fitted out for live aboard, and I mean live aboard in Scotland around the Inner Hebrides, and it's got to be a traditional build of wood. I'm sure you can do the math on that one. Hot Air heating systems are what I dream about these days.

Well we have found four so far and one of them is pictured above. She lies in Dublin and is a good bet, one snag, no heating system on board and someone has removed the shower.

So on to the other three.

Kats