After almost two years in a funk, I finally returned to my husband’s sailing boat this week for a two-night visit. In fairness to myself, he didn’t actually put the boat on the water last year, so this is only really a one-season funk. But it was very real, following an accident with the mast at the end of 2018 season. The less said about it the better…
Anyhow, I steeled myself and – as motivation (because I love a good journey on a train, or several) I booked a return railway ticket to Burnham-on-Crouch and we agreed a rendezvous. In fact, I arrived on foot at the marina from the station, just 30 minutes after he had sailed in from wherever he had moored up the night before.
Note: We have to stay in a marina when I am there, because the boat HAS NO FACILITIES! Whilst he may be perfectly happy to bucket and chuck it whilst tied up to a buoy or at anchor somewhere remote, I am afraid my days of even contemplating such things are not in the past because they never existed, ever, in the first place. I’m sure I’ve missed out on life quite considerably as a result, but I simply don’t care. I am also more nervous these days of anchoring in the middle of nowhere. When I was younger I just assumed he knew exactly what he was doing and that all would be well. Not quite sure why I’ve lost that assumption now.
We managed an extremely pleasant day sail, a lovely (and very greedy on my part) birthday dinner, and evening drinks with an old friend from work on the balcony of a very posh sailing club watching the sunset over the river. Perfect! Burnham-on-Crouch is the first place for a long while to tempt me as a realistic alternative place to live.
The strangest thing though. I have a grumbly bad back and am rarely comfortable in bed, including in our own house which is very annoying. We have already sent back one new mattress this year and I don’t know what to do next to improve matters. But when I am on the boat, despite my bunk being way too narrow, and the foot part too low, the ‘mattress’ being quite thin foam of no exceptional type, and not having a proper pillow, I invariably sleep well.
This time was no exception. I know that the outdoorsy nature of the stay will encourage sleep, but the point is that I wake up without being uncomfortable. Due to an unfortunate lack of electrical power on board, we were bedding down before 10.30pm and not getting up until after 7am. I could never stay in bed at home that long without pain.
A mad conundrum..
I’m not going to lose sleep over it though…